CH5: Select & Design Effective Data Charts

For data charts to add to your presentation or document, you first need to clarify your message and then you can determine the type and content of the graph that will add to, support, or explain that message best.

Below are practice guideline for creating data charts by Edward Tufte, Yale University statistician and author of several books on graphic design

• Show the data
• Induce the viewer to think about substance rather than methodology, graphic design, the technology of graphic production, or something else.
• Avoid distorting what the data have to say
• Present many numbers in a small space
• Make large data sets coherent
• Encourage the eye to compare the different pieces of data
• Reveal the data at several levels of detail, from a broad overview to the fine structure.
• Serve a reasonably clear purpose: description, exploration, tabulation, or decoration.
• Be closely integrated with the statistical and verbal descriptions of a data set.