Do You See What I See?

One of the most important steps in designing visualizations…and one that is all too often ignored entirely…is to make sure that our visualizations deliver the message they were intended to deliver.

We tend to take for granted that our beautiful creations are telling the story we aimed to tell. Even with written words we seem more prone to seek out confirmation. For example, have you ever wanted to fire off an email while on an “emotional peak” but instead you run the email by a confidant to make sure the message is clear and rational?

We should do this with all of our data visualization and dashboard designs.

It’s not enough to rely on our own interpretations because in reality, as the designer our interpretations are often jaded.

We tend to believe the message is clear because we know all the nuts and bolts of the chart or graph…because we designed it. Since we understand the data and since we know the intended message, we can no longer view it from the eye of a “first-time-viewer”.

Additionally, we may invest a significant amount of time and resources to get a particular view created. At this point we tend to build an emotional tie to the work and effort and are less likely to discredit the visualization, even if it doesn’t tell the story in the best manner.

At the end of the day, the main purpose of any visualization is to inform. When we inform, we want to do so in a clear manner that can be understood by our audience.

Ultimately we should aim for understanding that can be achieved without a need for human instruction. When this can’t be accomplished we need to provide the appropriate context to allow our visualizations to stand on their own. This can be done through instructions, annotations, intuitive titles and other features in your dataviz tools.

Just be careful not to take away from the visualizations. Instructions can be suppressed so they don’t take up valuable real estate and so you don’t have to view them once you know how a view works(i.e instructions on demand). Consider Tufte’s Data:Ink Ratio when adding annotations.

But most importantly, ask a co-worker or a friend or whoever, just ask someone else to validate your intended message. Ask them what message they receive rather than stating your intended message and asking for confirmation.

Cheers,

  

Kevin Taylor