Never Say Never! Except When...

Sorry “Beiber Nation! This is not a blog about a pop song. Your Welcome to the rest of the world.

A mentor of mine once warned me against using absolute terms like never and always.  In the world of visualization there are a lot of rules and principles, but rarely are there laws that are written in stone, never to be broken…Although some of the purists might wish to argue this point.

While there are some rules that really should be avoided in almost any situation, there are still typically exceptions. The main 2 arguments I tend to hear are :

1. The customer asked for it.
2. My boss asked for it.

Both of these are very valid arguments in the real world. For the former, I’d suggest designing as they have requested but also show them a better alternative. For the latter, good luck!

With that said, I want to raise one design rule/principle/guideline that should never, ever, ever, ever be broken…ever. Do NOT sort your data alphabetically when your intention is to show a trend over time.

The issue here may be obvious, but let’s look at how this can blind one’s analysis:

Looking at the chart below it’s quite difficult to determine what direction the data is trending…at best, it will take some time.

Not so hard in the chart below is it?

So if your boss demands the 1st chart, you might consider a different role.

I saw this recently in a dashboard and I do not believe it was by design…but it was there. So the lesson here is to check your work and when you’re done checking, check it again and they have someone else check it. Otherwise your credibility could be challenged.

In one of my 1^st blogs titled “Do You See What I See” , I suggest that as designers we should have others validate our visualizations. This situation might have been avoided had the designer heeded this advice.

I’d like to know if you all have any “Never-Break” rules? Please leave a comment.

Cheers,

Kevin Taylor