This article is part of a series that illustrates how basic design principles can improve information display. The previous installments focused on understanding the audience and context for your chart, and its core purpose. Here, we will take a look at how those considerations affect content decisions for the dashboard that we began redesigning in part 2.

As a first step toward redesigning the charts and information display, today, we’re going to focus on understanding the audience and purpose for this dashboard. …

This is the fifth in a series of articles that illustrate how basic design principles can improve information display. The previous article focused on how your audience can influence your chart design. Here, we’ll dig deeper into the chart as a method of communication, and the different purposes that it can serve.

Once you understand the audience and broader context for a visualization, it is time to dig deeper into the purpose of the visualization itself. What goals is it helping you to achieve? What are you trying to communicate? …

This is the fourth in a series of articles that illustrate how basic design principles can improve information display. The previous article focused on cleaning up the details of chart design. Here, we’ll talk about how to define the audience for your chart.

People often come to me wanting to know which visualization is the best one for their situation. Before you pick a chart type or visualization approach, it’s important to understand the context in which the chart will be used. …

This is the second in a series of articles that illustrate how basic design principles can improve information display. In the previous article, we looked at how whitespace can improve the overall clarity and readability of a restaurant menu. In the next installment, we will look at the details of chart design. Here, we’ll use small changes to whitespace and text hierarchy to improve the overall design of a data dashboard.

This example is an actual dashboard that I found online, redrawn and edited to anonymize the information:

This article focuses on the page layout and text hierarchy, to show…

This is the first in a series of articles that illustrate how basic design principles can improve information display. The next installment will apply some of these same principles to a visualization dashboard.

“How do you use whitespace?”

This is one of the most frequent questions that I get as a designer, especially from people who need to create information-dense displays like a dashboard or interactive display. Whitespace is the blank area between items on the page, and it is very important in helping information feel clear, organized, and accessible.

Whitespace is the punctuation between visual elements. In the same way that a pause between…

This is the third in a series of articles that illustrate how basic design principles can improve information display. Previous articles focused on whitespace and establishing page hierarchy, and the next will discuss different considerations for choosing between chart types. Here, we’ll get into the details of how to optimize a chart display.

“Good information design works like a tour guide, telling the user what matters most and where to go from here.”

Every design system is the result of competition between different constraints. You may need to adhere to specific space constraints or charting libraries, support a particular kind…

As a data vis designer living in both the art and data worlds, I sometimes hear that I should “just go wild” or “let my hair down” to produce more exciting, visually engaging graphics that feel more fun. On the other hand, I also hear that data visualization is a serious discipline with a purpose, where clarity and accurate interpretation trump all other concerns.

So, which is it? (Spoiler: maybe both!)

The difference between data vis and data art

To me, data vis is like a guide dog: staid, disciplined, and faithfully focused on the task at hand. Data vis has a job to do. Data art is…