Hints for Good Figures (how to do well on DE9)
Here are some hints for how to do well on Design Exercise 9: Visualization Hand-Ins - but really, they are advice on how to make good figures generally.
These are generated from the experience of grading Design Exercise 5: Aid Data Handin. We discussed most of them in class.
Don’t rely on the rationale. Yes, you can argue for why what you are doing are good choices (and you need to do this for the assignment), but a good figure doesn’t need the rationale to explain why it is a good figure. It should be clear to the viewer.
Be clear what the figure is. Have a good title, captions, and labels. These are important. For DE9, the viewer/grader should not need to go looking for the explanation in the assignment to know what they are looking at and what they are supposed to learn.
Make the figure look good on a page. Each visualization is a single page PDF. Think about how things will look at that scale. Even if its on screen: it will be a single page on screen. Don’t make things too small (or have too low of “information density” for the space). In real scenarios, where the figure must fit into the paper, the size still must be considered. Don’t expect the viewer to zoom in (except if they are very interested and want to get the fine details).
Basic charts can be effective visualizations. But: they must be well chosen (pick the appropriate chart type), they must show the right things (which variables are being shown in the chart), and the details matter a lot. Details matter a lot for non-standard charts as well, but in terms of grading, you can often make up for details through other bigger choices to create effectiveness.
The details do matter. Both to create subjective impression as well as effectiveness. When the viewer sees bad details (e.g., poor choices in numbers, illegible fonts, poorly chosen colors, …) these first impressions start things off on the wrong foot.
If you are putting together multiple charts into a single visualization, be sure to tie them together well. This can mean matching details (e.g., common color schemes, typography), layout (e.g., aligning axes), etc. Importantly: help the viewer understand how to use the pieces together. Try to make the whole be more than the sum of the parts.
We haven’t talked about color yet in class (as of the deadline/me writing this) - but common sense (and using your own eyes) can really help. Choose colors with lots of contrast (yellow on a white background?). Note that similar colors may be difficult to distinguish (comparisons at a distance can be very difficult). Don’t expect subtle differences to be easy to see. (etc)
If you reduce the amount of data, it should be obvious - or explained. If you are binning/grouping, make sure the labels reflect that. If you are selecting a subset to show, explain why. For the aid data (DE5), I often wondered “why am I only seeing these countries” - sometimes there are simple reasons (reduced data set, only showing the top-5, …).
If the key to the story is a comparison, do something to make that comparison easy for the viewer to make. Not all comparisons will be easy - but try to enhance the most important ones. For example, if you are using a stacked bar chart, between-bar comparison is easiest for the whole bars, or for the bottom piece (since it is aligned on the common baseline). The choice of which to put on the bottom matters.
Highlight elements to help the story come out. Show individuals, or point at key observations. Even if something is clear (e.g., a peak on a line graph), giving some explanation of why it is interesting may help the viewer.
The assignment asks for static visualizations (like paper or article figures). Don’t expect interaction. And don’t show the interaction (e.g., we don’t need to see the Tableau UI). If you did filtering or something that required specific settings, you might want to indicate some other way than just showing how you did it using the Tableau UI.
Deriving a new variable and showing that in a simple chart is often an effective strategy because it can focus on a more important quantity. (A common strategy for DE5 was to show the net donations as “commit-receive”). Be clear when you create a derived variable.
Stay faithful to the data. Even if you are drawing by hand, it should be based on the actual data. Be clear what is real and what isn’t. A caption can explain. For DE9 (and a real paper figure) you are unlikely to draw by hand rather than do things from actual data.