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Understanding the value of charts
We all need the occasional chart to relate data and information to our audience. Most charts usually fail because they over present the data and do not offer a clear message. We have been educated in the business world and our specific discipline, but most of us have never been educated in how to effectively present our data. And data cannot always present itself!
Data is intended to help us make decisions. Using some of the principles established by author Stephen Few’s “Show Me the Numbers” we can begin to understand that expression of message through data cannot be assumed.
Stephen Few states “Tables and graphs are two members of a larger family of display methods known as charts.” Graphs are perceived almost entirely by our visual system and as such, employ a visual language of sorts. Lines, bars, and a variety of other symbols, positioned within a two-dimensional space formed by axes, are used to communicate visual pattern relationships. To see patterns and relationships is a natural function of visual perception. Tables, with their columns and rows, interact primarily with our verbal system. We process information in tables in sequential fashion. This is different from the visual processing that occurs when viewing graphs, which involves high-bandwidth, simultaneous input of multiple data.
In a presentation data must provide quick decisive information regarding communication of quantitative data. It cannot be oversimplified or the value of the data is diminished. Likewise the data cannot be overly complex and bearing no visual priority for the audience. There are two fundamental objectives to support communication-oriented design:
- Highlight the data
- Organize the data
