Question

What qualities should effective data visualizations have relative to the same information presented in writing?

Answer 1

Effective Visualization: Visualization is method of representing relevant and the only that information with the help of pictures, diagrams, charts & animations so that the large amount of data can be easily presented and understood by the interested peoples.

There are several methods to represent large chunk of data in a compact and concise manner using visualization using symbols is another way of doing it but the most important thing is that what to and how to represent so that all relevant information can be interpreted from the visualizations:

What makes a visualization effective and expressive with relative to the same information represented in the writing:

• Always be clear and make clear that what's your point when you are representing it through visualization. Before putting into all your thoughts through graphs, charts and animations be very clear that it representing what you actually wanted your people to.
• If you are visualizing your data through charts, use the right chart for your data that fits it. For example: Heatmap is the one when your hhaving data with tables and you want to represent the intensity of it you can go with the heatmap where you can represent the intensity of the data using different colours. Layered Bar graph is the one used to combine the two bars of a side by side double bar graph.
• Eliminating unnecessary marks, gridlines and other confusing thing from the charts or graphs will bring more attention of your people to the visualization.
• Use colour intentionally so that it can catch eye of your people and make it attractive. Colour plays very important role when you are representing some thing it can be in simple writing or visualizations, chossing right colour is also an important thing that people should follow using visualization.
• There are eight visual variables which can be kept in mind while doing this, the variables are: Position, Shape, Size, Brightness, Colour, Orientation, Texture & Motion. Choosing visual variables are crucial and it will enhance the interpretation from the visualization.

Hence, these are the qualities that a data visualization have to make it effective and expressive in relative to the same thing in the writing.