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Table of Contents
Start with Questions ............................................................................................................................................................5
Choose the Right Chart Type ..........................................................................................................................................7
Trends over Time .......................................................................................................................................................................................................7
Comparison and Ranking ......................................................................................................................................................................................9
Correlation .................................................................................................................................................................................................................10
Distribution ................................................................................................................................................................................................................11
Part to Whole...........................................................................................................................................................................................................13
Geographical Data .................................................................................................................................................................................................14
Create Effective Views.......................................................................................................................................................15
Emphasize the most important data ...........................................................................................................................................................16
Orient your views for legibility........................................................................................................................................................................17
Organize your views .............................................................................................................................................................................................18
Avoid overloading your views .........................................................................................................................................................................20
Limit the number of colors and shapes in a single view ..................................................................................................................21
Design Holistic Dashboards ..........................................................................................................................................22
General guidelines ..................................................................................................................................................................................................23
Give the wheel to your users with interactivity .................................................................................................................................... 24
Highlighting .................................................................................................................................................................................................................25
Filters .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................26
Hyperlinking and using the power of the web ......................................................................................................................................30
Sizing: Making sure your visualization is visible .......................................................................................................................................31
Scrollbars .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................31
Scrunched views .....................................................................................................................................................................................................32
Fitting .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................32
Perfecting Your Work .........................................................................................................................................................33
Color TV looks better than black and white: Use color visualizations .....................................................................................34
Fonts: Can you read this? (Can you read this?) .....................................................................................................................................35
Tooltips tell the story ...........................................................................................................................................................................................36
Make intelligent axes or you’ll just have pretty rectangles ..............................................................................................................37
Labeling your visualization in all the right places ...................................................................................................................................38
Evaluating Your Masterpiece .............................................................................................................................................................................39