Communicating with Data

Chapter 5. Visual Elements

In the previous two chapters, we focused on understanding charts. Charts are ultimately the main focus of any communication with data. However, if you concentrate only on deciding the type of chart you want to use, you’ll miss the opportunity to communicate your point to your audience even more clearly through the use of visual elements. Visual elements—such as color, size, and shape—make a massive difference to your audience’s ability to interpret your charts, which I focus on more deeply here.

As mentioned in previous chapters, color, size, and shape are three pre-attentive attributes. Knowing how to use each of these aspects of your data visualizations will improve the overall aesthetic of your work as well as clarify your communication’s message.

Aside from pre-attentive attributes, this chapter also looks at the use of multiple axes when deciding on efficient visual elements. When looking at visualizing multiple measures on the same chart, the only communication style we’ve shown thus far is the scatterplot. In this chapter, we’ll look at another option, dual-axis charts, which make you think about the type of mark you are using as well as the range of values each axis covers.

Any element that can help focus the audience’s attention, or highlight a key set of data points, will help dramatically to communicate your message. Reference lines and reference bands are a key element that can amplify your message, but their use goes beyond just a simple ...