CHAPTER 4

BETTER CHARTS IN A COUPLE OF HOURS

A SIMPLE FRAMEWORK

MOST OF THE STRESS MANAGERS feel about creating charts relates to picking the right kind, which often amounts to scanning preset options in Excel or Google Sheets and trying out a few until one looks right or just seems pleasing. They might adorn it with a few more clicks—3-D, color. The tools make it so easy to produce a visualization that the biggest challenge in crafting good charts is overcoming the inclination—temptation, really—to just click and build. It seems hardly worth putting more time and effort into the process.

Of course, that’s flat wrong. That approach might be fast, and it might spruce up the look of a chart, but it doesn’t refine the ideas that the chart conveys. ...

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