Dos and Don’ts of Data Visualisation
Make charts easy to read
Do remove any visual clutter (increase data-ink ratio, Tufte's principle)
Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
As shown in the example below, it is important to remove any visual clutter to let the content stand out.
- Remove the background
- Remove (or lighten) the grid
- Remove the % on the Y axis, if clarified on top
- Remove the title of the X axis, if not necessary
- Remove the legend if the bars can be labelled
- Remove the colours if not necessary
- Remove any graphical effect (shadow).
