Achieving Better Visual Communication; Best Practices in Data Visualization: Visual messages make the most impact in terms of conveying complex information and its significance. Accurate, clear, and compelling data visualization has never been more important. To compose powerful visual messages conveying complex information, this talk will give you: - Simple tips to make your data visualizations more clear - A powerful approach to enhance your message so that your audience comprehends the significance Make your data visualizations much more clear and intuitive by learning to take advantage of the visual vocabulary our audience already knows. Hone the message for maximum impact by applying common sense rules of visual “grammar” to make complex information readily understandable. You will come away from this talk with a fresh perspective on composing images through a lens of visual literacy: - the grammar and vocabulary of visual communication that can transform your data visualizations - the most common mistakes and what to do to correct them

1. Best Practices in Data Visualization
Present Information Clearly,
Accurately, and Attractively
Teresa Larsen, Ph.D.

3. 9/23/2016 data visualization 3
obtain
data
determine
message
clean up
data
makes
sense?
Display
data
Design/revise
display
Publish Data
Visualization
No Almost
Yes

4. data visualization 4
obtain
data
determine
message
clean up
data
makes
sense?
Display
data
Design/revise
display
Publish Data
Visualization
Yes
AlmostNo
visual literacy

5. Best Practices
• Stay true to the data
• Communicate by design
• Customize your colors
• Plot dimensions
= data dimensions

6. Stay true to the data

7. “There are three kinds of lies:
lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

9. “…lies, damned lies, statistics, and
computer graphics.”

10. Communicate by design

17. Customize your colors

23. Examples from Nature

24. Yosemite
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25. Redwoods
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26. Tropical Isle
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27. Alpine Church
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28. data visualization 28

29. White Composites
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30. Yellow Composites
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31. Wildflowers
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32. Wood Duck Pair
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33. data visualization 33

34. Black Widow with Egg Sac
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35. Stop Sign
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36. Yellow Jacket

37. Coral Snake

38. Abutment

39. Radioactive

40. Examples from Art

41. Rembrandt Self Portrait
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42. Rembrandt’s Helmet
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43. Birth of Venus by Botticelli
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45. data visualization 45

47. Anger
Death

48. Plot dimensions = data dimensions

51. Best Practices
• Stay true to the data
• Communicate by design
• Customize your colors
• Plot dimensions
= data dimensions

52. Teresa Larsen
TlarsenPhD.com
@tlarsenphd