Core Design Principles for Displaying Quantitative Information

Core Design Principles for Displaying Quantitative Information from Stephen Few (data display god!). Downloadable pdf.

These form the basis of a presentation given by Juice Analytics on the six principles of visual context:

* Principle of Proximity – Things that are visually close to each other are related
* Principle of Similarity – Things that look like each other (size, color, shape) are related
* Principle of Enclosure – Things that are enclosed by a shape are related
* Principle of Closure – We see incomplete shapes as complete
* Principle of Continuity – Things that are aligned are related
* Principle of Connection – Things that are visually connected are related

Learn more about JA via their post and site at http://www.juiceanalytics.com/writing/tableau-stephen-few-and-six-principles/ and the few pdf is definitely must-read content.

Idea: Guidelines for stakeholder-focused evaluation graphics

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Perceptual Guidelines for Creating Rectangular Treemaps

Research from colleagues at Berkeley.

http://vis.berkeley.edu/papers/treepercept/

Design Guidelines:

• Use Treemap Layouts that Avoid Extreme Aspect Ratios
• Use Bar Charts at Low Density, Treemaps at High Density
• Use Treemaps When Comparing Non-Leaf Nodes
• Use Luminance To Encode Secondary Values In Treemaps

Also includes review of research to date.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

1983. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Edward Tufte. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.

PowerPoint is Evil

2003: PowerPoint is Evil: Power Corrupts. PowerPoint Corrups Absolutely Edward Tufte In: Wired 11 (9)