One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how bad in-house enterprise applications look and behave: clashing color combinations, buttons that don’t respond to clicks, messy forms, elements that look like links but aren’t, inconsistent non-standard controls, no user feedback whatsoever, ugly reports, you know the drill. It’s even more incredible how the poor… Continue reading Stop punishing your users and learn some design fundamentals
Tag: visualization
How to create better charts
We’re often tempted to include some kind of accessorizing effect in our charts without knowing that deep down we’re making them impossible to interpret and thus ruining their purpose. A typical case is the 3D pie chart. Many people, including executives, have a certain likeness for 3D charts. Somehow they believe that these look “modernâ€.… Continue reading How to create better charts
How to choose the right chart
There’s a chart for every situation. Each type of information that you have and each analysis that you want to make can be benefited or harmed by the chart you choose. The idea of displaying data graphically is to help the other person understand what you mean to say. Do you think sales are at… Continue reading How to choose the right chart
Telling stories with charts
In The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Tufte highlights Minard’s famous graphic where the story of the lives (and deaths) of over 400,000 soldiers is told during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. Tufte declares it the first infographic that combines geographical elements with time and temperature variables. But the most relevant aspect of the chart is that it… Continue reading Telling stories with charts