Gone are the days of black and white structured tables. Data visualization has become a standard for displaying information on the web. This digital practice is being used across all the sectors, including medical to business intelligence, to help users understand and communicate the details of data.

Human psychology reveals that our brains process visual information more quickly. Hence, we understand data more easily when it is visualized in the form of colorful charts, graphs, and scatter plots, than data presented as tables and spreadsheets. A good data visualization strategy leverages this human strength to display data in such a way that it can be easily understood by the user, hence increasing traffic.

Best Data Visualization Practices for the Web

With rapid innovation in graphics designing, there are so many tools and software for building web graphics that it is time to go back to the basics. What are the basic principles of data visualization? How to make data visualization effective? What are the fundamental rules to follow when designing the data?

On that note, here are some of the best data visualization practices that will help you design an engaging and rich data experience that will increase traffic to your website.

1. Design for a Specific Audience

The data visualization technique is used to reveal data, patterns, and relationships between multiple elements. As a designer or owner of the website, you don’t hold much influence over the patterns and perception of the given data by the user, but you can control data and design based on your audience. You can also consult with a web design expert regarding the design of your web content according to your user’s needs.

When you design, make sure to keep a target audience in mind so you can choose how much data to display based on your user’s needs. Just like all other products, visualization is useless if your users can’t use the information. Thus, the visualization should be structured and engaging with direct information for novices. For experts, on the other hand, you can use high-density and detailed data to cater to their needs.

2. Using Visual Salience for Immersive Experience

Visual salience is the characteristic that makes some visual elements stand out against the background and grab our attention. This is a powerful tool when it comes to data visualization because it can be used to lead the viewers’ attention to the essential parts of the data. If used correctly, this technique can help you prevent information and sensory overload.

By using visual salience in your website, you can highlight some aspects and suppress others to enhance your web design. Some of the key variables in creating visual salience are the color and size. Color schemes are great for breaking the camouflage and separate the details from the rest of the page. Similarly, the variable of size is self-explanatory as large elements demand more attention than small ones.

3. Use of Position and Colors to Encode Categorical and Quantitative Information 

one of the most notable research on graphical perception is perhaps by William Cleveland and Robert McGill, as they have investigated the effectiveness of visual encoding and elements that people are able to decode most accurately in their paper. They are ranked as follows:

1. Position along a common scale (scatter plot)
2. Length (bar chart)
3. Angle/Slope (pie chart)
4. Area (bubbles)
5. Color (newsmap)

This might be shocking to some of us, given the number of pie charts we see online. It definitely does not say that all the data visualization on your website must be scattered plots or bar charts, but keep these in mind when designing the visual data. Always remember to use colors to encode categorical data but not quantitate data.

4. Smart use of Structural Elements to Clarify data

Whether you support the minimalist approach or not, the first step in redesigning your website is to declutter. Remove the visual clutter from your charts and visualization. Use visual contrast and colors to contrast between data elements as done by Nadieh Bremer, in her award-winning visualization in The Baby Spike, America.

Remove any structural elements like flashy backgrounds, grids, lines, and borders that do nothing to enhance the data or clarify it. Tone down any structural features like tick marks or bullet points that would compete with the main data display for attention. Put minimum weight on style grids and axels. You can also consult with a web development company in Dubai regarding the design of your website.

5. Use Visual Hierarchy to Create a Flow 

Data visualization is not all about numbers; messaging with visual hierarchy can help lead the reader every step of the way. The title of the visualization should be clear and should explicitly state the take away from the visualization. Tell the viewer what to look for in the data. Always remember, good stories cannot be told without words.

Keep in mind that with an increase in mobile phones, you need to opt for visualization that is designed for small screens. Static visualization in formats like JPG and PNG is a challenge for small screens because many of the details are lost in static formats. Therefore, to design for a mobile experience, build responsive visualizations by using JavaScript or Highcharts.

Create a Balance to Foster Understanding

All of these data visualization practices narrow down to one thing: finding the right balance between clarity and creativity that directly aligns with your viewer’s needs. It is always tempting to go beyond and create beautifully detailed visualization, but it is not the best approach. Be considerate, get help from web design professionals, and tell your story the way you want to tell.