Designing Data Products - Data Fluency: Empowering Your Organization with Effective Data Communication - page 227

Clear space— White space in information display is important and too
often overlooked. Maximizing dashboard real estate means creating
places for the eye to “rest” so that the nonwhite space is more effective.
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Takeaway —Use white space with proximity to help your viewers
follow the story the information is telling.

Balance— Dominant focal points either give the viewer a sense of
comfort (balanced) or spur them to action (unbalanced). Nancy points
out, “That does not mean all things must be in balance all the time. It is
often effective to jar people and thereby effect a change in behavior
or thought. Be aware, though, that once something has been thrown
out of balance, it is the nature of the universe to find a new state of
equilibrium.”
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Takeaway —Make sure the primary focal points in your information
presentation tell the viewer either “it's ok, move on,” or “you need
to do something.”

Contrast— Contrast creates interest to focus attention or highlight dif-
ferences. Again quoting from the article “The value of contrast lies nei-
ther in the black nor the white, but in the tension between them.”
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Takeaway— Use Contrast to shift balance so the viewer focuses
and acts more quickly.

Proportion— More important elements deserve more real estate. It's
tempting to want to present an unbiased view of the data. However, as
Amanda Cox of the NYT graphics department stated at the OEDC sem-
inar “Innovative Approaches to Turn Statistics into Knowledge,” ”Data
isn't like your kids, you don't have to pretend to love them equally.”
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Takeaway —Increase the size and emphasis of the values and
decrease the size of labels and you'll find dramatically better
impact and speed of understanding.

Simplicity— Stay focused on the specific fact on which you're trying
to shine light. This sometimes means showing less data and a simpler
display. I think Garr Reynolds sums it up best: “Don't confuse 'simplic-
ity,' which is hard to achieve, with 'simplistic,' which is easy and usually
lacking value.”
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Takeaway —Help your viewers focus on what's actually important
by pointing them to the kernels and not the chaff.