Conceiving and Reasoning Visualization Design Options - Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process - page 75

Beyond that it is more about managing trade-offs, about trusting your judgment to
make sense of the problem context in which you are working, the requirements you
are responding to, and keeping in mind the overall objectives of visualization design,
as outlined in Chapter 1 , Context of Data Visualization .
The second key observation is to remark that the very moment we take on a
visualization challenge, and start our journey towards a design solution, we are
commencing a unique creative route formed by numerous permutations of choices.
Nobody else will go through the same experience nor arrive at exactly the same
solution.
You won't always get there easily. That's important to recognize too. As Jer Thorp
expressed in his quote, even the best make mistakes and end up wasting time
following ideas that lead nowhere and having to change course halfway through.
However, by following the approach we have outlined in this topic, and speciically
the framework of considerations for this chapter, we hope to reduce the waste and
eliminate inefficiency. This allows us to fail faster and recover more quickly.
A useful way to look at a data visualization challenge is to recognize that we are
actually seeking to reduce choices. This is achieved through recognizing influential
factors, by considering the desired function and tone of our work, familiarizing
with our data and identifying stories. We are building clarity through selection
and rejection. We are reducing the problem by enhancing our clarity.
The reasoning involved in eliminating options is just as important a skill as
determining those we shall pursue. This lets us control our work, it helps us
plan better, and prepare for the creative avenues down which we may proceed.
In many ways you could equate this design process with the responsibilities of being
a film director, managing the dramatic, artistic, and technical aspects of a film. A
director has to create the film's vision, direct the cast, manage the crew, oversee the
script, coordinate the choice of locations, the music, and the post-production effects.
All these different perspectives require separate attention and unique treatments
until they are brought together into a cohesive single product: a movie. We're trying
a similar approach with our visualization design.
As we now move into the creative stage it is helpful to follow a framework that will
help you to understand the many different design options about which you will have
to make a decision.
An effective way to think about this is to consider the visualization "anatomy".
By definition, anatomy refers to "the bodily structure of an organism", so we are
appropriating the term to apply it to the structural layers of a data visualization design.