Visualization

Guidelines

Visualizations MUST be smart – meaning that the right vis is being used. Visualizations should not be too busy and should be easy to understand by the viewer. All visualizations should be fully labeled, should be titled, and should have a Figure number. Under each visualization should be two sentences (caption) that express the key idea that the visualization is intended to illustrate. Avoid having too many of the same type of vis and avoid visualizations that are boring. For example, you may have one or two bar-type visualizations, but not 10. In other words, part of your grade will be based on creativity, excellence, imagination, and properly using illustrations. There are hundreds of types of visualizations – use many different ones and use them properly.

When making professional level plots, it is very important to adhere to the following guidelines (at a minimum).

• 1. INCLUDE DESCRIPTIVE LABELS AND UNITS:
  • Always include a descriptive label and units on any axis-label that you create!
  • A number without units is often meaningless and frustrating for the reader
  • For example, if you plot the price of the S&P 500 along the y-axis, then it is unacceptable to just label it “price”.
    • If an outsider looks at your graph they will think, “what does price mean?”
    • Is “price” the price of shoes at walmart?
    • Is “price” the average price of a motorcycle at your local used car dealership?
    • What are the units of this “price” metric, US dollars, Russian rubles, French francs, British pounds, Chinese Yuan?
    • How can we better communicate this metric?
    • label=“price” ⟹ VERY BAD
    • label=“The instantaneous price of the S&P-500 stock index (US dollars)” ⟹ GOOD
  1. USE LARGE FONTS: Always use relatively large font sizes for your axis-labels, tic-marks, and other plot annotations.
  • why is this important?
    • First off, it makes your plots more accessible to people who have trouble seeing small text.
    • Second, often your plots will be used in presentations. Therefore, your plots need to be legible, even from the back of the room.
  • fontsize=12 ⟹ BAD
  • fontsize=20 ⟹ GOOD
  • Note: Don’t take it too far by making your axis labels comically large.
  1. DON’T OVER-PLOT: Over plotting is when you try to cram too much information into a single plot.
  • Usually the result is very hard for the reader to digest.
  • Typically it is best to keep your graphics relatively simple, conveying only 1 or 2 messages.
  1. ALWAYS HAVE A MESSAGE: Never include “plots for plots sake”.
  • Graphics are almost always part of some larger narrative.
  • If a particular plot doesn’t strengthen the narrative, and add meaningful value, then it should not be included.
  1. NEVER HAVE OVERLAPPING TEXT IN A PLOT:
  • This is just sloppy and unprofessional, you should always avoid it.

Failure to adhere to these guidelines will consistently lose you points in any class you take in the DSAN program.

Example

Non publication quality

Publication quality

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