Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Microsoft Excel can be a powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. By creating charts and graphs in Excel, you can quickly and easily identify trends, patterns, and outliers in your data. This can help you to gain valuable insights and make more informed decisions.
However, creating effective data visualizations in Excel can also be challenging. Excel is not specifically designed for creating charts and graphs, so it can be difficult to get them to look exactly the way you want. The default option presented by Excel is often not the most pretty one.
Additionally, Excel doesn’t always make it easy to format and customize charts, which can make it difficult to create visualizations that accurately and effectively communicate your data. Creating data visualizations in Excel can be time-consuming, especially if you have a large amount of data to work with.
However, if you’re not willing to spend time or resources on other tools, Excel can get you quite far in creating beautiful, powerful charts – as long as you apply some basic data visualization principles.
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Untitled-uai-258x178.png)
📊 Here are our top three tips to create powerful charts in Excel:
1. Abandon the defaults
Excel’s default chart settings are not meant to make your chart look good, they’re meant to help you get an idea of what’s possible. Feel free to add or remove gridlines, data labels or legends as you see fit to make your chart more clear and more beautiful.
2. Find more suitable colors
Excel’s default color scheme is not exactly ideal. Each of the colors feels equally important, so it’s difficult to create a clear visual hierarchy. Use a tool like Coolors, ColorBrewer or the Data Color Picker to find a palette that matches the theme of the visual and allows you to use a strong accent color if needed. Don’t forget to use grey to send less important elements to the background!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Screenshot-2022-12-08-090259-uai-258x285.jpg)
3. Make combinations of charts
Excel’s chart options are substantial, but also have their limits. Sometimes you’ll have to group different charts together to reach the desired result. The butterfly chart below was created by grouping two separate bar charts (make sure they use the same scale!) and adding a text box to act as a title.
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/groundwater-butterfly-02-uai-258x145.jpg)
Read more:
Choosing the right font for your data visual
Fonts evoke emotions: there are very sophisticated fonts, playful fonts, attention-grabbing fonts, and elegant handwritten fonts. Using the wrong type of font can have a lot of impact. In data visualization the implications of typography are mainly focused on readability. Labels and annotations can easily become so small they get hard to read. Above all else, we should choose a font which is readable at small sizes.
2 January 2023
Three roles of colour in a data visual
Colour is one of the most crucial tools we have to turn a normal chart into a powerful chart with a clear message, a chart which tells a story rather than simply presenting the information.
26 December 2022
7 different goals for your chart
A crucial step in building a powerful chart is choosing the right type of chart. A lot of charts don’t work because they simply use the wrong type of chart. To avoid this trap, we must ask ourselves a basic question: what’s the ultimate goal of our data visual? What do we want to show with our data?
19 December 2022
Making a data visual noise-free
Removing noise from a data visual is not only about taking things away such as gridlines, axes or legends. That’s just one part of it, which we could call removing physical noise. Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is often also about adding little things that help our audience better understand the visual. We are helping them by removing mental noise, or mental barriers.
12 December 2022
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Creating charts in Excel can be a very powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. But the default options are not always the most pretty or effective ones. Here are our top three tips to create better Excel charts.
8 December 2022
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message - our signal - should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message - the noise - should be removed.
5 December 2022
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/email-uai-258x194.png)
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message – our signal – should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message – the noise – should be removed.
Noise: the enemy of communication
Maximizing the signal-to-noise is important for every form of communication. A company that applies this principle very well is Apple. In their presentation of the first iPhone, back in 2007, the signal-to-noise ratio is very high.
On the slide is just a picture of the iPhone with a single word: GPS. That’s what this part of the presentation is about: here’s our new phone, and it has GPS!
There’s nothing else on the slide – no slide numbers, dates or logos. Not even the Apple logo! Both the slide and the room have a dark background. Steve Jobs is not behind his desk, because it would be a barrier between him and the audience. He’s wearing neutral clothes, because anything too fancy might distract from the message. Every possible source of noise has been eliminated.
Noise in data visualization
Apple still does this today, and they do it in their data visualization as well. This very clean chart was a part of their 2020 presentation of the M1 chip. Again, it has a noise-free dark background. Everything unnecessary is removed. There are no gridlines or axis ticks. There is not even a legend!
Remove the unnecessary
Here’s another practical example of signal-to-noise ratio applied to data visuals. From this chart we can remove the coloured background, the gridlines, the legend, and even the horizontal and vertical axes. Removing these elements doesn’t harm the data or the message of the visual. In fact, it makes the data even more accessible. That means they were just noise! We end up with a much clearer visual, with a much higher signal-to-noise ratio.
If you want to know more about visualizing data in the right way, you can check out the other videos in this series. Or I invite you to read my book, Powerful Charts, that will give you actionable insights and practical guidelines to create data visuals that truly engage and inspire your audience.
Full video series
- 01. Why is data visualization so powerful?
- 02. Why is data visualization so challenging?
- 03. Navigating the landscape of powerful charts
- 04. A powerful chart tells a story
- 05. A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
- 06. Making a data visual noise-free
- 07. 7 different goals for your chart
- 08. Three roles of colour in a data visual
- 09. Choosing the right font for your data visual
- 10. Can you use Excel to create a powerful chart? (coming on January 09, 2023)
![An illustration of a person presenting a video.](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Webinar-pana-1-e1667809402319-uai-258x181.png)
Read more:
Choosing the right font for your data visual
Fonts evoke emotions: there are very sophisticated fonts, playful fonts, attention-grabbing fonts, and elegant handwritten fonts. Using the wrong type of font can have a lot of impact. In data visualization the implications of typography are mainly focused on readability. Labels and annotations can easily become so small they get hard to read. Above all else, we should choose a font which is readable at small sizes.
2 January 2023
Three roles of colour in a data visual
Colour is one of the most crucial tools we have to turn a normal chart into a powerful chart with a clear message, a chart which tells a story rather than simply presenting the information.
26 December 2022
7 different goals for your chart
A crucial step in building a powerful chart is choosing the right type of chart. A lot of charts don’t work because they simply use the wrong type of chart. To avoid this trap, we must ask ourselves a basic question: what’s the ultimate goal of our data visual? What do we want to show with our data?
19 December 2022
Making a data visual noise-free
Removing noise from a data visual is not only about taking things away such as gridlines, axes or legends. That’s just one part of it, which we could call removing physical noise. Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is often also about adding little things that help our audience better understand the visual. We are helping them by removing mental noise, or mental barriers.
12 December 2022
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Creating charts in Excel can be a very powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. But the default options are not always the most pretty or effective ones. Here are our top three tips to create better Excel charts.
8 December 2022
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message - our signal - should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message - the noise - should be removed.
5 December 2022
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/email-uai-258x194.png)
A powerful chart tells a story
A powerful chart tells a story
A powerful chart has a clear message. It should be short and meaningful, and obvious in the blink of an eye. If there’s only one thing our audience remembers at the end of the day, this should be it.
Answering the ‘so what’ question
A visual without a clear key message might show the data, but it doesn’t show what’s interesting, surprising or noteworthy about the data. It leaves our audience guessing, they have to do all of the thinking work. Ideally, we want to create a visual that helps them to quickly see what’s important. A visual that not only answers the ‘what’ question, but more importantly also the ‘so what’ question.
Here’s one of my favourite examples to illustrate the importance of visual storytelling. This chart shows the evolution of meat consumption in the US since the 1960s. By itself, this chart is pretty clear. It shows us the data, in a way that is easy to understand. It answers the ‘what’ question. The design is satisfactory, with pleasing colours and good readability. But can it be improved?
Here is an attempt at a rework. Even though we’re looking at exactly the same data – we wouldn’t want to lie to our audience! – the message in this new visual is loud and clear. It’s right there in the title: Americans are eating more chicken than ever before!
The power of data visualization at work
Two simple changes turned the original ‘what’ visual into this super-clear ‘so what’ visual.
- First of all, clever colour choices: the line that interests us – the one for chicken consumption – gets a bright orange colour, the other two become grey. They’re still there, but pushed a bit to the background.
- Secondly, clever text: the original title was very factual – ‘US per capita consumption of poultry and livestock’. All the thinking work is left for the reader. But what if we simply tell them the interesting part? The new title ‘Americans are eating more chicken than ever before’ is still 100% true, but now it tells us why this visual is actually quite surprising.
These two small but impactful changes turned the original visual, which simply shows the data, into a great visual that actually tells a story. For me, that’s the real power of data visualization at work.
If you want to know more about visualizing data in the right way, you can check out the other videos in this series. Or I invite you to read my book, Powerful Charts, that will give you actionable insights and practical guidelines to create data visuals that truly engage and inspire your audience.
Full video series
- 01. Why is data visualization so powerful?
- 02. Why is data visualization so challenging?
- 03. Navigating the landscape of powerful charts
- 04. A powerful chart tells a story
- 05. A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
- 06. Making a data visual noise-free
- 07. 7 different goals for your chart
- 08. Three roles of colour in a data visual
- 09. Choosing the right font for your data visual
- 10. Can you use Excel to create a powerful chart? (coming on January 09, 2023)
![An illustration of a person presenting a video.](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Webinar-pana-1-e1667809402319-uai-258x181.png)
Read more:
Choosing the right font for your data visual
Fonts evoke emotions: there are very sophisticated fonts, playful fonts, attention-grabbing fonts, and elegant handwritten fonts. Using the wrong type of font can have a lot of impact. In data visualization the implications of typography are mainly focused on readability. Labels and annotations can easily become so small they get hard to read. Above all else, we should choose a font which is readable at small sizes.
2 January 2023
Three roles of colour in a data visual
Colour is one of the most crucial tools we have to turn a normal chart into a powerful chart with a clear message, a chart which tells a story rather than simply presenting the information.
26 December 2022
7 different goals for your chart
A crucial step in building a powerful chart is choosing the right type of chart. A lot of charts don’t work because they simply use the wrong type of chart. To avoid this trap, we must ask ourselves a basic question: what’s the ultimate goal of our data visual? What do we want to show with our data?
19 December 2022
Making a data visual noise-free
Removing noise from a data visual is not only about taking things away such as gridlines, axes or legends. That’s just one part of it, which we could call removing physical noise. Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is often also about adding little things that help our audience better understand the visual. We are helping them by removing mental noise, or mental barriers.
12 December 2022
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Creating charts in Excel can be a very powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. But the default options are not always the most pretty or effective ones. Here are our top three tips to create better Excel charts.
8 December 2022
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message - our signal - should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message - the noise - should be removed.
5 December 2022
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/email-uai-258x194.png)
Navigating the landscape of powerful charts
Navigating the landscape of powerful charts
Once we’ve decided to create a data visual or infographic, there are a lot of questions we should ask ourselves to determine the most suitable format. These considerations could include size, readability, possible interactive functionality, and the level of detail we need.
Consider your audience
Our audience is crucial in this: in the end, it’s all about them. Even when we have the most important message in the world, if our audience doesn’t understand it or they’re not interested, it’s all for nothing.
So, take a moment to consider what your audience is trying to achieve. Which decision are they trying to make? What data or information do they need in order to make this decision? And how much time do they have to do so?
The landscape of powerful charts
Depending on our answers to these questions, the charts we create can vary wildly. If time is of the essence, we should build charts which can be interpreted in the blink of an eye. These could be static charts for reports, animated online charts, or interactive charts in mobile applications.
On the other end of the spectrum we have a bit more time for visual storytelling. This includes infographics for print or social media, or maybe breathtaking interactive visual essays. We can take our audience by the hand and guide them, step by step, through a visual story.
In between these two extremes we can create reports or dashboards that can guide our audience through a collection of clearly presented key insights.
Don’t start your computer (yet)
Once we have figured out our place in this landscape of powerful charts, the production of our visual can start. However, I urge you not to open your computer at this point of the workflow. It’s a common mistake: we want to start creating as quickly as possible, so we open our favourite tool right away. But then it hits us – the blank screen is staring us in the face, and we start doubting. Where should we put the first line? What was it again we were trying to achieve?
We’re not there yet. It’s time to first define a clear message.
If you want to know more about visualizing data in the right way, you can check out the other videos in this series. Or I invite you to read my book, Powerful Charts, that will give you actionable insights and practical guidelines to create data visuals that truly engage and inspire your audience.
Full video series
- 01. Why is data visualization so powerful?
- 02. Why is data visualization so challenging?
- 03. Navigating the landscape of powerful charts
- 04. A powerful chart tells a story
- 05. A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
- 06. Making a data visual noise-free
- 07. 7 different goals for your chart
- 08. Three roles of colour in a data visual
- 09. Choosing the right font for your data visual
- 10. Can you use Excel to create a powerful chart? (coming on January 09, 2023)
![An illustration of a person presenting a video.](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Webinar-pana-1-e1667809402319-uai-258x181.png)
Read more:
Choosing the right font for your data visual
Fonts evoke emotions: there are very sophisticated fonts, playful fonts, attention-grabbing fonts, and elegant handwritten fonts. Using the wrong type of font can have a lot of impact. In data visualization the implications of typography are mainly focused on readability. Labels and annotations can easily become so small they get hard to read. Above all else, we should choose a font which is readable at small sizes.
2 January 2023
Three roles of colour in a data visual
Colour is one of the most crucial tools we have to turn a normal chart into a powerful chart with a clear message, a chart which tells a story rather than simply presenting the information.
26 December 2022
7 different goals for your chart
A crucial step in building a powerful chart is choosing the right type of chart. A lot of charts don’t work because they simply use the wrong type of chart. To avoid this trap, we must ask ourselves a basic question: what’s the ultimate goal of our data visual? What do we want to show with our data?
19 December 2022
Making a data visual noise-free
Removing noise from a data visual is not only about taking things away such as gridlines, axes or legends. That’s just one part of it, which we could call removing physical noise. Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is often also about adding little things that help our audience better understand the visual. We are helping them by removing mental noise, or mental barriers.
12 December 2022
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Creating charts in Excel can be a very powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. But the default options are not always the most pretty or effective ones. Here are our top three tips to create better Excel charts.
8 December 2022
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message - our signal - should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message - the noise - should be removed.
5 December 2022
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/email-uai-258x194.png)
How powerful charts can boost your career
How powerful charts can boost your career
An American accountant managed – as the youngest ever! – to win a crucial election in Los Angeles – thanks to the power of data visualization.
Kenneth Mejia, a 32-year-old accountant of Filipino descent, is very committed to issues of poverty, affordable housing and mobility. In the 2022 elections he ran for “City Controller”, a sort of treasurer, for his hometown of Los Angeles. It’s a department with responsibilities almost as big as those of the city’s mayor and chief justice. For example, the City Controller can commission audits to evaluate the effectiveness of city departments.
Data visualization as election propaganda
Kenneth took a remarkably creative and unusual approach in the run-up to the election: he made imported data about the city instantly accessible and visible. On his campaign website, for example, he created a whole series of interactive maps, reports and searchable databases. He even put up billboards showing with graphs what the anticipated city budget will be used for in 2022-2023.
![Kenneth Mejia's billboard in the city of Los Angeles, showing a bar chart with a breakdown of the city budget.](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/billboardbudget65-uai-258x154.jpg)
That transparent communication did not miss its mark. Kenneth won, as the youngest city controller ever. This approach shows how powerful data visualization is to unlock information, which may seem difficult and unfathomable to the general public, in a very accessible way. As a result, citizens not only gain insight but also become more engaged in politics. They become better informed and can vote more knowledgeably.
You too can make a difference thanks to powerful data visualization
Whether you have political ambitions, want to present your scientific research comprehensibly or convince your management of your brilliant ideas… Would you also like to learn how to create powerful graphics that can inform, convince and engage your audience? Charts that not only accurately represent the numbers, but also have a clear message and are attractive to look at?
In the book “Powerful Charts” physicist and Baryon founder Koen Van den Eeckhout explains in an accessible and practical way how this can be done. An indispensable guide for anyone who communicates with and about figures.
This brand new book is available now at Owl Press.
Read more:
Choosing the right font for your data visual
Fonts evoke emotions: there are very sophisticated fonts, playful fonts, attention-grabbing fonts, and elegant handwritten fonts. Using the wrong type of font can have a lot of impact. In data visualization the implications of typography are mainly focused on readability. Labels and annotations can easily become so small they get hard to read. Above all else, we should choose a font which is readable at small sizes.
2 January 2023
Three roles of colour in a data visual
Colour is one of the most crucial tools we have to turn a normal chart into a powerful chart with a clear message, a chart which tells a story rather than simply presenting the information.
26 December 2022
7 different goals for your chart
A crucial step in building a powerful chart is choosing the right type of chart. A lot of charts don’t work because they simply use the wrong type of chart. To avoid this trap, we must ask ourselves a basic question: what’s the ultimate goal of our data visual? What do we want to show with our data?
19 December 2022
Making a data visual noise-free
Removing noise from a data visual is not only about taking things away such as gridlines, axes or legends. That’s just one part of it, which we could call removing physical noise. Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is often also about adding little things that help our audience better understand the visual. We are helping them by removing mental noise, or mental barriers.
12 December 2022
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Creating charts in Excel can be a very powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. But the default options are not always the most pretty or effective ones. Here are our top three tips to create better Excel charts.
8 December 2022
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message - our signal - should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message - the noise - should be removed.
5 December 2022
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/email-uai-258x194.png)
Why is data visualization so challenging?
Why is data visualization so challenging?
Data visualization is very powerful, but it can also be hard. That’s because a great data visual combines three different aspects simultaneously.
The three properties of a great data visual
- A great data visual is clear: it communicates a strong message and is easy to understand without too much additional explanation.
- A great data visual is correct: it presents the data in an accurate and appropriate way, and is unambiguous.
- A great data visual is beautiful: it is inviting to look at, and uses colour, typography and other design elements in the right way to support its message.
That also implies that we, as data visualizers, need to consider three different aspects when creating a data visual:
- the communication aspect, in order to make our visual clear,
- the analytical aspect, in order to make it correct, and
- the design aspect, in order to make it beautiful.
If one of these aspects is missing, we end up with a suboptimal chart. A chart can be beautiful and correct but confusing to navigate, causing the message to be lost. Or it can be very beautiful and clear, but fall apart because the underlying data or the representation of it is flawed. A lot of charts we encounter are clear and correct, but simply boring or uninviting to look at, because they were not designed to look good.
Three different skills
So, in order to create a powerful chart we must apply our communication, our analytical ánd our design skills. Most people feel comfortable with one or two of these skill sets, but not with all of them. Many people in analytical jobs, such as researchers, engineers or consultants, struggle with the design aspects of a visual. People with a role in communication, such as journalists or marketeers, often feel uncomfortable to dive into data analytics and the theoretical principles behind charts. And professional designers can make their visuals look beautiful, but don’t always succeed in crafting a crystal-clear message.
If you recognize yourself in one of these worries, fear not! I am convinced that anyone can create great data visuals on the intersection of clarity, correctness and beauty.
If you want to know more about visualizing data in the right way, you can check out the other videos in this series. Or I invite you to read my book, Powerful Charts, that will give you actionable insights and practical guidelines to create data visuals that truly engage and inspire your audience.
Full video series
- 01. Why is data visualization so powerful?
- 02. Why is data visualization so challenging?
- 03. Navigating the landscape of powerful charts
- 04. A powerful chart tells a story
- 05. A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
- 06. Making a data visual noise-free
- 07. 7 different goals for your chart
- 08. Three roles of colour in a data visual
- 09. Choosing the right font for your data visual
- 10. Can you use Excel to create a powerful chart? (coming on January 09, 2023)
![An illustration of a person presenting a video.](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Webinar-pana-1-e1667809402319-uai-258x181.png)
Read more:
Choosing the right font for your data visual
Fonts evoke emotions: there are very sophisticated fonts, playful fonts, attention-grabbing fonts, and elegant handwritten fonts. Using the wrong type of font can have a lot of impact. In data visualization the implications of typography are mainly focused on readability. Labels and annotations can easily become so small they get hard to read. Above all else, we should choose a font which is readable at small sizes.
2 January 2023
Three roles of colour in a data visual
Colour is one of the most crucial tools we have to turn a normal chart into a powerful chart with a clear message, a chart which tells a story rather than simply presenting the information.
26 December 2022
7 different goals for your chart
A crucial step in building a powerful chart is choosing the right type of chart. A lot of charts don’t work because they simply use the wrong type of chart. To avoid this trap, we must ask ourselves a basic question: what’s the ultimate goal of our data visual? What do we want to show with our data?
19 December 2022
Making a data visual noise-free
Removing noise from a data visual is not only about taking things away such as gridlines, axes or legends. That’s just one part of it, which we could call removing physical noise. Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is often also about adding little things that help our audience better understand the visual. We are helping them by removing mental noise, or mental barriers.
12 December 2022
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Creating charts in Excel can be a very powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. But the default options are not always the most pretty or effective ones. Here are our top three tips to create better Excel charts.
8 December 2022
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message - our signal - should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message - the noise - should be removed.
5 December 2022
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/email-uai-258x194.png)
Data visualization resources: all the links you'll ever need!
Data visualization: all the resources you'll ever need!
You want to start creating clear and attractive data visuals, but don’t know where to start? No worries, here’s a complete overview of tools, resources and inspiration you can use as a starting point for your designs.
Finding useful datasets
- Google Dataset Search: datasetsearch.research.google.com
- Kaggle: kaggle.com
- data.world: data.world datasets
- Or read our blogpost: Small datasets to practice your data visualization skills
Inspiration for data visualization
- Information is Beautiful: informationisbeautiful.net
- Information is Beautiful awards: informationisbeautifulawards.com
- Visual.ly: visual.ly/view
- Pinterest: pinterest.com
- Dear data: dear-data.com
Digital tools to create infographics and data visuals
- Canva: canva.com
- Infogram: infogram.com
- Piktochart: piktochart.com
- Visme: visme.co
- Venngage Infographic maker and Graph maker
- Whimsical: whimsical.com
- Adobe Illustrator: adobe.com
- Affinity Designer: affinity.serif.com
- Flowchart tool: draw.io
- BioRender (like Canva, but specifically for life sciences): biorender.com
- List of dataviz tools: creativebloq.com/design-tools/data-visualization
- ggplot2 cheat sheet: https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/UG/SM/STAT3022/r/current/Misc/data-visualization-2.1.pdf
Illustrations and icons
- Freepik: freepik.com
- The noun project: thenounproject.com
Colour schemes
- Adobe Color CC: color.adobe.com
- Coolors.co: coolors.co
- Pictaculous: digitalinspiration.com/color-palette-generator
- Website color schemes: canva.com/learn/website-color-schemes
- 100 brilliant color combinations: canva.com/learn/100-color-combinations
- Article: Your friendly guide to colors in data visualisation
- Python Color Palette Finder
Typography
- Dafont: dafont.com
- Google Fonts: fonts.google.com
- FontSquirrel font identifier: fontsquirrel.com/matcherator
- Font Pairing: fontpair.co
Creating graphs
- Dataviz catalogue: datavizcatalogue.com
- Choose and design the perfect chart: chart.guide
- Choosing the right chart: infogram.com/page/choose-the-right-chart-data-visualization
- The Chartmaker Directory: chartmaker.visualisingdata.com
- The Data Viz Project: datavizproject.com
- Datawrapper: datawrapper.de
- Flourish: flourish.studio
- LocalFocus: localfocus.nl
- D3.js: d3js.org
- Notion now has a feature to create charts
Creating maps
- Snazzy maps (Google maps styles): snazzymaps.com
- Mapbox: mapbox.com
- Mapme: mapme.com/stories
- Datawrapper: datawrapper.de
- Leaflet JavaScript Library: leafletjs.com
- 3D maps with QGIS and Aerialod: statsmapsnpix.com
- Read our blogpost: Behind the maps
Creating tables
- The Ultimate Guide to Designing Data Tables
- Table inspiration: fivethirtyeight.com
Ethics in data visualization
- Dealing with outliers: https://flowingdata.com/2018/03/07/visualizing-outliers/
- Visualizing projections and missing data: https://flowingdata.com/2018/01/30/visualizing-incomplete-and-missing-data/
- Spurious correlations: https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
- About dynamite plots: http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/wiki/Main/DynamitePlots
- Alternatives to box plots: https://nightingaledvs.com/ive-stopped-using-box-plots-should-you/
- Visualizing the uncertainty in data (Flowing Data): https://flowingdata.com/2018/01/08/visualizing-the-uncertainty-in-data/
- Visualizing uncertainty (Claus Wilke): https://clauswilke.com/dataviz/visualizing-uncertainty.html
Books about infographics and data visualization
- Data visualisation, Andy Kirk
- Dear Data, Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec
- Information graphics, Taschen
- Infographic designers’ sketchbooks, Steven Heller & Rick Landers
- Storytelling with data, Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
- The visual display of quantitative information, Edward Tufte
- Trees, maps and theorems, Jean-Luc Doumont
- Visual journalism, Gestalten
- Visual thinking, Willemien Brand
People on Twitter talking about data
- Twitter list: Dataviz world leaders
Videos about data visualization
- The beauty of data visualization (David McCandless)
- Journalism in the age of data (Geoff McGhee)
- Datafest Tbilisi (dozens of free talks)
- Outlier 2021 (62 free talks)
Dataviz blogs and online magazines
- Chartable (by the Datawrapper team)
- Cool Infographics (Randy Krum)
- Flowing Data (Nathan Yau)
- Infographics for the People (John Grimwade)
- The Information is Beautiful blog (David McCandless)
- Junk Charts (Kaiser Fung)
- Nightingale (by the Data Visualization Society)
- The Storytelling with Data blog (Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic)
- The Visme blog on infographics
- Visualising Data (Andy Kirk)
Dataviz podcasts
![Books on a bookshelf - infographics resources](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/resources1-uai-258x172.jpg)
Read more:
Choosing the right font for your data visual
Fonts evoke emotions: there are very sophisticated fonts, playful fonts, attention-grabbing fonts, and elegant handwritten fonts. Using the wrong type of font can have a lot of impact. In data visualization the implications of typography are mainly focused on readability. Labels and annotations can easily become so small they get hard to read. Above all else, we should choose a font which is readable at small sizes.
2 January 2023
Three roles of colour in a data visual
Colour is one of the most crucial tools we have to turn a normal chart into a powerful chart with a clear message, a chart which tells a story rather than simply presenting the information.
26 December 2022
7 different goals for your chart
A crucial step in building a powerful chart is choosing the right type of chart. A lot of charts don’t work because they simply use the wrong type of chart. To avoid this trap, we must ask ourselves a basic question: what’s the ultimate goal of our data visual? What do we want to show with our data?
19 December 2022
Making a data visual noise-free
Removing noise from a data visual is not only about taking things away such as gridlines, axes or legends. That’s just one part of it, which we could call removing physical noise. Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is often also about adding little things that help our audience better understand the visual. We are helping them by removing mental noise, or mental barriers.
12 December 2022
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Creating charts in Excel can be a very powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. But the default options are not always the most pretty or effective ones. Here are our top three tips to create better Excel charts.
8 December 2022
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message - our signal - should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message - the noise - should be removed.
5 December 2022
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/email-uai-258x194.png)
Why is data visualization so powerful?
Why is data visualization so powerful?
The amount of data coming our way is growing exponentially. In 2021 alone, it is estimated that humankind generated 74 zettabytes of data – that’s about 10,000 GB per person. How on earth are we going to keep this manageable?
Visualization: our most powerful tool
Visualization is one of the key solutions to cope with the endless stream of data, content and information – together with other strategies such as filtering and organization. Visualization might very well be the most powerful tool we have to turn complex information into manageable insights. But why is that?
There are three important reasons why data visualization is a very strong way to present information:
- its information density is extremely high,
- it attracts the attention of your audience, and
- visual information is easier to process and memorize.
Reason 1: information density
Researchers at MIT have shown that we can detect the meaning of a picture in as little as 13 milliseconds – that’s extremely fast.
We could spend hours looking at this dataset for example, created by visual journalism professor Alberto Cairo, without learning anything. But as soon as we turn the data into a scatter plot, it’s obvious that we’re looking at a dinosaur. In the blink of an eye!
Reason 2: attractiveness
Visual information is also attractive. Not in the sense that it is beautiful to look at (although that’s often also our goal), but literally: it attracts the attention of your audience. In a book or newspaper, people will often look for the pictures first, before they start reading all of the text.
Reason 3: easier to process
Finally, charts and infographics are easier to process than written text. The dual-coding theory, developed by Allan Paivio, states that our brains process information both in a visual, as well as a verbal way. If we only get verbal stimuli, only a part of our brain is working. That’s why during a long phone call we automatically start doodling – the visual brain is bored and looking for things to do. By providing our audience with a combination of text and images, the entire brain is stimulated, leading to better focus, better understanding, and better memorization.
Harnessing the power of data visualization
So in summary, data visualization is powerful because it combines a high information density, attractiveness, and easier processing and memorization.
If you want to know more about visualizing data in the right way, you can check out the other videos in this series. Or I invite you to read my book, Powerful Charts, that will give you actionable insights and practical guidelines to create data visuals that truly engage and inspire your audience.
Full video series
- 01. Why is data visualization so powerful?
- 02. Why is data visualization so challenging?
- 03. Navigating the landscape of powerful charts
- 04. A powerful chart tells a story
- 05. A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
- 06. Making a data visual noise-free
- 07. 7 different goals for your chart
- 08. Three roles of colour in a data visual
- 09. Choosing the right font for your data visual
- 10. Can you use Excel to create a powerful chart? (coming on January 09, 2023)
![An illustration of a person presenting a video.](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Webinar-pana-1-e1667809402319-uai-258x181.png)
Read more:
Choosing the right font for your data visual
Fonts evoke emotions: there are very sophisticated fonts, playful fonts, attention-grabbing fonts, and elegant handwritten fonts. Using the wrong type of font can have a lot of impact. In data visualization the implications of typography are mainly focused on readability. Labels and annotations can easily become so small they get hard to read. Above all else, we should choose a font which is readable at small sizes.
2 January 2023
Three roles of colour in a data visual
Colour is one of the most crucial tools we have to turn a normal chart into a powerful chart with a clear message, a chart which tells a story rather than simply presenting the information.
26 December 2022
7 different goals for your chart
A crucial step in building a powerful chart is choosing the right type of chart. A lot of charts don’t work because they simply use the wrong type of chart. To avoid this trap, we must ask ourselves a basic question: what’s the ultimate goal of our data visual? What do we want to show with our data?
19 December 2022
Making a data visual noise-free
Removing noise from a data visual is not only about taking things away such as gridlines, axes or legends. That’s just one part of it, which we could call removing physical noise. Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is often also about adding little things that help our audience better understand the visual. We are helping them by removing mental noise, or mental barriers.
12 December 2022
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Creating charts in Excel can be a very powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. But the default options are not always the most pretty or effective ones. Here are our top three tips to create better Excel charts.
8 December 2022
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message - our signal - should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message - the noise - should be removed.
5 December 2022
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/email-uai-258x194.png)
How common is your birthday?
How common is your birthday?
Not all birthdays are created equal… in fact, for most countries in the north temperate zone, more people are born in summer (May – August) than in winter (October – January). This heatmap allows you to check how popular your birth date is. It shows the number of people in Belgium for each specific birthday.
There are some interesting outliers: January 1st and July 1st are extra common, because people with an unknown birth data are commonly assigned these birthdays. The national holidays (May 1, July 21, August 15, November 1 and 11, December 25) are clearly visible as dips in the data. And obviously, February 29th is also not very popular!
We haven’t figured out why more people are born on the 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th and 25th of each month, but possibly this has some administrative reasons as well…
![Man using a calendar for remembering an appointment](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/3958832-uai-258x258.jpg)
Read more:
Choosing the right font for your data visual
Fonts evoke emotions: there are very sophisticated fonts, playful fonts, attention-grabbing fonts, and elegant handwritten fonts. Using the wrong type of font can have a lot of impact. In data visualization the implications of typography are mainly focused on readability. Labels and annotations can easily become so small they get hard to read. Above all else, we should choose a font which is readable at small sizes.
2 January 2023
Three roles of colour in a data visual
Colour is one of the most crucial tools we have to turn a normal chart into a powerful chart with a clear message, a chart which tells a story rather than simply presenting the information.
26 December 2022
7 different goals for your chart
A crucial step in building a powerful chart is choosing the right type of chart. A lot of charts don’t work because they simply use the wrong type of chart. To avoid this trap, we must ask ourselves a basic question: what’s the ultimate goal of our data visual? What do we want to show with our data?
19 December 2022
Making a data visual noise-free
Removing noise from a data visual is not only about taking things away such as gridlines, axes or legends. That’s just one part of it, which we could call removing physical noise. Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is often also about adding little things that help our audience better understand the visual. We are helping them by removing mental noise, or mental barriers.
12 December 2022
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Creating charts in Excel can be a very powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. But the default options are not always the most pretty or effective ones. Here are our top three tips to create better Excel charts.
8 December 2022
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message - our signal - should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message - the noise - should be removed.
5 December 2022
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/email-uai-258x194.png)
Visualizing Complexity: Dataviz book review
Visualizing Complexity: Dataviz book review
We love the smell of new dataviz books in the morning… and ‘Visualizing Complexity’ is about as new as it gets! Written by (super-cool) information design agency Superdot from Basel (Switzerland) and published in May 2022, it contains an excellent analytical overview of the modular design system they developed over the past 10 years.
![Visualizing Complexity: Modular Information Design Handbook](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/visualizing-complexity-uai-258x145.jpg)
The book
The book, which arrived with a nice and friendly signed postcard, is printed on heavy high-quality paper, with a sturdy cardboard cover. A bit smaller than we expected, at 23 by 16 centimeters, it has a compact and inviting look and feel. The colors, fonts and layout are very reminiscent of the famous Bauhaus design movement, and despite the very intense, saturated color scheme, the design rarely overpowers the actual content. To be honest: it’s been lying on our desk for a week now, just to show off its beautiful design 😇
![Visualizing complexity by Superdot: interior](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/superdot-uai-258x161.jpg)
The highly structured book is divided into five parts:
- Data dimensions: different ways of presenting and processing datasets
- Diagrammatical dimensions, visual dimensions and structuring dimensions: a total of 80 elements which can be used to create shapes, arrange them, and make them visually distinguishable based on the different data dimensions
- Multidimensional visualizations: examples of the Modular Information Design system breaking down powerful data visuals to show how they are built from combinations of these 80 elemental dimensions
The authors
Darjan Hill and Nicole Lachenmeier are the founders of information design agency Superdot (previously Yaay), which has grown into a well-known multidisciplinary team of information designers, developers and storytellers. They combine a background in Business Informatics (Darjan) and Visual Communication (Nicole) into a unique blend allowing them to approach information visualization challenges from a wide variety of perspectives.
Besides serving an impressive list of clients, winning many awards, and being involved in multiple teaching and mentoring program, Superdot is the initiator of the “On Data And Design” event series, and a pioneer in the field of DX – Data Experience Design.
The verdict
⭐⭐⭐⭐
With our background in science, the highly analytical approach of Visualizing Complexity resonates strongly with us. It is a welcome update of Jacques Bertin’s visual variables concept, with a bigger focus on combining different variables/elements to construct multidimensional and multi-layered visualizations.
The exactly 80 elements, consisting of 25 diagrammatical, 40 visual, and 15 structuring dimensions might feel a bit contrived at times, but on the other hand it is also a very complete overview. We’ll definitely browse through this book during future projects, to ensure we’ve covered as many different visual ideas as possible.
![Visualizing complexity: book content](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/superdot2-uai-258x161.jpg)
What we’re missing a little bit in this book is an evaluation of how powerful each of these elements are. In the many examples in the final section of the book, it is clear how some elements (e.g. color hue) are much more prominent than others (e.g. contour details). Therefore, some of them are very logical choices for certain data dimensions, and others are less logical or way too subtle to clearly tell the story we want to tell in our visual. This evaluation is left to the reader to experience as a part of experimentation process – which is probably a good thing, as it could be quite dependent on the exact data.
All in all, this is a book that has definitely earned a prominent place on our dataviz bookshelf – a must have for everyone who wishes to understand the analytical thought processes behind strong data visuals!
More dataviz book reviews? We have already covered:
- Dear Data
- Storytelling with Data
- Visualizing Complexity
Read more:
Choosing the right font for your data visual
Fonts evoke emotions: there are very sophisticated fonts, playful fonts, attention-grabbing fonts, and elegant handwritten fonts. Using the wrong type of font can have a lot of impact. In data visualization the implications of typography are mainly focused on readability. Labels and annotations can easily become so small they get hard to read. Above all else, we should choose a font which is readable at small sizes.
2 January 2023
Three roles of colour in a data visual
Colour is one of the most crucial tools we have to turn a normal chart into a powerful chart with a clear message, a chart which tells a story rather than simply presenting the information.
26 December 2022
7 different goals for your chart
A crucial step in building a powerful chart is choosing the right type of chart. A lot of charts don’t work because they simply use the wrong type of chart. To avoid this trap, we must ask ourselves a basic question: what’s the ultimate goal of our data visual? What do we want to show with our data?
19 December 2022
Making a data visual noise-free
Removing noise from a data visual is not only about taking things away such as gridlines, axes or legends. That’s just one part of it, which we could call removing physical noise. Improving the signal-to-noise ratio is often also about adding little things that help our audience better understand the visual. We are helping them by removing mental noise, or mental barriers.
12 December 2022
Three tips to create powerful charts in Excel
Creating charts in Excel can be a very powerful tool for making sense of complex data sets, and for visualizing them. But the default options are not always the most pretty or effective ones. Here are our top three tips to create better Excel charts.
8 December 2022
A powerful chart has a high signal-to-noise ratio
‘Less is more’. It’s a crucial principle in most of our communication, and in data visualization in particular. Because of my background as a physicist, I prefer to talk about the ‘signal-to-noise ratio’. The message - our signal - should be amplified as much as possible, giving it all of the attention. Everything that can distract from our message - the noise - should be removed.
5 December 2022
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
![](https://baryon.be/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/email-uai-258x194.png)