People are lazy. Make it as easy as possible for them to see what you are trying to show. There are tons of ways to reduce mental noise in your charts, but one of the easiest is avoiding abbreviations.

Scientific journal Nature devoted the headline of its 23 July 2026 issue to “the human art of scientific illustration in the age of artificial intelligence”. Of course, that sparked my attention.

Info We Trust is an ambitious, visually stunning book that sits somewhere between philosophy, information design, and a collection of visual essays.

Almost always, gridlines are better than axes. Vertical axes are the default option, and they have been around for centuries, so they are very well known. But they also have downsides. My biggest problem with vertical axes is that they’re often so far away from where the action is really happening.

Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer clearly love graphs. But A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication isn’t just about graphs — it’s about the stories behind them: the context, the people, the new measurements that made them necessary, and the discoveries they enabled.

Discover how CREG, Belgium’s electricity regulator, turns complex data into clear and engaging visuals. From smart annotations to small multiples and uncommon chart types, their Monitoring Report shows how thoughtful data visualization makes technical reports easier to read and understand.