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.
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 😇
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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