How Do You Make Data Visualisation Beautiful?

This is a question I get asked a lot, and it’s not as difficult as people may think.

If we take a step back and look at data visualisation from a different approach, it can be treated in the same manner as our surrounding environments.  Humans naturally gravitate to aesthetically pleasing spaces.  Clutter can be overwhelming and distracting, while bright or aggressive colours can conjure up unwanted feelings or make you want to avoid a space.  Lots of different conflicting colours can be distracting and make you want to move on from the space quickly.  These same feelings can be generated through an ill-designed app or report.

Have you noticed when you walk into some environments, it feels very welcoming and encourages you to want to relax and stay for a while?  This is often because a harmonious colour palette has been used, the space is not cluttered, and items of furniture or objects are placed in well thought out locations.

Cozy, inviting room with well placed furniture and lovely colour palette

Data visualisation can be treated in a similar manner.  If you want your audience to stay for a while and get the most insight out of your apps and reports, here are some data visualisation design aspects you can focus on:

Harmonious colour palette 

Colour can make a world of a difference.  A well thought out colour palette that has fewer than 5 colours and uses different tones of the same colour rather than heaps of different colours can be much more pleasing to the audience.  There are some great tools available online for assisting with this process.

Similar to how colour affects people in an environment, colour can be used to bring your audience’s attention to details they should focus on.

White spaces

Ensure you don’t clutter your canvas and allow each object to have space. This can be difficult sometimes if you have a lot of important details that need to be relayed.  Consider removing borders around objects and allow the background colour to be the same as the object’s background colour.  I personally like to use white backgrounds, however when I say ‘White spaces’ this implies your background colour of choice.

Alignment

It’s so much more pleasing if your objects are aligned well and consistently placed across each sheet.  A pet hate of mine is PowerPoint presentations that have similar content on each slide, however, each text box or image is positioned slightly differently on each page.  As the slides are skipped through the content seems to jump slightly rather than transition smoothly between details.  This is probably pedantic, but the same thing happens when audiences jump through the different sheets within an app or report.  It reduces the professionalism of the data visualisation.

In conclusion, making data visualisation beautiful is not as daunting as it may seem. By treating your visualisations like well-designed spaces, you can create apps and reports that are not only informative but also inviting. Remember to use a harmonious colour palette, embrace white spaces, and ensure alignment to keep your audience engaged and focused. Just like a well-arranged room, thoughtfully designed visualisation can make all the difference in how your data is perceived and understood.