MEPX
Chapter 10 of 10All chapters
  1. 1What a chart is for
  2. 2How people read charts
  3. 3Choosing a chart
  4. 4Axes and scales
  5. 5Colour
  6. 6Removing clutter
  7. 7Titles and annotation
  8. 8Showing distributions
  9. 9Time series
  10. 10Tools and workflow

Chapter 10 of 10

Tools and workflow

Making it repeatable.

Choosing tools

Spreadsheets are fast for one-off charts. Code with a plotting library is better for anything repeated, because the chart regenerates when the data updates.

  • Grammar of graphics libraries map data columns to visual channels directly.
  • Dashboards need more discipline than reports, not less.

Before publishing

Check it in greyscale, at small size, and with someone who has not seen the data. If they read the wrong conclusion, the chart is wrong rather than the reader.