Chapter 8
The importance of visual design
Abstract
This chapter provides a high-level summary of the various elements of visual design most relevant in data visualizations.
Keywords
visual design
preattentive processing
Gestalt
perception
color
typography
eye candy
“Create your own visual style…let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.”
—Orson Welles
To set the tone for this chapter, I borrowed a few wise words from Hollywood icon Orson Welles. But, perhaps another quote that adds spice to this rhetoric comes from a more unlikely place: Harry Potter’s Professor Severus Snape, brought to life in film by the incomparable Alan Rickman. Potter-fans may remember many of Snape’s feisty oneliners, however it was upon Harry’s first ...
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