Content area
Full text
Introduction
Systematic monitoring and evaluation of data enables libraries to respond to the changing needs and demands of their users, and to demonstrate their support of departmental and institutional accreditation standards. There are advantages to presenting data visually rather than as a set of flat statistics. Proper data visualization facilitates the recognition of patterns and relationships to communicate a message in a more compelling and interesting way. It allows the complexity of the data to be understood more easily. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for thinking about meaningful data visualization in ways that can be applied to routine data collected by libraries. It will also offer practical "best practice" tips and a list of free, easy to use online tools to help visualize data in an effective way to communicate your message.
Visual processing
Our brains process visual information and images in various ways. Some processing is performed immediately and almost automatically rather than consciously. These processing tasks, called "pre-attentive attributes", stand out and are immediately detected. They include differences in color hue and color intensity, and certain form attributes like shape, size, line length, line width, enclosure and orientation (Few, 2012, pp. 67-71) (Figure 1). Our brain immediately detects these unique visual properties and they "pop out" of a display. Data visualization takes advantage of this and allows people to process data faster using these innate visual processing capabilities.
For your audience to process data visualizations efficiently and effectively, it is best to include only the information and graphical elements that are absolutely necessary. The majority of the visualization should be essential to display data. Extraneous markings, such as grid lines and excessive labeling, should be avoided as much as possible while still expressing data accurately. Tufte (2001, p. 107) calls such non-essential elements "chartjunk". Taking time to edit visualizations for simplicity will lead to a graphical representation that is accurate and comprehensible. Also, color should be used strategically. The three best color schemes to use are as follows: 1. Analogous (colors are near each other on the color wheel to create harmonious designs); 2. Complimentary (colors are opposite each other on the color wheel and the high contrast stands out); and 3. Monochromatic (when colors are all across...