Nobody wants to look at your chart

People don't want to carefully match the colours in the legend to the different data series, or take out their ruler and check that the chart is drawn to scale. They don't want to check that the proportions in the pie chart add to 100 (insert solemn ritual to ward off the evil pie here). People really, really, oh so really don't want to check that the y-axes used in that set of small multiples share a common scale.

Sometimes people don't want to look at charts because charts make them feel anxious and ignorant, reminding them of real or imagined mathematical skill deficits.  No-one likes feeling anxious or ignorant - though there's a real high to be had from transforming 'anxiety and ignorance' into 'temporary sense of relief and slightly-less ignorance').

Sometimes people don't want to look at charts because they're badly designed. One does not simply read these charts. There are bars with lengths difficult to compare, and chart text running in many directions. There are data labels obscured by bars, and legends in little boxes. The very page is riddled with garish colours, 3d effects and heavy gridlines...

And there are a lot of them. Open any annual report, or government publication: it's about even odds that you'll find some proper doozies.

Finally, people don't want to look at charts because, ideally, they want to already know the stuff that's in the chart, without having to look at the chart at all (much like Goran Peuc's product users).

Given that telepathy is not currently an option - and that charts can be a quick way to share findings - what can be done to get people to look at charts?

It probably helps to distinguish between some different kinds of charts.

Charts that analysts use to figure stuff out

Analysts generally do like to look at charts - but the way they use them is often different from other users. When I'm doing data analysis, I end up making lot of charts - they're a quick way to try and spot interesting things. In that exploratory context, it doesn't matter if the colours are hideous and the text is on its side (I already know what it says). Getting rid of chart cruft is nice - but a lot of the time it doesn't really matter because I'm going to just chuck the whole chart anyway. For analysts, charts are quick, cheap and disposable - and most of them get tossed.   

This means that when analysts have found the cool stuff, it's important that they switch gear from thinking about exploring the data (where charts are cheap disposable ephemera), to thinking about how to show off the data in presentations and reports (where charts live on forever in pdf - or at least until bitrot takes them). 

Presentation and report charts

The main audiences for report and presentation charts are people who make decisions that are supposed to be data-driven / evidence-based.  Many of these people (policy makers, service planners etc.) do not want to look at your charts - for all the reasons outlined above - but especially, because they're busy and they'd just like to know the stuff already.  

The risk is that they won't look at your chart, but will make policy or plan services anyway. 

What can you do to minimise this risk? 

• Present your key findings with static charts: use interactive tools as supplementary enrichment for your more engaged users. Interactive tools - even really clear, aesthetically pleasing and well-designed tools - involve both some time and a learning curve.
• Make your charts easy to read and interpret. A few things to do are listed below:
• getting rid of all vertical text
• showing data labels where possible (people go back and forth about including data labels: I've usually found that policy makers / service planners want them, and that they serve as helpful reference points in discussions).
• labeling data series (and avoiding legends)
• getting rid of boxes and borders
• removing chart cruft and avoiding bad default settings
• using white space to chunk related data series (for bar charts)
• Using colour sparingly and with purpose
• Talk to your users and be on hand to explain things that aren't clear 
• Assess whether the potential gain from an innovative chart design exceeds the likely costs associated with unfamiliarity and the time needed to learn to interpret it

Charts for public education

From what I've seen, charts for public education split into two broad types: infographics and interactive visualisations. The former frequently suffer from what I'm sure I've seen described as 'loads of blokes waiting for the toilet' syndrome.  Here's an example from vis4net  (given as an illustration of a terrible infographic).

There are good ones to be found though.

Interactive data visualisations - even those using directed stories - require users to invest time both to learn the interface and explore the data. Good design - both in terms of interface and aesthetics - strongly influences whether this is an enjoyable or frustrating process (and hence user attrition rates).
There are some great examples out there:  Nelson Davis's Visualizing 'A Problem from Hell' - The Effect of Genocide and War is one of the best I've seen recently.


Thanks to Goran Peuc's 'Nobody wants to use your product' which seems very applicable to chart design (and is a great read).