Applied to data visualization, I think of it as design that is usable by people of widely varying technical skills. You might be an engineer, but it shouldn’t take someone with an engineering degree to understand your graph. As the designer, the onus is on you to make your graph accessible.

The second way to persuade, according to McKee, is through story. Stories unite an idea with an emotion, arousing the audience’s attention and energy. Because it requires creativity, telling a compelling story is harder than conventional rhetoric. But delving into your creative recesses is worth it because story allows you to engage your audience

it is recommended that at most 10% of the visual design be highlighted.

What exactly is story? At a fundamental level, a story expresses how and why life changes. Stories start with balance. Then something happens—an event that throws things out of balance. McKee describes this as “subjective expectation meets cruel reality.” This is that same tension we discussed in the context of plays. The resulting struggle,

bars should be wider than the white space between the bars.

The human eye isn’t good at ascribing quantitative value to two-dimensional space. Said more simply: pie charts are hard for people to read.

The setting: When and where does the story take place? The main character: Who is driving the action? (This should be framed in terms of your audience!) The imbalance: Why is it necessary, what has changed? The balance: What do you want to see happen? The solution: How will you bring about the changes?

Consulting for context: questions to ask

Bold, italics, and underlining: Use for titles, labels, captions, and short word sequences to differentiate elements. Bolding is generally preferred over italics and underlining because it adds minimal noise to the design while clearly highlighting chosen elements. Italics add minimal noise, but also don’t stand out as much and are less legible.