The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization (Voices That Matter)

knowledge on the part of the audience, if its members are able to perceive the patterns or meaning of data.

approach—always take advantage of the space you have available to seek depth within reasonable limits. After that, and only after that, worry about how to make the presentation prettier.

demand.”2

Objects that are related should be near one another in your composition,

Striving for efficiency in how it invests its energy, the brain follows certain principles of perceptual organization.

should make correlations or relationships evident to

Identical objects will be perceived as belonging to a group.

Form doesn’t always follow function; in many cases, the function follows a form that previously followed another unrelated function.

The goal here is to help readers identify general patterns of concentration of Democratic and Republican votes.