Members Only

Charting Pitfalls, Flexible Guidelines, Exceptions to the Rules

Don’t use this chart type. That’s misleading. Make sure to only use this color scheme. That takes too long to interpret. Use this scale to show that thing. Sometimes it seems like there are so many visualization pitfalls, rules, and guidelines — often conflicting depending on who you ask — that it can be hard to keep track.

To access this issue of The Process, you must be a member. (If you are already a member, log in here.)

The Process is a weekly newsletter on how visualization tools, rules, and guidelines work in practice. I publish every Thursday. Get it in your inbox or read it on FlowingData.

You also gain unlimited access to hundreds of hours worth of step-by-step visualization courses and tutorials, which will help you make sense of data for insight and presentation. Resources include source code and datasets so that you can more easily apply what you learn in your own work.

Your support keeps the rest of FlowingData open and assures the data keeps flowing freely.