Figure 4.6 Preattentive attributes can help create a visual hierarchy of information
Preattentive attributes have been used in Figure 4.6 to create a visual hierarchy of information. This makes the information we present more easily scannable. Studies have shown that we have about 3–8 seconds with our audience, during which time they decide whether to continue to look at what we’ve put in front of them or direct their attention to something else. If we’ve used our preattentive attributes wisely, even if we only get that initial 3–8 seconds, we’ve given our audience the gist of what we want to say.
Leveraging preattentive attributes to create a clear visual hierarchy of information establishes implicit instructions for your audience, indicating to them how to process the information. We can signal what is most important that they should pay attention to first, what is second most important that they should pay attention to next, and so on. We can push necessary but non-message-impacting components to the background so they don’t compete for attention. This makes it both easier and faster for our audience to take in the information that we provide.
The preceding example demonstrated the use of preattentive attributes in text. Preattentive attributes are also very useful for communicating effectively with data.
Preattentive attributes in graphs
Graphs, without other visual cues, can become very much like the count the 3s exercise or the block of text we’ve considered previously. Take the following example. Imagine you work for a car manufacturer. You are interested in understanding and sharing insight about the top design concerns (measured as the number of concerns per 1,000 concerns) from customers for a particular vehicle make and model. Your initial visual might look something like Figure 4.7.
Figure 4.7 Original graph, no preattentive attributes
Note how, without other visual cues, you are left to process all of the information. With no clues about what’s important or should be paid attention to, it’s the count the 3s exercise all over again.
Recall the distinction that was drawn early on in Chapter 1 between exploratory and explanatory analysis. The visual in Figure 4.7 could be one you create during the exploratory phase: when you’re looking at the data to understand what might be interesting or noteworthy to communicate to someone else. Figure 4.7 shows us that there are ten design concerns that have more than eight concerns per 1,000.
When it comes to explanatory analysis and leveraging this visual to share information with your audience (rather than just showing data), thoughtful use of color and text is one way we can focus the story, as illustrated in Figure 4.8.
Figure 4.8 Leverage color to draw attention
We can go one step further, using the same visual but with modified focus and text to lead our audience from the macro to the micro parts of the story, as demonstrated in Figure 4.9.
Figure 4.9 Create a visual hierarchy of information
Especially in live presentation settings, repeated iterations of the same visual, with different pieces emphasized to tell different stories or different aspects of the same story (as demonstrated in Figures 4.7, 4.8, and 4.9), can be an effective strategy. This allows you to familiarize your audience with your data and visual first and then continue to leverage it in the manner illustrated. Note in this example how your eyes are drawn to the elements of the visual you’re meant to focus on due to strategic use of preattentive attributes.
Highlighting one aspect can make other things harder to see
One word of warning in using preattentive attributes: when you highlight one point in your story, it can actually make other points harder to see. When you’re doing exploratory analysis, you should mostly avoid the use of preattentive attributes for this reason. When it comes to explanatory analysis, however, you should have a specific story you are communicating to your audience. Leverage preattentive attributes to help make that story visually clear.
The previous example used mainly color to draw the viewer’s attention. Let’s look at another scenario using a different preattentive attribute. Recall the example introduced in Chapter 3: you manage an IT team and want to show how the volume of incoming tickets exceeds your team’s resources. After decluttering the graph, we were left with Figure 4.10.
Figure 4.10 Let’s revisit the ticket example
In the process of determining where I want to focus my audience’s attention, one strategy I’ll often employ is to start by pushing everything to the background. This forces me to make explicit decisions regarding what to bring to the forefront or highlight. Let’s start by doing this; see Figure 4.11.
Figure 4.11 First, push everything to the background
Next, I want to make the data stand out. Figure 4.12 shows both data series (Received and Processed) bolder and bigger than axis lines and labels. It was an intentional decision to make the Processed line darker than the Received line to draw emphasis to the fact that the number of tickets being processed has fallen below the number being received.
Figure 4.12 Make the data stand out
In this case, we want to draw our audience’s attention to the right side of the graph, where the gap has started to form. Without other visual cues, our audience will typically start at the top left of our visual and do zigzagging “z’s” with their eyes across the page. The viewer will eventually get to that gap on the right-hand side, but let’s consider how we can use our preattentive attributes to make that happen more quickly.
The added marks of data points and numeric labels are one preattentive attribute we can leverage. Bear with me, though, as we take a step in the wrong direction before we go in the right one. See Figure 4.13.
Figure 4.13 Too many data labels feels cluttered
When we add data markers and numeric labels to every data point, we quickly create a cluttered mess. But check out what happens in Figure 4.14 when we’re strategic about which data markers and labels we preserve and which we eliminate.
Figure 4.14 Data labels used sparingly help draw attention
In Figure 4.14, the added marks act as a “look here” signal, drawing our audience’s attention more quickly to the right side of the graph. They provide for our audience the added benefit of allowing them to do some quick math in the event that they want to understand how big the backlog is becoming (if we think that is something they’d definitely want to do, we should consider doing it for them).
These are just a couple of examples of using preattentive attributes to focus the audience’s attention. We will look at a number of additional examples that leverage this same broad strategy in different ways throughout the rest of this book.
There are a few preattentive attributes that are so important from a strategic standpoint when it comes to focusing your audience’s attention that they warrant their own specific discussions: size, color, and position on page. We’ll address each of these in the following sections.
Size
Size matters. Relative size denotes relative importance. Keep this in mind when designing your visual communications. If you’re showing multiple things that are of roughly equal importance, size them similarly. Alternatively, if there is one really important thing, leverage size to indicate that: make it BIG!
The following is a real situation where size nearly caused unintended repercussions.
Early in my career at Google, we were designing a dashboard to help with a decision-making process (I’m being intentionally vague to preserve confidentiality). In the design phase, there were three main pieces of information we knew we wanted to include, only one of which was readily available (the other data had to be chased after). In the initial versions of the dashboard, the information we had on hand took up probably 60% of the dashboard’s real estate, with placeholders for the other information we were collecting. After getting our hands on the other data, we plugged it into the existing placeholders. Rather late in the game, we realized that the size of that initial data we had included was drawing undue attention compared to the rest of the informatio
n on the page. Luckily, we caught this before it was too late. We modified the layout to make the three equally important things the same size. It’s interesting to think that completely different conversations may have been had and decisions reached as a result of this shift in design.
This was an important lesson for me (and one that we’ll highlight in the next section on color as well): don’t let your design choices be happenstance; rather, they should be the result of explicit decisions.
Color
When used sparingly, color is one of the most powerful tools you have for drawing your audience’s attention. Resist the urge to use color for the sake of being colorful; instead, leverage color selectively as a strategic tool to highlight the important parts of your visual. The use of color should always be an intentional decision. Never let your tool make this important decision for you!
I typically design my visuals in shades of grey and pick a single bold color to draw attention where I want it. My base color is grey, not black, to allow for greater contrast since color stands out more against grey than black. For my attention-grabbing color, I often use blue for a number of reasons: (1) I like it, (2) you avoid issues of colorblindness that we’ll discuss momentarily, and (3) it prints well in black-and-white. That said, blue is certainly not your only option (and you’ll see many examples where I deviate from my typical blue for various reasons).
When it comes to the use of color, there are several specific lessons to know: use it sparingly, use it consistently, design with the colorblind in mind, be thoughtful of the tone color conveys, and consider whether to leverage brand colors. Let’s discuss each of these in detail.
Use color sparingly
It’s easy to spot a hawk in a sky full of pigeons, but as the variety of birds increases, that hawk becomes harder and harder to locate. Remember the adage from Colin Ware that we discussed in the last chapter on clutter? The same principle applies here. For color to be effective, it must be used sparingly. Too much variety prevents anything from standing out. There needs to be sufficient contrast to make something draw your audience’s attention.
When we use too many colors together, beyond entering rainbow-land, we lose their preattentive value. By way of example, I once encountered a table that showed market rank for a handful of pharmaceutical drugs across a number of different countries, similar to the left-hand side of Figure 4.15. Each rank (1, 2, 3, and so on) was assigned its own color along a rainbow spectrum: 1 = red, 2 = orange, 3 = yellow, 4 = light green, 5 = green, 6 = teal, 7 = blue, 8 = dark blue, 9 = light purple, 10+ = purple. The cells within the table were filled with the color that corresponded to the numerical ranking. Rainbow Brite might have loved this table (for those unfamiliar, a quick Google image search of Rainbow Brite will bring some understanding to this statement), but I was not a fan. The power of the preattentive attributes was lost: everything was different, which meant that nothing stood out. We were back to the count the 3s example—only worse, because the variance in colors was actually more distracting than helpful. A better alternative would be to use varying color saturation of a single color (a heatmap).
Figure 4.15 Use color sparingly
Let’s consider Figure 4.15. Where are your eyes drawn in the version on the left? Mine dart around quite a bit, trying to figure out what I should pay attention to. They hesitate on the dark purple, then red, then to the dark blue, probably because these have a higher saturation of color than the others. However, when we consider what these colors represent, it’s not necessarily where we want our audience to look.
In the version on the right-hand side, varying saturation of a single color is used. Note that our perception is more limited when it comes to relative saturation, but one benefit we get is that it does carry with it some quantitative assumptions (that more heavily saturated represents greater value than less or vice versa—something you don’t get with the rainbow colors used originally as categorical differentiators). This works well for our purpose here, where the low numbers (market leaders) are denoted with the highest color saturation. We are drawn to the dark blue first—the market leaders. This is a more thoughtful use of color.
Where are your eyes drawn?
There is an easy test for determining whether preattentive attributes are being used effectively. Create your visual, then close your eyes or look away for a moment and then look back at it, taking note of where your eyes are drawn first. Do they immediately land where you want your audience to focus? Better yet, seek the help of a friend or colleague—ask them to talk you through how they process the visual: where their eyes go first, where they go next, and so on. This is a great way to see things through your audience’s eyes and confirm whether the visual you’ve created is drawing attention and creating a visual hierarchy of information in the way that you desire.
Use color consistently
One question regularly raised in my workshops is around novelty. Does it make sense to change up the colors or graph types so the audience doesn’t get bored? My answer is a resounding No! The story you are telling should be what keeps your audience’s attention (we’ll talk about story more in Chapter 7), not the design elements of your graphs. When it comes to the type of graph, you should always use whatever will be easiest for your audience to read. When showing similar information that can be graphed the same way, there can be benefit to keeping the same layout as you essentially train your audience how to read the information, making the interpretation of later graphs all the easier and reducing mental fatigue.
A change in colors signals just that—a change. So leverage this when you want your audience to feel change for some reason, but never simply for the sake of novelty. If you are designing your communication in shades of grey and using a single color to draw attention, leverage that same schematic throughout the communication. Your audience quickly learns that blue, for example, signals where they are meant to look first, and can use this understanding as they process subsequent slides or visuals. However, if you want to signal a clear change in topic or tone, a shift in color is one way to visually reinforce this.
There are some cases where use of color must be consistent. Your audience will typically take time to familiarize themselves with what colors mean once and then will assume the same details apply throughout the rest of the communication. For example, if you are displaying data across four regions in a graph, each having their own color in one place within your presentation or report, be sure to preserve this same schematic throughout the visuals in the rest of your presentation or report (and avoid use of the same colors for other purposes if possible). Don’t confuse your audience by changing your use of color.
Design with colorblind in mind
Roughly 8% of men (including my husband and a former boss) and half a percent of women are colorblind. This most frequently manifests itself as difficulty in distinguishing between shades of red and shades of green. In general, you should avoid using shades of red and shades of green together. Sometimes, though, there is useful connotation that comes with using red and green: red to denote the double-digit loss you want to draw attention to or green to highlight significant growth. You can still leverage this, but make sure to have some additional visual cue to set the important numbers apart so you aren’t inadvertently disenfranchising part of your audience. Consider also using bold, varying saturation or brightness, or adding a simple plus or minus sign in front of the numbers to ensure they stand out.
When I’m designing a visual and selecting colors to highlight both positive and negative aspects, I frequently use blue to signal positive and orange for negative. I feel that positive and negative associations with these colors are still recognizable and you avoid the colorblind challenge described above. When you face this situation, consider whether you need to highlight both ends of the scale (positive and negative) with color, or if drawing attention to one or the other (or sequentially, one and then the other) might work to tell your story.
See your graphs and slides thro
ugh colorblind eyes
There are a number of sites and applications with colorblindness simulators that allow you to see what your visual looks like through colorblind eyes. For example, Vischeck (vischeck.com) allows you to upload images or download the tool to use on your own computer. Color Oracle (colororacle.org) offers a free download for Windows, Linux, or Mac that applies a full-screen color filter independent of the software in use. CheckMyColours (checkmycolours.com) is a tool for checking foreground and background colors and determining if they provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having color-sight deficiency.
Be thoughtful of tone that color conveys
Color evokes emotion. Consider the tone you want to set with your data visualization or broader communication and choose a color (or colors) that help reinforce the emotion you want to arouse from your audience. Is the topic serious or lighthearted? Are you making a striking bold statement and want your colors to echo it, or is a more circumspect approach with a muted color-scheme appropriate?
Let’s discuss a couple specific examples of color and tone. I was once told by a client that the visuals I had made over looked “too nice” (as in friendly). I had created these particular visuals in my typical color palette: shades of grey with a medium blue used sparingly to draw attention. They were reporting the results of statistical analysis, and were used to and wanted a more clinical look and feel. Taking this into account, I reworked the visuals to leverage bold black to draw attention. I also swapped some of the title text for all capital letters and changed the font throughout (we’ll discuss font in more detail in Chapter 5 in the context of design).
Storytelling with Data Page 9