While charts and infographics have been in use for centuries, there’s not a lot of research that helps us understand how people interpret them. For example, when you write an article, you can be reasonably sure that most people will read it in order. But charts are different, and research suggests that people process the elements in different sequences. Scholars are still learning what works best, and some of the research that is available relies on formats that are rarely used now. And the formats and technology continue to evolve, making it difficult to measure or offer certainty about one approach over another. However, we can borrow from other disciplines to offer some guideposts.
It’s also true that this work is filled with paradoxes. A chart that is beautiful and catches the eye may obscure a critical point but may also be more memorable. And most research is built around studies in which a chart has the full attention of the viewer, a condition rarely seen in real life. It’s natural to crave some hard and fast rules for design, but few exist.
