However, ‘best practices’ can still be inadequate, depending on the context. There are many thoughtful summaries of best practices for display design 4, 11, 12, informed, to varying degrees, by behavioral research. Therefore, any graphic for conveying health data needs dedicated testing to assess how well it performs with people such as the intended users. As a measure of that complexity, one systematic review found that the literature contained evaluations of 392 different combinations of visual display design features and uses 10. Nor can they say whether that performance is good enough, given the decisions and health outcomes that depend on it. These studies suggest design principles for potentially successful displays (for example, which icons work better), but the range and variation in potential displays and potential uses is so complex that studies of general design principles cannot predict how well any one display item will perform for its intended task. These studies, however, typically evaluate the relative usability of displays that differ in some theoretically interesting way (for example, color pallet, icon style 9), and, as a result, they have little to say about the absolute usability of displays for real-world tasks. Most of that research addresses technical issues such as computational efficiency, statistical analyses, database integration or refresh rates, but a growing and important stream of research involves empirical studies of how well displays work for their intended users 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.
#WAYS TO DISPLAY INFORMATION VISUALLY TORRENT#
The potential for visual displays to enhance communication and public health has produced a torrent of visualization research, accelerated by the availability of computer programs for generating them. In a painful ongoing example, ineffective communications, including poorly executed visuals, have been rife during the pandemic, revealing the limits to current practice in visual communication of health information 3. Poorly designed visual displays, however, can confuse and alienate recipients, undermining their ability to make sound health decisions and communicate with healthcare providers. They can reveal holistic (gestalt) patterns not readily rendered in words 1, 2. They can improve access for users with limited reading ability.
They can allow users to explore the data in personally relevant ways. They can show the structure of the data in ways that are impossible with text. Well-designed visual displays have unique potential for communicating complex information.
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