Ian McAbee

Designing a Data Viz Style Guide

I designed a set of supporting graphics for the corporate Data Visualization Style Guide at Sandia National Laboratories. In this effort, I collaborated with data scientists to develop a style guide that would provide consistency in data visualizations across the enterprise.

MY ROLE

Visual Design, Data Visualization

TIMELINE

2018

Challenge

The presentation and methods used in data visualization at Sandia lacked consistency and source of truth for Sandia's approach to data visualization. We identified an opportunity to establish a set of best practices and guidelines when creating data visualizations for employees.

Design

We developed a comprehensive style guide that covered topics ranging from chart types and color, to accessibility and downloadable resources for Tableau and Excel. I designed a series of conceptual and informational graphics that accompanied the content of the guide. These helped to promote usage of the guide and to bring visual interest to the content.

Above: A chart chooser matrix that enables users to choose which type of chart suits their data best.

Above: A chart anatomy diagram to show the common elements of a chart.

Above: Dos and Don'ts were used throughout the style guide to illustrate best practices and concepts.