All visual elements those are not necessary to comprehend the information, examples:
- Using 3D shapes for beautification
- Reflection of bars in bar chart (imitating apple styling everywhere)
- Ornamental shadings, textured backgrounds
- Translucent shapes for pie chart
- Stylish/Calligraphic fonts
- Horizontal or vertical scrollbars for chart making comparison difficult
The interior decoration of graphics generates a lot of ink that does not tell the viewer anything new. The purpose of decoration varies — to make the graphic appear more scientific and precise, to enliven the display, to give the designer an opportunity to exercise artistic skills. Regardless of its cause, it is all non-data-ink or redundant data-ink, and it is often chartjunk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartjunk
Examples of Chartjunk:
Gradient for bar chart: http://www.jpowered.com/php-scripts/vertical-bar-graph/
Glass pie chart: http://fr.fotolia.com/id/7720545
Glass pie chart: http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-10045985-pie-chart.php
Background: http://www.syncfusion.com/content/en-US/Products/screenshots/aspnet/img/ChartBackground_larger.png
Captivating charts and graphs
http://www.macworld.com/article/134708/2008/07/chartsandgraphs.html
- Understand the Information
- Understand data implications
- Identify what is important for user
- Make sure that you are using user’s language, use terms those your audience is familiar with
- Choose the Right Delivery Method
- Bar charts are best for comparison and to show trends over time.
- Flowcharts are good to show process and relationship between items.
- Use pie chart for percentage
- Emphasize What’s Important
- Layout: Top left corner for an important message, Bottom right corner does not get much attention, Horizontal UI is better that vertical
- Font: use sans serif font
- Colour: avoid bold primary colours, keep colour blind users in mind, pick one colour and use darker and lighter tints of it, maintain enough contrast for black and white print
