Minimalist data presentation

How often do you find yourself cluttering up your data presentation in an attempt to stand out? Colours are splashed around indiscriminately, text formatting is used with abandon, and emphasis is maxed out through every available feature in the menu. By embellishing the data with extraneous information, we distract the reader, causing them to lose sight of the core message in the data. The result is a chaotic visual cacophony that overwhelms rather than clarifies. The solution is to embrace minimalist data presentation.

Minimalist data presentation

Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Instead of competing with visuals that add little useful information, well-structured, clear data aligns with the reader’s natural perception, accelerating understanding, and creating a more persuasive, impactful presentation. Removing unnecessary clutter and distraction, we allow the substance of thoughts to take centre stage, enabling the audience to focus on the core narrative with clarity and understanding.

  • Remove backgrounds.
  • Remove redundant labels.
  • Remove borders.
  • Reduce colours.
  • Remove special effects.
  • Remove bolding.
  • Lighten labels.
  • Lighten lines (or remove completely).

I wonder if this is a useful analogy for our daily work? We spend so much time adding more; more information, more meetings, more papers, and ultimately, more stress.

Maybe we could instead spend more time reflecting on what the core of academic work is (or should be). And then make more of an effort to cut things out. Take a moment to reflect on what is essential to include in your daily work and then focus on removing the cruft.


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