Exploring data visualization through perception, information design, storytelling and modern visualization technologies.
VisComm is an collection of teaching materials, notes, examples and experiments exploring data visualization from multiple perspectives.
Rather than focusing on charts, software or visualization libraries alone, VisComm explores the complete design process behind effective visual communication with data. It connects perception, information design, storytelling and modern visualization technologies into a coherent approach applicable across different domains—from business intelligence and dashboards to scientific visualization, education and data journalism.
An authorial approach currently being developed within the VisComm project.
Audience- and Purpose-Driven Visualization (APDV) is an authorial approach to designing data visualizations that places the audience and the purpose of communication at the beginning of the design process.
Instead of starting with the data, chart type or visualization technology, the process begins by answering three fundamental questions:
- Who is the audience?
- Why is the visualization being created?
- What understanding should it support?
The answers to these questions guide every subsequent design decision—from data selection and transformation, through visual encoding and information design, to storytelling techniques and implementation technologies.
Within this approach, charts are considered to be the result of the design process rather than its starting point.
Although visualization domains differ — business analytics, scientific visualization, dashboards, education or storytelling— the underlying design process remains fundamentally the same. What changes is the audience, the purpose and the context.
Audience → Purpose → Question → Data → Perception → Visual Encoding → Visualization → Understanding
VisComm covers, among others:
- Data Visualization
- Information Design
- Visual Communication
- Human Perception
- Preattentive Processing
- Gestalt Principles
- Visual Encoding
- Color Theory
- Typography
- Exploratory Visualization
- Explanatory Visualization
- Scientific Visualization
- Dashboard Design
- Data Storytelling
- Interactive Visualization
- ggplot2
- Plotly
- Streamlit
- D3.js
- Three.js
- Observable
- R and Python visualization ecosystems
- explore data visualization from multiple perspectives
- understand how people perceive visual information
- design visualizations around audience and purpose
- connect theory with practical implementation
- compare visualization methods and technologies
- provide reusable materials, examples and design notes
VisComm is a continuously evolving project. New notes, examples, case studies, technologies and teaching materials are added as the project grows. The Audience- and Purpose-Driven Data Visualization approach is being refined through teaching, experimentation and practical application.