“To attain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, subtract things every day."

--Lao Tzu

Dataviz is all the rage these days. We just don't hear the term "chart" as often anymore. It's now a data visualization. George Carlin would be proud. Of course, not all data visualizations are created equal. You don't have to be Edward Tufte to spot a bad dataviz.

Look at this infographic for fifteen seconds:

Is this dataviz pretty? Sure. But is it useful and likely to be understood? I doubt it.

Dataviz democracy

Today, everyone can create data visualizations in a few seconds or minutes. It's not 1998. The tools today are orders of magnitude more powerful, advanced and user-friendly. IT need not be involved.

Now, in and of itself, this isn't a problem. It's important to remember, however, that the presence of user-friendly tools is a double-edged sword. Yes, we can tell stories with our data with a few clicks of the mouse. At the same time, these applications can exacerbate our natural tendency to overdo things. I'm talking about dashboards with 20 elements, products with features that no one uses and websites with too many elements.

Is there a simple solution to this problem? Well, yes and no. Instead of constantly adding more features, options and elements, start subtracting. So writes Matthew May in his book The Laws of Subtraction: 6 Simple Rules for Winning in the Age of Excess Everything. May cites many examples of products that get better by doing less, not more. He's a big fan of Apple design, and you'll get no argument from me on that.

Simon says

There's no shortage of data these days. Far from it. By the same token, we have plenty of tools to visualize this data. Remember one thing, though: Just because we can cram everything into a single dashboard, report, infographic or application doesn't mean that we should.

Sometimes, less is actually more.

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What say you?