Cut to the chase and only show important data

#34: Key Message

Graph by Freepik

Getting straight to the point is crucial in a world flooded with endless information and fleeting attention spans. When we eliminate unnecessary fluff and tangents, we enable our audience to absorb critical information without being burdened by irrelevant details. Doing so makes our communication more effective and respects our audience’s precious time and energy.

But how does it look in practice? Let’s look at visuals from the Economist article on government support for Ukraine. Two charts show government support to Ukraine split by the type of assistance and time or donor. There is a lot of information to process, and space limitations make it dance. Additionally, after reading the whole article, I noticed some details were unnecessary. But for this redesign, assume we want to focus on and highlight the category split. How can we do this?

Chart recreated by the author. Source of the original infographic: Military and financial support to Ukraine hits a record high, The Economist

Good data visualization solutions

Elements that work in this chart

✔ Providing a context

The biggest advantage of the chart is putting information about spending in the…