After all of the analyses and initial data viz building is done, I take a few minutes before sharing my work with the world to check for loose ends. I call this polishing. This is my 'polish' checklist, and there's an explanation of most of these items in this blog post. My goal is to produce a portfolio-ready visualization with polish, precision and restraint.
Have I deselected all visible filters except those with which I intend to direct the reader?
Have I deselected all marks?
Am I looking at the right page when I publish the viz?
Have I hidden all sheets except for those intend to publish?
Have I renamed the tabs that I intend to publish so there's nothing named Story or Dashboard or Sheet by default?
Have I checked for unintentional scroll bars
Do all of my pages have a title and explanatory text, if appropriate?
Do I have an 'info' button that provides more detail, if appropriate?
Have I made on-chart references to my data sources, and provided attribution where required?
For dual axis charts
Does the data benefit from a dual axis chart?
Are the axes synchronized?
Are the axes labeled well?
Do the axes marks make sense?
Do the axes marks take up too much room?
Have I used restraint with fonts, and tested them on different devices (Mac and PC) to ensure they work?
Have I used restraint with colors, and selected a palette that supports the analysis without misleading the reader?
Do I have any auto-playing features (videos, audio) that don't have muted sound?
For custom shapes
Have I used too many?
For corporate logos, have I selected a high-quality logo with a transparent background?
Have I tested the layout on desktop and phone, and made adjustments to support each?
For maps
Does my data require a map?
Have I consciously chosen a map background?
Am I using the appropriate geographic layers in the map labels?
For tool tips
Have I turned off tool tips where they're not needed?
Have I turned off 'Include command buttons' if appropriate?
Have I included the relevant fields in the tool tip?
Have I removed irrelevant fields in the tool tip?
Have I formatted the tool tips for readability?