Data Viz Polish Checklist

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?