Since there's a chapter dedicated to visualization types, Chapter 8, Beyond the Basic Chart Types, and since much of this book explores various visualizations, we won't take the time here to delve into a lengthy list of visualization type rules. However, it does seem appropriate to review at least a couple of rules. Here, we will consider keeping shapes simple and effectively using pie charts.
Visualization type rules
Rule: keep shapes simple
Too many shape details impede comprehension. This is because shape details draw the user's focus away from the data. Consider the following exercise using two different shopping cart images.