Data visualization design is all about choices

Here is a quote from Jer Thorp (http://blog.blprnt.com/blog/blprnt/138-years-of-popular-science):

"My working process is riddled with dead-ends, messy errors, and bad decisions—the final product usually sits on top of a mountain of iterations that rarely see the light of day."

Over the past two chapters, we have explored some of the key preparatory activities of the visualization design process. In doing so we have built a detailed level of clarity about what we want to achieve in our visual communication and why.

The heading for this section may seem obvious but it needs stating. As we'll see in this chapter, the scope for creativity can be quite overwhelming. How well you rationalize the many decisions you face throughout the process will strongly determine whether you achieve an effective visualization design.

To frame this discussion, do a quick image search in Google for the term "data visualization" and scroll through the first few screens...