Data Visualizations: A Literature Review and Opportunities for Technical and Professional Communication

This paper discusses the need for an integrative literature review on data visualizations, particularly in health and medical contexts. The paper analyzes 25 studies across disciplines. The findings suggest there is little agreement on the best way to visualize complex data for lay audiences, but some emerging effective practices are being develop. Pictographs, icon arrays, and bar charts seem to hold promise for comprehension by users, and visualizations need to be kept as simple as possible with attention to integrating other design features such as headings and legends. The review ends with five specific research areas in which technical and professional communicators should focus their attention on empirical studies that examine: interactive displays, merge attention and comprehension, look at numeracy and risk and finally, cross health and medical subjects.