* Visualization through visual imagery has been an effective way to communicate both abstract and concrete ideas since the dawn of humanity.

* Examples from history include cave paintings, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek geometry, and Leonardo da Vinci's revolutionary methods of technical drawing for engineering and scientific purposes.

It is an efficient way of communicating when the data is numerous as for example a Time Series.

It builds a mapping between the original data (usually numerical) and graphic elements (for example, lines or points in a chart) to show visually how the attributes of these elements vary according to the data.

At their best, graphics are instruments for reasoning about quantitative information. Often the most effective way to describe, explore, and summarize a set of numbers is to look at pictures of those numbers. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte, Yale University

A picture is worth a thousand words is an English language adage meaning that complex and sometimes multiple ideas can be conveyed by a single still image, which conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a mere verbal description. Wikipedia

NASA - Comparisons of Observed CO2 and Emission Changes

Example 1: To depict how waves of immigrants shaped the United States, a team of designers looked to nature as a model.

Example 2: To depict an information event in human history from Wikipedia. Histography

• As simple as possible

• Stands on its own

• Minimize ink

• Label clearly

• Same font size

• Significant figures

• Substance over splash

• Avoid bias

• Leverage Gestalt Laws of grouping

• Highlight key data

• Use right graph for data

Dominance of the neutral quadrants may change based on content. F-Shaped Pattern of Reading on the Web