The average data visualization still looks meh. Some tweaks can provide a serious upgrade.
Most graphs are not worth looking at. No matter which industry you work in, or what your seniority level is — fact is that you likely come across plenty of mediocre data visualizations in your work.
Good graphs bring home a specific message, and they do this fast. At the same time, they are visually appealing enough to invite the spectator to spend some more time on them and deepen their understanding of the key message. Good graphs also convey where they are from — which company or department — because they speak the same visual language.
Bad graphs might contain plenty of information, but they fail to get the key message across to the spectator. Either they are trying to show too many things at once, or they are just so unappealing visually that the spectator looks elsewhere before having understood the message. The spectator has no idea who created a bad graph unless the creator tells them that it’s from them.
Most data scientists, analysts, and similarly graph-creating professionals are smart enough to figure out how to create a good graph. The problem is that there is never enough time to do it.