You finally have everything collected, prepped, and cleaned. Now it’s time to cook! When you’re combining ingredients, some will stand out in your dish, some will play a supporting role, and some will seemingly fade away. Despite these differences, you still need to make sure each ingredient is incorporated properly in order for the dish to succeed as a whole.

You also need to think about how to present the dish in terms of emphasis, functionality, and appropriateness. For example, if you want to highlight the veggies in a vegetable soup, you may want to chop them instead of puree them. And you have to find bowls because you’re not going to serve this delicious soup on a flat plate, right?

Similarly, deciding which graph types and presentations to use depends on the data behind your visualization and the narrative it supports. Some variables will stand out in your visualization, while others disappear into the calculations for the end result. And then there are other elements to consider - like fonts, colors, and icons.

In this section, we’ll talk about crafting visualizations that help you best tell the story of your data. We’ll cover tips on choosing what to visualize, deciding which graph types make sense, and giving the right finishing touches to a beautiful and accurate presentation that your audience will be excited to consume.