Trial Graphics Tips

Check out Trial Graphics in Insurance-Coverage Cases: Advocacy with Data and Pictures from Insurance Scrawl, Oct. 8, 2006. Marc Mayerson discusses 5 tips:

1. Trial graphics should be color-blind neutral.

2. The graphics should have a consistent look-and-feel and iconography.

3. Maximize the amount of data relative to the ink used in its graphical analogue.

4. Everything on the graphic must point to the information/advocacy objective of creating the graphic in the first place, or don’t waste an opportunity to have each element of the graphic serve an information-conveying function.

5. Follow Tufte’s lead:
a. Above all else show the data
b. Maximize the data-ink ratio
[This Tip #5 goes up to subpart s, so it's really 20 tips, in a way.]

That first tip is timely for me. Just last week I was training someone and pointed out how our email system's icon on the task bar turns from green to red when we have a new message in the inbox. As it turns out, this is a useful feature for me, but pointless for him, since he's red-green color-blind.

Like many who think about graphic-design, Mayerson is a fan of Edward Tufte.

Unfortunately, this post about using graphics is all text. I'd love to see examples of graphics Mayerson has found effective in trial.

Thanks: Robert Ambrogi, Inside Opinions, Oct. 9.