During the Covid-19 global outbreak, the visual communicating of data has been a vital tool for governing leaders, health professionals, and news reporters alike. Whether you have been following developments on TV, on the web, via social media, or maybe through traditional print media, you cannot fail to have encountered the plethora of charts and graphics used to explain developments about this crisis.

The challenge of effectively informing diverse populations cannot be underestimated. You are attempting to reach broad audiences with extreme variations in levels of subject knowledge and data literacy. You have audiences who are receptive to being informed and others who do not share the same motivation. The data can be uncertain, and it can be technical, with nuances in how quantities and categories are shaped. There are unknowns about predicting what may come next, how different scenarios may play out, and explaining how – or if – it will all end. There are myriad things you could say about the subject, so what will you say? All that comes before you get into the design intricacies of how you will present it.

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