For people who are new to learning about data visualisation, one of the most important understandings is that perfect does not exist. There are good and there are bad, but there are no perfect solutions.

To achieve perfection requires immaculate circumstances that are free of pressure or constraint. It needs definitions of what is expected, and why, to be universally clear and free of nuance or uncertainty. That’s just not how things operate.

Data visualisation challenges may not always be necessarily complicated, but they are always complex. So many different pressures exist that can push and pull you in all directions. There will never be just one single possible answer to a problem.

And whilst that can be frustrating, by following a design process to organise your decision-making, it can also be liberating. This is the essence of mastering data visualisation – effective decisions, efficiently made.

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