Drawing Assignment Checklist + Do's & Don't's

Questions to ask yourself during your planning stages:

1. What do I want my drawing to convey?
2. Can I convey everything in one image, or do I need to break it down into multiple images?
3. What angle(s), perspective(s), and scale(s) best communicate my message?

Questions to ask yourself before turning your drawing in:

1. Does my drawing convey what I intended to convey?
2. Are the data documented accurately?
3. Does my drawing prevent spurious reading of data?
4. Does my drawing show what I want it to from the angle I’ve chosen to draw it from?
5. Have I edited all of the visual details that distract from my main point out of my drawing?
6. Are appropriate comparisons and contexts shown? Is anything essential missing?
7. Could anything about my drawing be improved or clarified? If so, what?

Do’s and Don’t’s

Do:

• Seek visual inspiration from diverse visual sources.
• Clarify for yourself what the one main purpose of your drawing is. Then, make sure your drawing conveys that information.
• If you find yourself trying to cram multiple points into one image, create multiple images instead.
• Draft multiple sketches before selecting the best one.
• Make sure your drawing leads the viewer to accurate conclusions and prevents spurious reading of the data.
• Be selective about what your are including in your drawing. Only include details that are necessary.
• Choose a perspective that shows what you want it to show. You have choice in the matter.
• Aim to increase usability, transparency, and ease of decoding.
• Follow Occam’s Razor: Make all visual distinctions (e.g. contrast, color, value, line weight, etc.) as subtle as possible, but still clear and effective.

Don’t include anything that distracts from the clarity, readability, and main point of the visual such as:

• Chartjunk
• Sideways writing
• Sloppy typography
• Ordering your data in a way that emphasizes a factor that isn’t important
• Huge blocks of text, legends, or labels that are positioned in a location that forces viewers to look back and forth multiple times
• Overemphasis on trivial details
• Data dumping