At a recent all-day workshop devoted to information presentation, some bright sparks dreamed up three axes along which you can position any information graphic.

We normally just assume the novice–expert distinction is a function of how qualitative or educational a graphic is, so I strongly support putting it on an independent axis. Both novices and experts need exploratory graphics, that let them find patterns in the data, and educational ones, intended to make a point. These could equally be quantitative, where every data value could be read off, or qualitative, showing general patterns.

Three variables make a three-dimensional space divided into eight cubical sectors; technically, octants (though everyone at the meeting, shamefully, was calling them quadrants).

Which octant is your graphic in? Now what would the other seven versions of it look like? This is a good exercise, because it makes you realize there isn’t one “best” solution to a design problem, something we can forget if we read too many makeovers (including the ones on this site). It’s a good mental exercise, for you and your client, to try shifting graphics along just one axis, so you can put your finger on exactly which elements are doing which job.

Of course, heuristics like these octants are just mental tools, not the Revealed Truth. For example, are we sure these axes necessarily represent mutually exclusive goals? In the best graphics, it’s possible to display all your data quantitatively, yet still discern overall qualitative trends. Perhaps we could challenge ourselves to make graphics that are comprehensible to lay people (which includes almost everybody, even experts from disciplines just outside yours) while containing levels of richness for the informed; avoiding needlessly technical language and conventions would be a start. And a sufficiently well-crafted graphic would let people find more patterns than just the ones we want them to see, perhaps ones we hadn’t even noticed. How about as a goal for the year trying to span multiple octants? (Now that would make a befuddling bumper sticker.)