To help ensure the user can get as much benefit as possible from a chart, you should:

• develop with the requirements and audience needs in mind
• consider how your audience will use the data and let that inform how you present it
• choose the most appropriate chart type (refer to the Chart types guidance and Tables guidance for more information)
• keep visualisations as simple as possible
• direct the user to the most important information using details like colour, size, fonts, and graphics (refer to the Decluttering and pulling focus guidance for more information)
• provide context for the user, including additional information such as definitions of acronyms
• include short narratives highlighting the key insights, to help the user understand the data
• align displays of information horizontally and vertically so it can be accurately compared
• choose colour combinations carefully to avoid confusing users (refer to the Colour guidance for more information)
• give charts and graphs useful titles that help explain the focus of the visualisation, utilising the title hierarchy so all users can navigate efficiently (refer to the Chart titles, labels and legends guidance and the Data accessibility guidance for more information)
• label the axis of a graph or chart clearly, starting at zero unless you have a strong reason not to (for example, if all the data is clustered at much higher values and it would not be misleading to focus in on this content)
• make sure values have an appropriate level of precision to help users understand the figures shown (refer to the Data Accessibility guidance for more information)
• make sure any interactive elements are accessible and it is clear to users how to interact with them (refer to the Data Accessibility guidance for more information)
• always provide an alternative format to charts, to make sure all users can access the information (refer to the Data accessibility guidance for more information or the Gov.uk website for an example)

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