9 Principles for Information Design

To make your data as impactful as possible and turn it into action, we have developed 9 core principles at Axamattic. These principles provide constraint and direction when working with your data, ensuring clarity and purpose guide every decision.

Purpose first

Design with the end action in mind. What do you want your audience to understand? What behaviour are you trying to change? What decision needs to be made?

Purpose without clarity is noise. Design without purpose is decoration.

Reduce to amplify

Strip away redundant labels, decorative flourishes, and any element that doesn’t serve comprehension. Each element should earn its place by revealing data.

Let data reveal the story

Approach your data with curiosity, not conclusions. Allow patterns to emerge rather than forcing them into predetermined narratives. Illuminate what the data shows, never obscure or manipulate it to support a preferred outcome.

The story is in the data. Your job is to make it visible.

Make comparisons effortless

Comparison is an excellent tool for creating impact. The human brain excels at detecting differences in position, length, and size. Create comparisons that are clear with minimal cognitive load.

Respect the integrity of quantities

Maintain honest proportions and scales. A value twice as large must occupy twice the visual space. Inconsistent scales, and distorted proportions destroy trust.

Misleading visuals are lies in graphical form.

Embrace multivariate complexity

Complexity is not your enemy; obscurity is. When complex data involves multiple variables and relationships, show them.

Simplification that distorts is worse than complexity that challenges.

Design for Your Audience’s Context

Understand who your audience is, what their drivers are, what their mental models are, what they know and don’t know. Understanding your audience will enable you to maximise the impact.

Use Time and Space as Narrative Structures

Temporal and spatial dimensions are cognitive shortcuts. Preserve them. A timeline reveals trends instantly. A map shows geographic patterns at a glance. These structures align with how people naturally process information.

Use thoughtful explanation

Guide your viewer’s experience with clear labels, informative legends, and explanatory text where needed. But balance annotation with clarity: explain what isn’t obvious, eliminate what is. The goal is comprehension.