Over the last couple of months, I have been inundated with all sorts of packaging after the arrival of our little guy and the one below caught my eye.

What stood out to me was the similarity of the icons used. These icons clearly come from the same “family”, which we can identify from the line weighting, the style, level of detail, stroke v fill, etc. All too often when we see icons used in the visualization space, they are pulled from Google or are combined with icons that just don’t quite fit the same style.

Icons, when used appropriately, can make it easier for us to communicate concepts and reduce the amount of noise going on in a visual or dashboard. Yes, icons can be used as the visualization itself, an Isotype chart, but I’m thinking mainly about the little part of the visualization. In the two visuals below from a very old Essam + Chafetz collaboration (in our Stata and pre-OHA years) the icons add to what could otherwise be a pretty plain line chart and heat map, by helping draw the reader’s attention and making it easier for them to associate data with an icon rather than just text.

This is also true in a dashboard. We want to use icons across the document that make it easier for the audience to navigate and interpret, while minimizing the amount of text and distraction. But we have to make sure those icons work well together and work well with the feel of what is a part of.

Next time you are designing a visualization or dashboard, think about how you can incorporate a family of icons to accentuate your work.

Happy plotting!