Why isn’t my chart working? Charts, diagrams, colour and numbers: how visual choices shape what people understand, and what they quietly miss.
Most diagrams go wrong before anyone opens a design tool. A look at the three decisions that actually make one work — what to keep, how to group it, and what to show as related — with a small widget to help you find the right diagram for your message.
Numbers are everywhere — and they are not just counting things. They are nudging your clicks, inflating your grocery bill, and making climate data feel either catastrophic or completely irrelevant, depending on how someone frames it.
A floppy disk, a cassette with a pencil, and a pair of smart glasses. What people recognise — and what they don’t — reveals something deeper about how we process meaning.
Without context, an image doesn\\\’t just become harder to evaluate — it becomes something else. It absorbs whatever frameworks, concerns, and assumptions the viewer brings to it.
This isn’t a manual. It’s a reminder: colour is never just colour.
It’s culture, power, habits, identity — basically, us. This book comes from serious research and takes a very unserious route.
Read it if you like learning whilela ughing and feeling just a little bit uncomfortable.
