Charting Public Health: A Taxonomic Study of Visualization Practices in the Public Health Field

Public health organizations regularly produce and publish data visualizations in their practices of raising awareness of critical issues, influencing decision-making processes, and promoting overall well-being. However, the design practices shaping these visualizations in real-world settings remain largely unexamined, limiting the research community’s ability to evaluate their effectiveness, accessibility, and alignment with communication goals. To address this gap, we construct and analyze a large-scale corpus of over 4,000 real-world data visualizations drawn from more than two dozen websites associated with U.S. and international public health organizations. We evaluate salient design characteristics like chart type, visualization accessibility, use of embellishments like iconography, and design flaws. This work contributes to the understanding of real-world decisions on designing data visualizations and supports public health officials in improving data visualization-related communications.

Recommended citation: Hines, M. & Ottley, A. (2026). Charting Public Health: A Taxonomic Study of Visualization Practices in the Public Health Field