The final design combines a variety of factors, which contribute to provide the best reading experience for the viewer and to increase visibility.
Visual Considerations
Chart Type Considerations
The use of colours in the title were utilised to most accurately represent the back of the jerseys of the players being compared. This is to allow viewers to immediately recognise the subjects of the visualisation. These colours are then repeated on the x-axis for the winning player in each category, for the reader to be able to quickly identify the winning player.
Each of the six graphs have single word titles, and all share a consistent legend in the top corner, to reduce clutter and enhance readability.
By placing both values, a player's best season, can be compared to their average in order to see their consistency across their career, which some viewers may value. The use of the NBA’s colour scheme also allows for some viewers to immediately recognise that these 3 players play in the NBA.
Small multiples were utilised to create a better picture of who the "GOAT" is, by comparing multiple statistic categories. Each graph within the small multiples contains the same features: a baseline of 0, the two 'average' and 'best' seasons, and the names of each player compared along the x-axis. Each graph also features the "average NBA player's' season total" in black, to denote that it should be considered as the true baseline, and the greatness of the player's being measured is the difference of their stats, from the "average NBA player's total".
The bullet chart format is used to be able to show more than one instance of the same stat category, and allows the difference between the 'average' season and the 'best' season to be seen quickly. The ‘average’ can be seen as a benchmark for the player’s greatest overall season, which the viewer may use to create their own insight. The use of NBA red to highlight the 'average season total' demonstrates effectively that it is the important statistic (in this visualisation) which is being measured, whereas the NBA blue is the secondary metric (in this case).
There are varying y-axis for each individual graph, as each statistic has a different set of 'normal' values, and there isn't much to gain by comparing different statistic totals to each other (e.g. player's point values vs assists).
Who has the best overall average season? - Infographic