Not sure how effective it is to have smaller digestible visualizations when the data set is huge, you'd only see the bigger picture; maybe this is where interactive visualizations become important in understanding both micro and macro scales?
Are the best visualizations the ones that are understood without a written description, or the ones most quickly understood?
Should we standardize a set of tools, processes for data processing and visualization? Standardization would allow for better development of tools and more accessibility to anyone interested in using it (not just designers and programmers).