Easy Dot Plots in Excel

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Stephanie Evergreen — 1 Comment ↓

Last month I was at a Naomi Robbins’ workshop and she was pretty emphatic that dot plots are the better method of visualization, as compared to bar charts. The reason goes back to Cleveland’s early experiments on visual perception, which found that humans most accurately interpret locations on line, when those lines share a common axis. Even more accurate than length, which would be a bar chart. The problem is that most of us use Excel and dot plots are not a default chart option. On Naomi’s inspiration, I used a little elbow grease to make it work. Here are…

Tagged with: Cleveland, dot plot, Excel, Naomi Robbins, the best way to graph
Posted in charts, Communicating Findings

Guest Post: 5 Tips for Creating Effective Visual Summaries for your Reports

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Stephanie Evergreen — 3 Comments ↓

Sample visual summary created for Big Brothers Big Sisters 2013 Youth Outcomes Report (View the full report at: www.bbbs.org).

Oh yeah – it’s my first ever guest post! I’m so happy to host Elissa – she does fantastic work. -Stephanie My name is Elissa Schloesser with Visual Voice, I’m a freelance graphic designer specializing in communicating complex information and ideas. I work specifically with mission-based organization, and partner with a number of evaluators to create communication pieces that summarize evaluation findings for use with funders, potential supporters, and to be more broadly shared with the public. Creating a visual summary for your report is similar to writing its executive summary, but uses visuals and graphics to aid in the…

Tagged with: Elissa, evaluation, infographic, reporting survey results, Scholesser, survey, visual summary
Posted in Communicating Findings

Reviewing Datawrapper

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Stephanie Evergreen — 1 Comment ↓

Have you tried out Datawrapper? The Guardian uses it for their data visualization reporting (learned after reading through lengthy but amusing comments and semi-argument on Few’s blog) so I figured it was worth checking out. Datawrapper is primarily used to embed graphics in a website, like this. Cool! There are clear advantages over a more static graph produced in something like Excel: embedability, interactivity, and vectorization (i.e., a static version of the picture can be infinitely resized and it won’t lose it’s clarity, which is great for display in something like a slideshow). Also, and importantly, Datawrapper is free and open source.…

Posted in charts, Communicating Findings

Who Can Do Dataviz (or How a Field Evolves)

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Stephanie Evergreen — 10 Comments ↓

Wow, the action in the dataviz/tech world this past week has been awesome! A female programmer at a Python (that’s a programming language also used for dataviz) conference was fired after tweeting about the sexist jokes she was hearing from a largely white young male crowd, and Tableau’s new release seemed to spark both a long blog review by a frustrated Stephen Few and an interesting Twitter conversation that included comments like the right question is “should a datavis expert use Excel?” My answer: Probably no. Ouch. Who knew dataviz could mess with my emotions so much? Well, I’ll start…

Tagged with: charts, data visualization, datavis, dataviz, Excel, graphs
Posted in Uncategorized

Successful Webinar Presenting

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Stephanie Evergreen — No Comments ↓

I host or give roughly 70 webinars a year, most over with AEA and others right here at Evergreen Data. Here’s what I have seen that makes for a good webinar presentation experience (as opposed to presenting the same content in person). Use a faster pace. In face-to-face presentations or classrooms, the charismatic presenter (that’s you, believe it or not) carries most of the burden of engagement. That engagement is significantly reduced in many webinar platforms, where the bulk of the focus rests on the slides. Thus, delivery at the old 2-minutes-per-slide pace is a surefire way to send the audience…

Tagged with: elearning, presentation, webinars
Posted in Communicating Findings, slideshows

Presenting Graphs with the Slow Reveal

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Stephanie Evergreen — 5 Comments ↓

Screenshot of adding animation to graph in PowerPoint

Over here I talked about how important it is that we gradually introduce components of complex graphics – one-at-a-time – so as not to overwhelm the visual field and working memory of our audience members. We don’t want to slam our content in their faces all at once. It let’s the audience read ahead and only half-listen. It can also be so much information at one time that audience members check out entirely. Here’s how to use the same Slow Reveal technique on graphs, which I learned from the smart folks over at BrightCarbon. First, insert your graph into PowerPoint.…

Tagged with: animation, charts, Excel, graphs, PowerPoint
Posted in charts, Communicating Findings, slideshows

Scratch-Off Graphs

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Stephanie Evergreen — 6 Comments ↓

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email asking me for ideas about ways to make evaluation findings more exciting and interesting. I know, some of you are thinking, “aren’t they always exciting and interesting???” but alas it isn’t the case. This idea wasn’t appropriate for the emailer’s particular situation, though it might be right for yours: scratch-off graphs. First, make the graph as normal, using what you know about best practices in graph design. Note that I added a subheading that directs the recipient on how to interact with the graph. Hint: the thicker the paper, the better.…

Tagged with: communicating findings, communication, dissemination, evaluation use, Excel graph, presenting findings, results
Posted in charts, Communicating Findings, Evaluation

Slide Redesign: Rodney Hopson’s Keynote

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Stephanie Evergreen — 10 Comments ↓

Last year I had the joy of working with Rodney Hopson, 2012 President of the American Evaluation Association, on the slides for his keynote talk. The transformation was so huge that I asked Rodney if I could write a blog post about it and the thinking we put into the new design. He said I could, asking me to “Pick the rudest and most unorganized slide” for the discussion. Here it is: Most of Rodney’s slides in his original talk looked similar to this one. These slides are the sign of someone who is really steeped in the literature and research…

Tagged with: AEA, American Evaluation Association, conference, one idea per slide, PowerPoint, slides
Posted in color, Communicating Findings, font, slideshows

My 2012 Personal Annual Report

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Stephanie Evergreen — 6 Comments ↓

Stephanie Evergreen's personal annual report for 2012

Yeah – It’s that time of year again! Here’s what I’ve been up to. Imagine if we could convince more clients to let us produce evaluation report summaries in this dashboard-esque format. Side note: I deviated from my normal routine and made this report in Illustrator, which I learned while taking Alberto Cairo’s MOOC on infographics in October & November 2012. While I think the basic Microsoft suite, which I used for last year’s report, works perfectly well for most purposes I realized what Illustrator could do: produce this report as a vector image. If you don’t already know, vector…

Tagged with: annual report, dashboard, data visualization, infographic, personal annual report
Posted in Communicating Findings, dashboard