Though I have a PhD, I left academia to become a consultant and it was the best decision I ever made. But I’m still a research nerd at heart so when I had a chance to run a study that examined the link between graphic design and report use, I…
I still have a landline. I’m not an old, but I conduct a lot of webinars about data visualization and reporting and the sound quality is so much better on a landline. But it is a midterm election year which means my phone has been ringing several times every day…
Engaging our audiences in the complex, intricate stories of our qualitative data can be difficult. Make qualitative comparisons come alive with change photos or graphics. The hurricane in Puerto Rico left many devastated and without power, homes, and community. It is hard to imagine the damage that was done. One…
Cost-benefit analysis a way of saying “Yes, this program has great impacts… but it’s super expensive.” You’ll often hear the results of cost-benefit analysis in the news, phrased as “For every dollar we spend on this program, we save $$$.” Clients at the University of Alaska, Anchorage (I HAVE THE…
I like to think I’m a foodie but actually I just love to eat. We all do! Food gets people to the meeting. Food grabs folks’ attention. Food gets people talking (between bites, let’s hope). So let’s play to the player and figure out how to get people engaged in…
Sidebars are an unsung hero of reporting. Sidebars are a way to offload details such as your methods or caveats about your data that are related but not a direct part of the narrative. Sidebars are not call out boxes. Call out boxes are for giving a tiny shout out…
Here’s the hard truth: Your report probably sucks. Mine sure did. The heart of your content is likely fine, maybe even helpful. But, if you are anything like the hundreds of reports I see every year, the entire set of cultural norms we have somehow developed around reporting is just…
Recent clients, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, faced a design problem so common they didn’t even know it was a problem. They were working on communicating some data from a program that aims to educate on healthy sexuality and reproductive health. They surveyed participants at the start and end of…
By far, my favorite emails to receive are from clients bragging about the beauty and impact of their work after our workshop. I just got one of these the other day from Becca Scranton at Arizona Department of Health Services. After thanking me for the workshop, she wrote, “Thanks to…
A while back, I announced that I was launching a mentoring program for women who are seeking to catapult their new business into the real world. I said I would take 4 mentees for a year. I had 70 applicants. I spent days reading through each woman’s essay, learning…
