Annual reports are where non-profits and foundations pull out their designer big guns. This is where they show off their muscles, like studs on the beach. The annual report is the place where an organization oils its accomplishments til they shine. The annual report is so important, most organizations still…
Yowza, what a year! And it is only December 2! I’m writing from my hotel room in Boston. This week I’ve been working with Annie E Casey Foundation (Baltimore), Education Development Center (Boston), and the Ad Council (New York City) – and what a set to round out another awesome year…
The short answer: It means your report is boring. #TLDR means Too Long, Didn’t Read. And it’s what people say/tweet/think when they get a report that is so long and cumbersome that it’s a burden to read. That said, the long report is not going away any time soon. I…
Introducing new designs on practical, household items. I’m talking about graphs on flasks! Your favorite data nerd is going to love one of these. BAM shopping done. Both designs says “DRINKS FOR DATA NERDS.” They have a y-axis which is the amount of liquid remaining in the flask and an…
To my fellow data visualizers: As a field grows in size and maturity, there comes a time to set forth professional standards of conduct, to help us both align our practices and communicate to our potential clients that we are an organized and respectable group of colleagues. Standards need at…
Sometimes, whether we know it or not, the choices we make when we visualize data can reinforce and even perpetuate racial disparity and it’s time that we talk about it. The lull of the computer monitor and the belief we are just working with numbers can make us lose sight…
Listen we absolutely must stop using the stoplight color system in our data visualizations and dashboards. You know what I’m talking about. It’s stuff like this: and this It’s the worst thing ever. For several reasons. Here’s they are: The red-yellow-green color coding system isn’t…
My main rule of thumb is that you can show measures of variability in your graph so long as you can explain what they mean in an extremely concise subtitle. Translating scientific jargon for a lay audience may be the most challenging aspect of communicating data effectively.
Humans in the western culture tend to see things that trend upward as positive and lines that trend downward as bad. But what if bad is good? And not like my college boyfriend. But in the sense that a decrease is a good thing. Let’s use the example of weight…
Slopegraphs are a newer graph type with powerhouse capabilities. They rely on Excel’s line graphing feature but they don’t necessarily have to show change over time. Slopegraphs play into our ability to judge slope fairly well. For this reason, they are perfect for highlighting the story of how just one…
