People who are short on time (i.e., most everyone) have these three questions on their mind, in this order. What’s going on? What does this mean to me? What are we (actually, YOU) going to do about it? The shorthand way of structuring that storyline: What, So What, Now…
Ever spot those gorgeous graphs in the New York Times or the Washington Post and wish you could make them? You can. And you don’t need fancy software to do it. Good graphs, at their core, are based on a few fundamental principles of data visualization design, a structured…
Well, that just flew by. Ten years ago, I was in the throes of writing my dissertation on Presenting Data Effectively, knowing I had focused on a topic that the world was hungry for, even if they didn’t know it yet. I had collected enough literature and data to know…
Of course we all want to know what will happen in the future. These days folks are looking at data like it has a crystal ball. To the extent that we provide our audiences with projected data, let’s talk about ways to visualize the projected data. Because here’s the thing:…
Nothing wrong with this breast cancer line chart, but it’ll only tell a certain data story. Learn some alternative chart types for better data storytelling.
Back in November of **2010** I set up a Google Alert for “infographic.” Oh, I thought, these are an interesting development in how we communicate data. But either the quality of the design will drastically improve or these things will be a fad that disappears within a couple years.
We are hard core believers that you should become the master of the tools you own. If your company relies on Microsoft, figure out how to use Excel to make amazing data visualizations. If your company invested in a site-wide license for Tableau, climb over that learning curve and master…
Dr. Sheila Robinson is a master at engaging an audience. She’s honed this skill through decades of work in education where you have to know how to take the pulse of a room and determine whether a change in direction is needed to keep the group tuned in. You…
“I vote no.” This short answer speeds up the dashboard development process significantly. And I developed the question my client voted on in roughly 3 minutes, by showing her a quick sketch of some possible graph options. My client is in charge of a dashboard that tracks how high school…
The primary struggle with dashboard development is not identifying the right key performance indicators, building the graphs in your favorite software, or even getting people excited about the idea of using a dashboard. That’s all a cake walk compared to managing people and their reactions to the dashboard. Let…
