Best Practices in Presenting Data

Created by Sarah Marschall, Client Services Manager Social Entrepreneurs, Inc.

www.socialent.com

Why It’s Important  Extensive data is available to tell the story  Strong demand for understanding  Technology makes it easier and faster  Too much (or too little) information creates new frustrations and communication problems

Best Practices or Just Preferences?

What Makes for Data Presentation Effective?

 When it comes to data (like candy), some like toffees, and others go for raspberry crèmes.  Is there really best practice, or just preferences?  While there is certainly room for diversity, some basic principles make data –

more digestible!

Visualization Principles

Clear & Clean Communicates

 You + Data

See it … then, Share it!

 There is the data you want to share  Try to design it so that it communicates to your audience. To do this , you have to  See it first, then you can  Share it with your audience  This takes some space and time to: 

analyze,



reflect,



Design…. and then



Refine

.

Using Color

Blue is a great color for data.

Colors

mean different things in different cultures, and to different people…

If in doubt, get some feedback.

Using Contrast 

Contrast is important

 Colorblindness, visual disabilities are common  Textures and shading can replace or supplement colors

Cleaning Up Graphs and Figures Some real-life “before and after” examples

Table Before: Too much data Hard to read Not clear S2_1_SeekHelp S2_2_CooperativePlaywithPee rs S2_3_ImpulseControl S2_4_AttentionToTasks S2_5_CuriousAboutSchool S2_6_PersistantInTasks S3_7_RecognizeOwnName S3_8_ExpressiveVerbalAbilitie s S3_9_NumbersRepresentQuan tity S3_10_WritesOwnName S3_11_ColorRecognition S3_12_ShapeRecognition Not Yet Emerging 28 23 306 105 Almost Mastered Mastered Ave.

402 357 903 1,154 3.3

3.6

71 74 14 20 39 91 48 94 109 378 334 123 101 169 184 193 140 196 451 648 494 382 559 315 1,164 428 387 739 583 1,008 1,136 872 1,049 234 977 947 3.1

3.1

3.5

3.6

3.4

3.4

3.0

3.4

3.3

Table After: Less data & Sorted to answer evaluation question

Item Recognize Own Name Cooperative Play with Peers Curious About School Persistent in Tasks Expressive Verbal Abilities Color Recognition Writes Own Name Numbers Represent Quantity Shape Recognition Seeks Help Attention To Tasks Impulse Control Observed as “Almost Mastered” (3) or “Fully Mastered” (4)

# 1,518 1,511 1,502 1,481 1,431 1,405 1,398 1,364 1,334 1,305 1,231 1,190 % 93% 92% 92% 90% 87% 86% 85% 83% 81% 80% 75% 73%

Table Before: Requires additional narrative to understand

Middle School Outreach Community/Business Partnerships Mentors Speakers Students' Outreach Expanded FERC Hours Family Outreach Workforce Connections WLC involvement Clark Eldorado Silverado Sunrise Mountain Western

Table After: Sorted further Reversed axes Revealed new patterns (core & additional)

Clark Eldorado √ Silverado √ Sunrise Mountain √ Western √ √ Core components √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

Additional Activities

√ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √

Bar Chart Before: Hard to read labels A lot of grey

Bar Chart After: Shortened labels Removed gridlines Color to and size to emphasize key opportunities % Families Reporting “Yes” – to Knowledge & Awareness Based on Survey of Families, n = Credit Rqt. And Courses Check Grades in Parent Link Support My Student's Education Comfort Talking to Teachers Requirements for Graduation Read My Studen'ts Report Card Received and Undertand Course Info.

Comfortable at Child's School Good Communication on Grades Can Check Attendence in Parent Link Teachers and Counselor's Respect My Ideas Aware of the FERC

54 68 66

94 92 92 97 97 96 96 96 94

Qualitative Before Hard to know what matters most

What Family Access Day Participants Liked Best:

           

Information to help our children in school in general Information to help our children with/getting to/paying for college The family learning together The take away materials to use at home Supports: translation, transportation, child care, lunch Information about math Information about reading/literacy The personalities of the presenters and organizers of the event The interaction and helpful answers to their questions in person That the content was modifiable to any grade level The location- that it was held at a university Student panel session

Qualitative After Callouts draw reader back to the list

What Family Access Day Participants Liked Best:



Information to help our children in school in general

     

Information to help our children with/getting to/paying for college The family learning together The take away materials to use at home Supports: translation, transportation, child care, lunch Information about math Information about reading/literacy



The personalities of the presenters and organizers of the event

   

The interaction and helpful answers to their questions in person That the content was modifiable to any grade level The location- that it was held at a university Student panel session

“[I] learn[ed] that it’s very important to read, read.” “Asking question and talking [and] getting answers [from] a person”

Spatial Before Narrative used to describe geographic breakout ….

WORDS … WORDS ...

WORDS … “Families represented a broad geographic distribution from within the county. Over half of the total population (57%) was from one of five zip code areas (89502, 89431, 89433, 89506 and 89512). Parent University reached more people in more areas of the county than in 2011-12, including rural areas of Nixon and Wadsworth (Social Entrepreneurs Inc. and WCSD Office of Family School Partnerships, 2011-12). Summary based on data from parent surveys; 1,139 of 1,244 total surveys included information on their 5-digit home zip code. Map contains 97% of all participants by zip code. 14 zip code areas had 4 or fewer participants and are not shown on map. “

….Catch all that???…

Spatial After: Create a map!

Challenges and Suggestions 

Report is boring.

Bring out your qualitative data. Stories and voice is compelling (to most)

Graph is hard to understand.

    Consider several small graphs Reorder your data Re-make it to communicate Use color or size 

Information is spatial.

Make a map - many new tools are web-based and easy for beginners

Challenges and Suggestions

Sick of smart-art.

 Get out the pen and draw  Get help visualizing your data (Ask your co workers or consumers to draw with you) 

Simple doesn’t tell the whole story.

Make it simple. Put the details in an appendix or companion document. If you can’t see it – how can your audience?

Finally… Printing Data  Reports may be printed in c0lor, black and white, or grey-scale.

 Printing (including to PDF) sometimes results in changes to the look of your charts and tables  Check your final versions to make sure your document still communicates your data.

Tools and Resources Color: Check out Design Seeds for amazing color inspiration.

http://design seeds.com/ Check these out!

Professional Guidance:

The American Evaluation Association has extensive resources – membership provides access to regular information just like this.

http://www.eval.org/

A Leader in the Field:

Stephanie Evergreen blogs, writes, and holds webinars on the subject.

Awesome tips for those of us that like (or don’t like) Excel. http://stephanieevergreen.com/blog/ Inspiration: Check out PBS Backstory about Data Visualization highlighting the art and science from the forefront…http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AdSZJzb aX8&feature=share&list=PLTOiUmhV CEQQ9Kokk-awLgscBo_3MHr_k

Chris Metzner’s Blog

http :// www.chrismetzner.com/blog / Google: Use the image search feature in google to see lots of examples all at once. www. images.google.com