Best Practices in Presenting DataCreated 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 understandingTechnology makes it easier and fasterToo 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 &CleanCommunicates

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 audienceThis 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 importantColorblindness, 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

Not Yet Emerging

Almost Mastered

Mastered

Ave.

S2_1_SeekHelp 28 306 402 903 3.3S2_2_CooperativePlaywithPeers

23 105 357 1,154 3.6

S2_3_ImpulseControl 71 378 451 739 3.1S2_4_AttentionToTasks 74 334 648 583 3.1S2_5_CuriousAboutSchool

14 123 494 1,008 3.5

S2_6_PersistantInTasks    S3_7_RecognizeOwnName

20 101 382 1,136 3.6

S3_8_ExpressiveVerbalAbilities

39 169 559 872 3.4

S3_9_NumbersRepresentQuantity

91 184 315 1,049 3.4

S3_10_WritesOwnName 48 193 1,164 234 3.0S3_11_ColorRecognition 94 140 428 977 3.4S3_12_ShapeRecognition 109 196 387 947 3.3

Table After:

Less data &

Sorted to answer evaluation question

Item Observed as “Almost Mastered” (3) or

“Fully Mastered” (4)  # %Recognize Own Name 1,518 93%Cooperative Play with Peers 1,511 92%Curious About School 1,502 92%Persistent in Tasks 1,481 90%Expressive Verbal Abilities 1,431 87%Color Recognition 1,405 86%Writes Own Name 1,398 85%Numbers Represent Quantity 1,364 83%Shape Recognition 1,334 81%Seeks Help 1,305 80%Attention To Tasks 1,231 75%Impulse Control 1,190 73%

Table Before:

Requires additional narrative to understand

Clark Eldorado Silverado Sunrise

Mountain Western

Middle School Outreach

Community/Business Partnerships

Mentors

Speakers

Students' Outreach

Expanded FERC Hours

Family Outreach

Workforce Connections

WLC involvement

Table After:

Sorted further

Reversed axes

Revealed new patterns (core & additional)

WLC involvement

Community/Business

Partnerships

Family

Outreach

Student

Outreach

Middle

School

Outreach

Expanded

FERC Hours

Workforce

Connections

Mentors

Speakers

Core components Additional Activities

Clark √  √  √  √  √   √ √Eldorad

o √  √  √  √     √Silverad

o √  √  √  √  √  √ √Sunrise Mountai

n√  √  √  √     √ √ √

Western √  √  √  √     √ √

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

Credit Rqt. And Courses

Support My Student's Education

Requirements for Graduation

Received and Undertand Course Info.

Good Communication on Grades

Teachers and Counselor's Respect My Ideas

97

97

96

96

96

94

94

92

92

6866

54

% Families Reporting “Yes” – to Knowledge & Awareness

Based on Survey of Families, n =

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

“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. “

….WORDS …WORDS ...WORDS …

….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 drawGet 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

Check these out!

Color: Check out Design Seeds for amazing color inspiration. http://design-seeds.com/ 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=PLTOiUmhVCEQQ9Kokk-awLgscBo_3MHr_k

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

Professional Guidance: The American Evaluation Association has extensive resources – membership provides access to regular information just like this. http://www.eval.org/ Chris Metzner’s Blog

http://www.chrismetzner.com/blog/