Tag Archives: Data Design

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07b-Using good information design, charts & graphs, PowerPoint resources, slide-craft, story-boarding, tables

Being Intentional with your Data and Giving your Graphics a Voice!

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I have a particular interest in evaluation in the workplace– the evaluation of employees, work output, employers, etc. In the types of programs I’ve been in, I have found in very useful. However, I’m sure that most companies don’t have the time to thoroughly evaluate their work in a systematic and organized way. I have always worked in the research/higher education end of business, and so I don’t personally have experience with how evaluation works in the corporate setting.  How does evaluation look like in your industry or company?

A few years ago, I came across this site and I have been a fan ever since. The group is called Evergreen Data and they focus on intentional reporting and data visualization. I work in public health/higher education, and the public health industry is very data-heavy. Data in public health is used for analysis, program planning, grant opportunities, research, etc. and so I have seen the benefits of its use in my industry. What does your company do with its evaluation data?

This particular site had a checklist on how you should layout your evaluation reports which I’ve found super helpful! The purpose of the checklist is to help identify what parts of an evaluation report can be enhanced through the use of graphics.

Here are some of the items they had in their checklist:

  • Text font and size (sans serif and size 9-11)
  • Text uniformity
  • Line spacing (between 11-13 points)
  • Headers/callouts
  • The number of different types of fonts that you should use (no more than three!)
  • Don’t make too “strong” or “bold” of bullet points
  • Alignment (be consistent!)
  • Make sure that items in page that are grouped together are related
  • Utilize white/empty space!
  • Use of pictures/graphics – individuals learn differently from one another
  • Use color changes for a purpose (are you being intentional by choosing to change the color of a font or header?)

Evergreen also has an additional checklist that’s used for data visualization. It’s specific to making your graphs speak for themselves! This is a great resource as well.

What are some of the tips you have when creating reports (not exclusive to evaluation reports)? What steps do you take to have your data share a “story” or a “point”? Are you intentional in your decisions in terms of report layouts, font, graphics, etc.? Do you find that you have to pay more attention to this? 

99-Spreadsheet modeling, Excel power users, Excel resources, Excel shortcuts

Every Spreadsheet Has An Error

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If your job is anything like mine, you’ve had to work on a massive data dump, sorting and manipulating to find “a story.” The size of the data files can sometimes be intimidating and there sometimes is that concern in the back of your mind that some formula or reference within your Excel workbook went rogue.

As we strive to be more proficient in our Excel skills and more efficient in our tasks, coming across a headline such as “Every Spreadsheet Has an Error” can certainly sound alarming! However, as I read the article in greater depth, I found the points to serve as good guidelines to help check my work.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billconerly/2013/04/25/every-spreadsheet-has-an-error-7-lessons-motivated-by-reinhart-and-rogoff/
Some of the tips suggested in the link are:

1) Use assumption variables – Similar to what we learned in Decision Analysis class, create a section within your workbook with all your assumption variables. Create links within the workbook to these assumptions. This will ensure that when you have to change your assumptions in the future you will not have to search all your data for every occurrence that may be affected.

2) Link, don’t copy – Create links to raw data so that you can go back and check your manipulated data against the original document.

3) Create double-check formulas – “If, then” and “true, false” statements are great for checking your work!

4) Format to Tell Differences – Conditional formatting helps to highlight differences in the data. They also help to identify trends and patterns in your data. I’m a big fan of using colors when doing conditional formatting.

5) Graph Your Data – When possible, graph your data. A line chart for instance will give you a quick visual to not only spot any irregularities in your data, but also to help find “the story.”

6) Document – Create notes of the steps or sources that you used to create your end product. This habit can save a ton of time when you have to do an update. Notes are also helpful for others who may have to replicate your report. We have a saying at my workplace, “a detailed source line is not for the client, it’s for us!”

7) Be Suspicious – Check your work. See if you can find an error.

Hopefully, by following some of these tips, you found all of your errors!

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07b-Using good information design, 07c-Telling stories, 07d-Delivering a presentation, charts & graphs, creativity methods, PowerPoint resources, slide-craft, story-boarding, storyline structure, tables

Alternatives to PowerPoint

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PowerPoint Alternatives: Will PowerPoint Ever be Obsolete?

Will PowerPoint ever be replaced?  It has become commonly accepted in the business world that ‘PowerPoint’ is synonymous with ‘Presentation’. However, when is the last time that you (or me, or anyone for that matter) questioned the validity of that accepted standard, or even gave fleeting consideration to using a different presentation platform or software program?

So, that leads to the question of whether or not PowerPoint will ever become obsolete, outdated, or replaced by something newer and shinier. In researching thoughts on this topic by folks smarter than myself (such as Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, in this article), I discovered a few things.

First of all, there are already many of alternatives to PowerPoint, and while they might not be household names, they can arguably match the functionality of PowerPoint, and perhaps even be more targeted towards your audience depending on the nature of the presentation. Some of the more popular alternatives to PowerPoint include Apple’s Keynote (which Steve Jobs popularized by using when rolling out new products), Google docs (free, ‘quick and dirty”), SlideRocket (great for folks in a sales environment), and perhaps most notably, Prezi (Intuitive, sophisticated, puts ‘slides in motion’, great for storytelling).

I am personally considering giving Prezi a try based on the positive reviews and feedback that I have read and would love to hear from anyone in our class who has tried the software first-hand. It does seem that one day PowerPoint might be replaced as the gold standard for delivering presentations, but that day is likely not going to come anytime soon, and we are likely better off improving our delivery method rather than changing the platform all-together.

So, what are your thoughts??

 

Articles for Reference:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/09/07/jeff-bezos-and-the-end-of-powerpoint-as-we-know-it/

http://lifehacker.com/5888189/five-best-powerpoint-alternatives

http://www.customshow.com/best-powerpoint-alternatives-presentation-programs/

http://www.powtoon.com/blog/10-best-powerpoint-alternatives/

 

 

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07b-Using good information design, charts & graphs, creativity methods, deliverables, PowerPoint resources, storyline structure, tables

Data Visualization – Tableau

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For starters, check out this video

I sometimes struggle with conveying my analysis (say, in Excel) into a presentation (say, in PowerPoint). The best way to capture the attention of your audience and to deliver an effective presentation is through data visualization. No matter how sound and detailed your analysis, if it is not communicated well to your audience then all of your hard work in performing that analysis was wasted.

Presenting data in a visual format can often be the quickest and most effective ways to convey results of your analysis and capture the attention of your audience. This can communicate a message that may have taken hours to develop in a matter of seconds if done correctly.

One of my favorite new data visualization resources that I am learning to use is called Tableau. Tableau is a software company that was founded in 2003 and does nothing other than data visualization. The company had sales of $34.2 Million in 2010 which grew to an astonishing $232.44 Million in 2013 and the company went public. It is now traded on the NYSE (ticker: DATA). It is extremely intuitive and the product looks amazing. Here is a great video that gives you an overview of the capabilities of Tableau (also linked above).

There are some really revolutionary and interesting methods to communicate data visually that are becoming more and more accepted in business and is thought by many as a way for companies to distinguish themselves among their peers. Often times my company might be similarly positioned to perform work for a given client, and I have seen that a lot of the work we have “won” has come from an effective pitch that highlights the strengths of our organization in a visually compelling manner that engages the client and shows that we can “give meaning to numbers” which is a skill that is hard to quantify.

I would be curious to get any thoughts on your experience with data visualization software and any recommendations you might have.

 

Other helpful data visualization links:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-data-visualization-revolution/

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/04/the-quick-and-dirty-on-data-visualization/

http://fortune.com/2011/11/15/how-tableau-software-makes-business-data-beautiful/

07b-Using good information design, 07c-Telling stories, charts & graphs, creativity methods, Uncategorized

Information Design For Dummies

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This title is clearly tongue-in-cheek, but for me, “For Dummies” can be applied to several areas of mine that need improvement. I suppose those of us who aren’t fortunate enough to practice every viable business skillset regularly may feel the same. But hey, isn’t that why we’re in school? Isn’t that the nature of this project? I digress….

Presentations haven’t been a focus of career thus far, so even the term Information Design is something relatively new. In trying to gain expertise and understanding quickly, I always like to start at the beginning. Where did Information Design originate? What’s its purpose? How is it best used today? To quote professor Makadok, “I’m energized! I’m ready to learn!”

The term “information design” originated in the early 1990’s, however humans have been using visual aids to tell stories for a very long time (think cave paintings, hieroglyphics, etc.). Formal Information Design really hit its stride in the 18th century, with innovators like William Playfair creating some groundbreaking representations of data (http://www.humantific.com/making-sense-of-the-early-sensemakers). Playfair, a Scottish engineer and political economist, invented pie charts, line graphs, and bar charts. And you thought Scotch whisky was Scotland’s greatest invention! All kidding aside, Playfair’s charts were beautiful representations of imports and exports, giving life to previously abstract statistics.Playfair13-525x306

The evolution continued, and fast forward to 20th century: Harry Beck, an English technical draftsman creates the famous London Underground tube map in 1931 (http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/beck_map.jpg).

beck_map

As a map lover, this is truly an iconic work, and set the standard of urban transit maps that we all know today. To me, Beck’s work truly achieves one of the key goals of information design: clearly visualizing something that is difficult to understand. Can you imagine the complexity of an actual map of the London Underground in its correct scale? It would likely look like an angry cluster of snakes. Beck’s map breaks down the complexity into something that even a novice traveller can visually digest over a cup of tea and a scone.

So with a little history under our belt, what are some tips for taking a modern approach to Information Design? Amy Balliett of Smashing Magazine wrote a fantastic article that gives some great examples of do’s and don’ts, that we can all use to approach our next presentation (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/14/the-dos-and-donts-of-infographic-design/):

1) Show, don’t tell: Don’t miss an opportunity to visualize data. In other words, avoid putting into text what can better be conveyed with an image, chart, or graph.
2) If the client wanted an excel chart, they wouldn’t need you: This is clearly aimed at professional info designers, but you get the idea. Step your game up, and get creative! If possible, learning some design platform could really differentiate your skills from the rest of the pack.
3) Typography should not be a crutch: avoid leaning too heavily on fancy fonts that distract from the visualized data. I think this is great advice, and reflects back to “show, don’t tell.”

She goes on to make several other good points, but I’ll get right to the good stuff…

4) Tell a story: Funny how it always comes back to a good story. Great info graphics introduce a problem, back it up with data, and finish with a conclusion.

I highly recommend reading Ballet’s entire article, and hopefully it will provide some inspiration next time you attempt to convey a message visually. Now where did I put that Scotch?

07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07b-Using good information design, 99-Spreadsheet modeling, charts & graphs, Excel resources, PowerPoint resources, PowerPoint tricks, slide-craft, tables

Sharing a Helpful Resource

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If your job is anything like mine, you use Microsoft Excel and/or PowerPoint on a regular (if not daily) basis. If you use either of these applications in conjunction with each other (which I know all of us have in our prior MP presentations), I have a very helpful resource to share with you.

One of the biggest challenges that I have faced is effectively incorporating data (particularly from Excel) into a concise PowerPoint presentation. Given that Excel and PowerPoint are both made by Microsoft, you would think that using these two applications in conjunction with one another would be fairly seamless and potentially even synergistic (1 + 1 = 3, right?).  However, integrating Excel and PowerPoint is not always straight forward, and conveying key takeaways rather than “data dumping” an entire financial model into your presentation can be a challenge. Additionally, I think that most of us are typically better at one than the other which doesn’t make things any easier.  I certainly have found this to be the case for myself, and while I have a strong background in using Excel, I have a lot of “room to grow” in terms of incorporating financial data from huge bulky models into a clean and concise presentation that conveys the underlying data effectively.

As I have searched for tools, resources, and articles giving guidance on this very topic, I have come across a particularly helpful website that I wanted to share with our class and hope that you will find it to be as useful as I have. This website is called ‘Think Outside the Slide’ and is as close to a “one stop shop” as I have found for guidance on just about everything relating to creating powerful presentations, with literally thousands of articles neatly organized by topic, as well as video tutorials if you’re more of a visual person. If you use Excel or PowerPoint at all, there is likely a specific article with tips and guidance on how to more effectively use the applications in a context relevant to you.

These are just a few that I have begun to frequently reference to give you a snapshot:

  • Using Excel Data in Powerpoint Presentations
  • Slide Design, Creation, and Editing
  • Linking Excel Data (and other content) to PowerPoint so that data in slides automatically updates
  • Tips on effectively cleaning up and animating graphs
  • Creating powerful visuals using Excel Data (waterfall graphs, diverging stacked bar charts, treemap diagrams, proportional shape comparisons, etc…)

For many business professionals, myself included, Excel and PowerPoint are critical tools, and learning to use data effectively in PowerPoint presentations can take time but is versatile skill with application to countless professions that can help to distinguish yourself from your peers/co-workers, and add value to your clients. I hope you find this to be a helpful resource, please feel free to share any other resources that you frequently use and have found helpful in your career. Thanks!

Helpful links referenced in this post:

http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/free-resources/

http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/using-excel-data-in-a-powerpoint-presentation/

http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/articles/

07b-Using good information design, charts & graphs, tables

Attention, Cleanup on Slide 6.

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Engineers like numbers. Engineers like problems that can be solved with numerical analysis. Engineers like when others agree that their numbers are correct. However, all too often Engineers fail to clearly communicate their ideas, analysis, and solutions in a manner that quickly informs, educates, and persuades their audiences. I would know; I am an Engineer.

Presenters commonly overlook good information design in their presentations. Instead, they focus on providing the maximum amount of information and data in a manner that allows the audience to fully appreciate not only the solution but also the process of the analysis. In their attempt to wow the audience with slides dominated by tables, charts, graphs, best-fit lines, major and minor grid lines and the like, they instead produce confusion and lack of interest. I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of such techniques.

In Edward Tufte’s work on information design, “Visual Display of Quantitative Information” – yes it is indeed as interesting as it sounds – Tufte discusses Data-Ink and Graphical Redesign. In order to achieve maximum impact, Tufte outlines five principles for data graphics that can lead to significant improvements in graphical design: 1) Above all else show the data, 2) Maximize the data-ink ratio, 3) Erase non-data-ink, 4) Erase redundant data-ink, and 5) Revise and edit. To help clarify, Tufte describes data-ink as “the share of the ink on a graphic that presents the data-information”; it is “the non-erasable core of the graphic.” The key and the challenge of this topic is finding simplicity.

Tufte provides a great example of how to erase redundant data-ink within reason. Consider a simple bar chart with a single bar that is shaded and displays the value of the data point at the top of the bar. The height or value of the bar chart in this simple example is identified in six separate ways. Five of those ways can be considered redundant and removed, and the important data will still be present. The six ways include, 1) the height of the left vertical of the bar chart, 2) the height of the right vertical of the bar chart, 3) the height of the shaded region of the bar chart, 4) the vertical position of the horizontal top of the bar chart, 5) the vertical position of the value on top of the bar chart, and 6) the numeric value itself. Removing redundant information creates clearer presentation and more effective communication of a presenter’s ideas.

For most, this is likely not the most exciting of topics. However, for someone who works heavily in numerical analysis and who must convey outcomes to audiences of varying backgrounds, these suggestions on good information design are priceless. Does anyone else struggle in the area of good information design? Have you ever been complimented on your information design? Any other suggestions of how someone can improve their ability to display quantitative information?

 

Tufte, Edward R. “Data-Ink and Graphical Redesign.” The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Second ed. Cheshire, CT: Graphics LLC, 2006. N. pag. Print.