Best Practices in
Presenting Data
Created by Sarah Marschall, Client Services Manager
Social Entrepreneurs, Inc.
www.socialent.com
 Extensive data is available to tell the story
 Strong demand for understanding
Why It’s
Important
 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
 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 …
then,
Share it!
 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
Not Yet Emerging
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
Almost Mastered
Mastered Ave.
28
23
306
105
402
357
903
1,154
3.3
3.6
71
74
14
378
334
123
451
648
494
739
583
1,008
3.1
3.1
3.5
20
39
101
169
382
559
1,136
872
3.6
3.4
91
184
315
1,049
3.4
48
94
109
193
140
196
1,164
428
387
234
977
947
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:
Clark
Middle School Outreach
Community/Business Partnerships
Requires
additional
narrative to
understand
Mentors
Speakers
Students' Outreach
Expanded FERC Hours
Family Outreach
Workforce Connections
WLC involvement
Eldorado
Silverado
Sunrise
Mountain
Western
Reversed axes
Revealed new
patterns (core
& additional)
Core components
Speakers
Mentors
Workforce Connections
Expanded FERC Hours
Middle School
Outreach
Family Outreach
Student Outreach
Sorted further
Community/Business
Partnerships
WLC involvement
Table After:
Additional Activities
Clark
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
Eldorado
√
√
√
√
Silverado
√
√
√
√
Sunrise
Mountain
√
√
√
√
√
√
Western
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
Bar Chart
Before:
Hard to read
labels
A lot of grey
% Families Reporting “Yes” – to Knowledge & Awareness
Based on Survey of Families, n =
Bar Chart After:
Shortened labels
Removed gridlines
Color to and size
to emphasize key
opportunities
Credit Rqt. And Courses
97
Check Grades in Parent Link
97
Support My Student's Education
96
Comfort Talking to Teachers
96
Requirements for Graduation
96
Read My Studen'ts Report Card
94
Received and Undertand Course Info.
94
Comfortable at Child's School
92
Good Communication on Grades
92
Can Check Attendence in Parent Link
68
Teachers and Counselor's Respect My Ideas
66
Aware of the FERC
54
What Family Access Day Participants Liked Best:
Qualitative
Before
Hard to know
what matters
most
 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
What Family Access Day Participants Liked Best:

Qualitative
After
Callouts draw
reader back to
the list
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
“[I] learn[ed] that it’s
very important to read,
read.”
 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
“Asking question
and talking [and]
getting answers
[from] a person”
….WORDS …WORDS ...WORDS …
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. “
….Catch all that???…
Spatial After:
Create a map!
Report is boring.
 Bring out your qualitative data. Stories and voice is
compelling (to most)
Challenges
and
Suggestions
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 coworkers 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://designseeds.com/
Professional Guidance:
The American Evaluation
Association has extensive
resources – membership
provides access to regular
information just like this.
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.
Inspiration: Check out PBS
Backstory about Data
Visualization highlighting the
art and science from the
forefront…http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=AdSZJzbaX8&feature=share&list=PLTOiUmhV
CEQQ9Kokk-awLgscBo_3MHr_k
http://stephanieevergreen.com/blog/
http://www.eval.org/
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