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Telling Your Data Story Infographic Design Training

Tahmid Chowdhury and Suzanne Slattery

JSI CHIME Data Visualization Team

July 21, 2017

Tahmid Chowdhury

Suzanne Slattery

90% of the data in the world was generated in the last 2 years

0.5% of the data in the world has been analyzed

Our modern day challenge: Balancing the volume of information available with what our brains can comprehend.

Speedy and brief communications mediums have reconditioned people to prefer consuming information in small chunks

Today, content not distilled into easily

consumable key points often fails to spark action by decision-makers.

Pre-attentive processing helps people interpret your charts before they realize they’re thinking.

9 4 5 9 8 2 5 3 5 2 3 7 6 8 9 4 5 2 1 9 7 1 6 5 9 8 4 7 5 2 3 7 7 4 9 3

9 4 5 9 8 2 5 3 5 2 3 7 6 8 9 4 5 2 1 9 7 1 6 5 9 8 4 7 5 2 3 7 7 4 9 3

57 18 48 13 45 14 15 36 53 22 52 25 40 53 12 58 47 18 29 43 36 17 28 52 11 55 18 45 85 13 24 34 42 37 34 47

I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

65%

of the US populatio are visual learners

Visuals are processed times faster than text 60k

and

Data visualizations are any graphic representations of data.

Data visualizations can communicate huge amounts of data and help identify trends and areas of interest.

D

N

O

S

A

J

J

M

A

M

F

J

Declarative

Data-driven Conceptual

Exploratory

Everyday Data Viz

Visual Discover

y

Idea Generati

on

Idea Illustratio

n

Matrix credit: Harvard Business Review’s Good

Infographics: • Static • Hand-crafted every time • Made for a specific

dataset • Context-sensitive • Tells a premeditated

story • Best for guiding the

Data Dashboards: • Dynamic • Automatically generated • Creates images for arbitrary

datasets • Context-free • Allows user to explore the data • Best for allowing the audience

to draw their own conclusions

4. Disseminate & share

3. Build your charts &

assemble

2. Find the story in

your data

1. Identify

your audience & context

Infographic Process

The Dream Team

Communications Research

Designer Developer

-VERSUS-

Communications

Research

Reality

WHO Is Your Audience?

On the most common visualization

mistakes:

“Time isn’t adequately spent on is just what is the question that you’re trying to answer and what does your audience need to know?”

Cole Naussbaumer StorytellingwithData.com

From: http://cxcafe.maritzcx.com/storytelling-with-data-dashboarding-with-cole-nussbaumer/

is your audience? WHO

WHAT

HOW

do they want to know?

will you communicate it?

Different stakeholders have different data needs.

Consider your stakeholders’ literacy, numeric literacy, and what data they need to make decisions.

4. Disseminate & share

3. Build your charts &

assemble

2. Find the story in

your data

1. Identify

your audience & context

Infographic Process

WHAT Is Your Story?

“Data is powerful. But with a good story it’s unforgettable.”

Daniel Waisberg Google

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Tell-a-Meaningful-Story-with-Data-Waisberg-Kipling/4f1de8b80329635883db5bf79f33f31960342df6/

What is your goal? • Are you promoting

action? • Are you educating? • Raising money?

Who is your audience?

• What do you know (from your data)?

• What does it mean?

• Why is it i t t?

Ask Yourself Questions:

4. Disseminate & share

3. Build your charts &

assemble

2. Find the story in

your data

1. Identify

your audience & context

Infographic Process

Chart Selection

Picking the right chart type for your data story is critical to developing great visualizations.

Data Types

http://blog.visme.co/

Compare Categories

Paired Column Column

Bar Paired Bar Stacked Bar

Stacked Column Waterfall

Part-to-Whole

Pie Donut Tree Map

Distribution

Histogram Box and Whiskers Confidence Interval

Relationship

Scatterplot Bubble Radar / Spider

Time Series

Line

Stacked Area

Timeline

Spark Lines

Resource for Chart Selection

visage.co/content/data-visualization-101

http://datavizcatalogue.com/

Common Infographic Mistakes (Don’t do it!)

Misrepresentation of Your Data.

Source: http://io9.gizmodo.com/11-most-useless-and-misleading-infographics-on-the-inte-1688239674

COMMON MISTAKES

COMMON MISTAKES

It doesn’t add up 1

COMMON MISTAKES

BEST PRACTICE Make sure your numbers make sense

It’s the wrong chart 2

COMMON MISTAKES

COMMON MISTAKES

BEST PRACTICE

Avoid using pie charts if possible, especially f

DON’T

DO

40

20

15

14

6 3 1 1 ABCDEFG

40

20 15 14

6 3 1 1

A B C D E F G H

COMMON MISTAKES

It makes the reader work 3

COMMON MISTAKES

BEST PRACTICE

Make sure your bars correlate with your data

COMMON MISTAKE

Inaccurate scales 4

COMMON MISTAKES

BEST PRACTICE

To demonstrate scale, increase by area instead of di t

Boring/nondescript titles 5

COMMON MISTAKES

BEST PRACTICE

Use clear & succinct language that tells your reader the takeaway

COMMON MISTAKES

Incomparable Comparisons 6

COMMON MISTAKES

Using 3-D charts 7

COMMON MISTAKES

COMMON MISTAKES

Use ‘flat design’ and avoid 3D charts

BEFORE AFTER

05

101520253035404550

A B C D E F

0

10

20

30

40

50

A B C D E F

COMMON MISTAKES

Wrong axis placement 8

COMMON MISTAKES

COMMON MISTAKES

DON’T

05

101520253035404550

A B C D

DO

BEST PRACTICE

Use the full axis by starting at zero

25

30

35

40

45

50

A B C D

COMMON MISTAKES

Too much or too little text 9

COMMON MISTAKES

BEST PRACTICE

Give your audience adequate context, but don’t overcrowd your work with a wall of words

Not following basic design principles

10

COMMON MISTAKES

Hierarchy

Give your audience visual cues of what is the most important part of your message.

Balance

The eye tends to seek balance and will notice if your design is unbalanced. Use this principle to make your graphic visually pleasing.

Use contrast (light/dark, big/small, thick/thin) to highlight/ emphasize.

Contrast

Use color to emphasize or reinforce value. Avoid the “Skittles effect”

Color

Pick appropriate fonts for your audience. Stick to 2-3 at the most and be consistent in usage.

Font

A FEW DESIGN PRINCIPLES

Building Charts in Excel

Declutter your chart. 1

Or as Edward Tufte wrote:

“Erase non-data-ink, within reason.”

Edward Tufte from The Visual Display of Quantitative

Information

Remove the default lines, borders & tick marks that distract your audience.

BEFORE AFTER

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

2016 2017 2018

CSO 1

CSO 2

CSO 3

CSO 4

CSO 5

CSO 6

CSO 7

CSO 8

CSO 9

CSO 10

CSO 11

CSO 2 7000

4000

0

5000

10000

15000

2016 2017 2018

Female Sex Workers,

26.6%

5.5%

Men having Sex with Men,

21.0%

4.9%

2005 2014

HIV Prevalence in Guyana’s key populations has declined

sharply in the last decade.

0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

2005 2014

Female SexWorkers

Men having Sexwith Men

BEFORE AFTER

Use ‘flat design’ and avoid 3D charts

05

101520253035404550

A B C D E F

0

10

20

30

40

50

A B C D E F

BEFORE AFTER

DON’T

0

10

20

30

40

50

A B C

BEST PRACTICE

For comparing charts, keep the style consistent

20

45

35

A B C

DO

0

10

20

30

40

50

A B C

BEST PRACTICE

For comparing charts, keep the style consistent

0

10

20

30

40

50

A B C

Use color to add impact. 2

If you use color sparingly, it becomes more powerful

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

2012 2013 2014 2015

Selective use of color helps the important points stand out.

0 2 4 60 2 4 6

Highlights the category with the value of interest.

Learn more about color (in a detailed video) from Cole at Storytelling with Data https://youtu.be/AiD6etOB6qI

Consider black & white printing and those who are colorblind.

Read Stephanie Evergreen’s excellent post on this topic for more details & alternatives: http://stephanieevergreen.com/no-more-red-yellow-green/

BEST PRACTICE

Avoid using pie charts if possible, especially for comparison

DON’T

DO

40

20

15

14

6 3 1 1 ABCDEFG

40

20 15 14

6 3 1 1

A B C D E F G H

DON’T

05

101520253035404550

A B C D

DO

BEST PRACTICE

Use the full axis by starting at zero

25

30

35

40

45

50

A B C D

Create a purposeful title. 3

Are you clear and succinct, telling your reader the key takeaway?

BEFORE AFTER

10

No stigma registered

1-5 accounts

6-10 accounts

11-15 accounts

16+ accounts

S&D remains a challenge: half of facilities reported more than 16 incidents last quarter.

0 5 10 15

No stigma registered

1-5 accounts

6-10 accounts

11-15 accounts

16+ accounts

# facilities reporting incidents

# facilities

Title length of f 6-12 words is recommended on the Data Visualization Checklist http://stephanieevergreen.com/dataviz-checklist

BEFORE AFTER

Use data labels sparingly, reserving them for key data points.

A Q U I C K E X A M P L E

VISUALIZING POPULATION DATA

What proportion of the population do women of reproductive age represent?

What proportion of the population do women of reproductive age represent?

What proportion of the population do women of reproductive age represent?

What proportion of the population do women of reproductive age represent?

Creating an Infographic in Piktochart

Infographic Resources

INFOGRAPHIC RESOURCES

1 https://www.canva.com/

https://piktochart.com/

https://venngage.com/

https://www.easel.ly/

http://www.flaticon.com/ https://thenounproject.com/

2

3

4

5 6

Canva

Piktochart

Vennage

Easelly

Flat Icon The Noun Project

Icons

Websites

THANK YOU.

Tahmid Chowdhury tahmid_chowdhury@jsi.com

Suzanne Slattery suzanne_slattery@jsi.com