MAY 14, 2014

CREATING FUNCTIONAL ART IN EXCEL

AMANDA MAKULEC

DATA VISUALIZATION AT JSI

FOUR THINGS TO CONSIDER

WHO ARE THE STAKEHOLDERS?

WHAT INFO DO THEY NEED?

HOW WILL THEY USE IT?

WHY DO THEY CARE?

BEAUTIFUL VISUALIZATIONS REQUIRE ITERATION

START WITH A SKETCH

Sketch to start…

and you’ll work your way

to something beautiful.

CHOOSE A CHART TYPE THAT MEETS YOUR DATA NEEDS

COUNT THE 5’S

5 6 6 9 5 1 6 8 1 2

6 4 1 2 2 5 7 3 9 4

3 4 8 1 9 4 9 1 5 5

8 7 3 5 6 4 2 1 5 8

7 6 4 9 2 1 9 5 1 4

9 5 6 9 5 8 5 3 6 9

2 2 5 8 7 1 3 6 3 8

5 9 6 5 4 2 7 9 5 2

COUNT THE 5’S

5 6 6 9 5 1 6 8 1 2

6 4 1 2 2 5 7 3 9 4

3 4 8 1 9 4 9 1 5 5

8 7 3 5 6 4 2 1 5 8

7 6 4 9 2 1 9 5 1 4

9 5 6 9 5 8 5 3 6 9

2 2 5 8 7 1 3 6 3 8

5 9 6 5 4 2 7 9 5 2

DRAW ATTENTION TO WHAT’S IMPORTANT: PREATTENTIVE ATTRIBUTES

DRAW ATTENTION TO WHAT’S IMPORTANT: GESTALT PRINCIPLES

COLOR | SHAPES | SIZE

MAPS | SHADING

BUILDING VISUALIZATIONS IN EXCEL

DOWNLOAD THE DATA TO PLAY ALONG

GO TO:

TINYURL.COM/WORLDPOPDATA

DOWNLOAD THE EXCEL

SPREADSHEET AT THE LINK

ANATOMY OF A CHART

STEP ONE

Draw some sketches &

then create electronically.

SKETCH FIRST

LET’S START HERE

STEP TWO

Reduce the clutter

STEP THREE

Add meaningful labels.

STEP FOUR

Emphasize with color.

STEP FIVE

Add meaningful titles.

ON CREATING TITLES

State your takeaway message in the title

Generic Better Best

Readers have to spend precious time decoding charts with generic titles.

The title gives details about what the indicators are, but does not tell a story.

The title tells the story explicitly and clearly, giving your reader the message.

Figure: Total Population Total Population by World Bank Country Income Classification

The proportion of the global population living in middle income countries has grown over the past 50 years, now estimated at 70% of the world's population.

Your title needs may change depending

on your audience: scientific journals

may require a different title than a web-

based communications product.

VIZ MAKEOVER

READY FOR ROUND 2? URBANIZATION DATA VIZ ACTIVITY

% of population living in an urban setting

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

East Asia & Pacific 22.46472 24.84152 27.49883 33.65413 41.21955 51.6696

Europe & Central Asia 55.21195 60.63047 64.68612 67.43591 68.24317 69.97876

Latin America & Caribbean 49.25997 57.01166 64.25289 70.29534 75.44325 78.79903

Middle East & North Africa 34.98355 42.8213 49.55351 54.84566 58.64444 62.58201

Sub-Saharan Africa 14.74854 19.33165 23.62453 27.90688 31.99966 35.93099

South Asia 16.72588 18.65112 22.32985 25.02435 27.33532 30.60301

East Asia & Pacific (developing only) 16.91524 18.77601 21.3357 28.15679 36.64623 47.5415

Europe & Central Asia (developing only) 39.15436 45.88226 51.18321 56.77231 57.55644 59.49709

Latin America & Caribbean (developing only) 48.38572 56.26412 63.68319 69.93737 75.05648 78.45927

Middle East & North Africa (developing only) 33.92184 41.15169 46.94968 51.67239 55.54996 58.98237

Sub-Saharan Africa (developing only) 14.73659 19.32403 23.62208 27.90184 31.99435 35.92825

DESIGN

RESOURCES & TOOLS

BOOKS

PEOPLE TO READ

Stephen Few

Show Me the

Numbers

Edward Tufte

The Visual Display

of Quantitative

Information

Alberto Cairo

The Functional Art:

An Introduction to

Information

Graphics

Cole

Nussbaumer

Storytelling

withdata.com

TOOLS

COLOR-HEX

COLOR ORACLE

COLOR BREWER Simple tool for picking palettes

Originally for maps

Simulates color blindness

Great for checking your viz

Technical info on color models

Generates CSS codes

QUESTIONS?