APRIL 29, 2014

DATA VISUALIZATION

AMANDA MAKULEC | ERICA NYBRO

APLIC 2014

[IMPACT | INTRIGUE | VALUE ADD]

DATA NEWBIES TO DATA NINJAS

VISUALIZATION TO TELL A STORY AMPLIFY YOUR REACH MAKE DECISIONS

THE VISUALIZATION PROCESS

IDENTIFY YOUR

AUDIENCE &

CONTEXT

FIND THE STORY

IN YOUR DATA

BUILD YOUR

VISUALIZATION

DISSEMINATE,

SHARE & USE

WHAT?

DATA WHAT INFORMATION DO

YOU HAVE TO SHARE?

WHO?

AUDIENCE WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO REACH

WITH YOUR INFORMATION?

WHO?

AUDIENCE • LITERACY

• NUMERIC/DATA LITERACY

• EDUCATION

WHO?

AUDIENCE

JOB FUNCTION • POLICY MAKERS

• PROGRAM MANAGERS

• RESEARCHERS/ACADEMICS

• FUNDERS

• JOURNALISTS

• GENERAL PUBLIC

WHY?

WHAT IS THEIR CONTEXT? WHO ARE THE STAKEHOLDERS?

WHAT INFO DO THEY NEED?

HOW WILL THEY USE IT?

WHY DO THEY CARE? WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE?

* a note on politics and perspective

WHO?

AUDIENCE EXAMPLE

Data available: population and urbanization in all countries

International Donor working in Urban Health

Objective: Effective use of funds for big impact

Data need: Where is urban health a big challenge? Where is there a service gap?

FIND YOUR DATA STORY

WHAT’S THE STORY?

LOOK FOR…

• Trends

• Ranges

• Patterns

• Comparisons

• Surprises

WHAT’S THE STORY?

AN EXAMPLE

• Audience

• Context

• Story

TIPS:

• Sort your

data different

ways

• Play with

graphs/charts

to find

patterns

WHAT’S THE STORY?

ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR STORY CONCEPT • Tweak for your audience

• Write a short headline to summarize your story

• What do you want your audience to take

away? Is there an action point?

An increase in child malnutrition in Egypt coincides with the Avian Flu outbreak of 2006. We hope to see this trend reverse in 2014.

WHAT’S THE STORY?

BUILDING A VISUALIZATION THE BASICS

AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT NOT TO DO

AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT NOT TO DO #2

WHAT WE DO WANT

YOUR GOAL: SHARING A MESSAGE

THE USER EXPLORES YOUR DATA AND CAN DRAW THEIR OWN CONCLUSIONS.

YOU DECIDE THE STORY AND THE MESSAGE, GUIDING YOUR READER.

YOUR GOAL: PROMOTING EXPLORATION

UNDERSTAND THE STORY YOU WANT TO TELL

THINK ABOUT HOW YOU WANT TO VISUALIZE THAT STORY

CHART OR GRAPH?

INFOGRAPHIC?

FLOW CHART?

WHAT’S YOUR “AH HA!”

MOMENT FOR YOUR

AUDIENCE?

START WITH A SKETCH

Sketch to start…

and you’ll work your way

to something beautiful.

A STARTING GUIDE TO CHOOSING A CHART TYPE

CHART CHOOSER 2.O (JUICE LABS)

BEYOND THE BAR CHART: SOME IDEAS

tree map network map bubble chart

JUST SAY NO TO PIE CHARTS

DESIGN

CREATING FUNCTIONAL ART

DRAW ATTENTION TO WHAT’S IMPORTANT: PREATTENTIVE ATTRIBUTES

DRAW ATTENTION TO WHAT’S IMPORTANT: GESTALT PRINCIPLES

COLOR | SHAPES | SIZE

MAPS | SHADING

NUMBERS | SHORT TEXT

TIMELINE

MOBILE

TRADITIONAL GRAPHS AND CHARTS

A GUT-CHECK FOR VIZ

JunkCharts Trifecta Checkup

What is the

practical

question?

What does

the data

say?

What does

the chart

say?

A RANDOM EXAMPLE

SKETCH TIME AN ACTIVITY

AN EXAMPLE

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Find a partner.

2. Review your data tables.

3. Sketch your viz for the

audience that you’ve been

assigned.

A STARTING GUIDE TO CHOOSING A CHART TYPE

TAILORING YOUR DATA VIZ TO A SPECIFIC AUDIENCE AND CONTEXT AN EXAMPLE FROM THE TANZANIA 2010 DEMOGRAPHIC AND HEALTH SURVEY

ACTIVITY

Example 1: A condom distributor in Tanzania wants to improve marketing and asks: who are the main users of condoms in Tanzania?

EXAMPLE 1

VERSION 1

EXAMPLE 1

VERSION 2

EXAMPLE 1

ATTEMPT 3

EXAMPLE 1

ATTEMPT 4

AN ACTIVITY SHARING TIME

AN EXAMPLE

DATA VIZ RESOURCES

PROCESS

RESOURCES

WHERE TO FIND…

BOOKS & ARTICLES

EXAMPLES

TOOLS

COMMUNITIES

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

ARTICLES

NEW DIRECTIONS IN

EVALUATION

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

TOOLS

INFOGR.AM

TOOLS

PIKTOCHART

TOOLS

EASEL.LY

TOOLS

TABLEAU 8.1

BUT A WORD OF CAUTION…

Just because you can built a graph doesn’t mean it’s the right fit.

NETWORK MAPS

GEPHI

NODE XL

UCINET

COMMUNITIES

DATAVIZHUB.CO

COMMUNITIES

QUESTIONS

APLIC