Graphical Presentation of Data in Reports

Dr Peter Kappen

Acting Principal Scientist – XAS

Overview

• Pictures and storytelling

• The Council – Examples of Story & Audience

• The Council – Examples of Relevance & Form

• Embedding in the text

• Australian Synchrotron

A picture is worth a thousand words

Pictures tell stories

“pictures” in corporate communication

= graphs, charts, diagrams, photos/images

graphical communication

= speaking to the audience; storytelling

Here: Focus on what we can do with MS Office products

= content first, form later

Story & Audience

or

“WHY am I telling this story”

Story & Audience – Tailoring to suit

Scenario:

The Council organises an annual “iExercise” at the local sports ground to promote community health.

This year’s event was a big success; >450 people attended.

Report to show the geographical spread of attendees.

The Council comprises 5 wards (North, East, South, West, Centre). Each ward is divided into a few neighbourhoods.

3520

13

47

38

41

3835

38

51

30

31

40 Upper MiddleMiddleLower UpperMountain AshMeadowsLavenderVinyardBloombergLands EndBeachsideShellsSaddletonMarket

Story & Audience – Tailoring to suit

iExercise – Attendees by Neighbourhood

Here: Audience / story = local (residents, Council).

68

85

114

119

71 North

East

South

West

Centre

Story & Audience – Tailoring to suit

iExercise – Attendees by Ward

Here: Audience / story = “global” (organisers, Council, State Govt.)

Tailoring to the audience

Key questions to keep asking:

1. Why am I reporting this?

2. What is the story?

3. Who is the audience?

Caveat: There is a difference between displaying data to tell a fact and displaying data to manipulate or twist a message.

Relevance & Form

2010 2011 2012 2013525

550

575

600

625

650

Requests received

Requests resolved

Year

No

. of

req

ue

sts

Relevance & Form

The Council – Report on the rate of customer service requests resolved

This story: Improving performance.

2010 2011 2012 20130

150

300

450

600

750

Requests received

Requests resolved

Year

No

. of

req

ue

sts

Relevance & Form

The Council – Report on the rate of customer service requests resolved

This story: Consistently high number of requests received.

2010 2011 2012 20130

150

300

450

600

750

Requests received

Requests resolved

Year

No

. of

req

ue

sts

Relevance & Form

The Council – Report on the rate of customer service requests resolved

This story: KPI tracking and improvement + Consistently high number of requests received.

88% 94% 97% 96%

2010 2011 2012 20130

150

300

450

600

750

Requests received

Requests resolved

Year

No

. of

req

ue

sts

Relevance & Form

What is wrong with this plot?

88% 94% 97% 96%

2010 2011 2012 20130

150

300

450

600

750

Requests received

Requests resolved

Year

No

. of

req

ue

sts

Relevance & Form

What is wrong with this plot?

88% 94% 97% 96%

Style versus relevance: What does the extra style element add ?

2010 2011 2012 20130

150

300

450

600

750

Requests received

Requests resolved

Year

No

. of

req

ue

sts

Relevance & Form

Form: Anatomy of a plot.

axis labels

scaling to relevance

concise

legend

“no-frills” formatting;

relevance of style elements

Tailoring the form

Fit the form to the story

1. Why am I reporting this?

2. What is the story?

3. Who is the audience?

and

4. What style elements are required ( story)?

5. What visual effects are required ( story; audience)?

Caveat: There is a difference between displaying data to tell a factand displaying data to manipulate or twist a message.

Embedding in the text

Best practices (in science):

• Figures are numbered consecutively and each has a caption

Figure 9:Number of service requests received and resolved since 2010. The percentage values show the fraction of requests resolved; target value (KPI) is 95%. See text for further information.

2010 2011 2012 20130

150

300

450

600

750

Requests received

Requests resolved

Year

No

. of

req

ue

sts

88% 94% 97% 96%

Embedding in the text

Best practices (in science):

• Explicit reference in the text

• Figure supports the argument and saves words

“Figure 9 highlights Council’s strong improvement in responding to customer service requests since 2010. The target (KPI) of 95% resolution rate has been met since 2012. The data also shows a continuously high community usage of Council services. […]”

Example: Australian Synchrotron

Australian Synchrotron:

• located in Melbourne’s SE(City of Monash)

• National research facility

• Interdisciplinary across many fields of research

• Relevant to industry

Mission Benefit to the community

photo: Australian Synchrotron

123

635

5283

18754

1822

236306

431 ACT

NSW

NT

QLD

SA

TAS

VIC

WA

New Zealand

Other O/S (42x)

National Research Organisation

Researchers by Geography

Community Connection – FY2012/13

bad Cr

Contaminated site: Hazardous chromium

OK Cr

mix of bad Cr + OK Cr

use synchrotron to:

identify mix ratio identify Cr species

(compounds) in mix develop remediation

strategy

photo courtesy of: ERM Melbourne

Conclusion

• The Big Why

• Three key questions (content):– Why am I reporting this?– What is the story?– Who is my audience?

• Style to match the story (“Content first, form later”)

• Embedding in text: Captions and numbers are good practice

• LGPro and Conference Organisers

• Australian Synchrotron User Office

Thanks!