But there isn’t one thing that’ll completely transform your dataviz.

There are a dozen tiny details:

What’s Inside

• 0:00 Welcome
• 1:04 Borders
• 1:15 Scale and Grid Lines
• 1:59 Branding
• 2:07 Categorical Colors
• 2:33 Color Contrast
• 3:13 Increased Font Size
• 3:26 Text Hierarchy
• 4:01 Mixed Case
• 4:08 Left-Aligned Text
• 4:19 Smaller Gap Width
• 4:48 White Space
• 5:08 Margins
• 5:31 Before-After Summary
• 6:02 Questions?

The post A Dozen Tiny Differences that Completely Transform Your Dataviz appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

Today, it’s live!

You can listen here: https://em360tech.com/podcast/breaking-barriers-data-visualization

This is a short listen (15 min) with some techniques that are hopefully super obvious if you’ve been following my work for a while.

It’s also a good one to forward to colleagues who are just learning about dataviz and accessibility.

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction

00:54 – Defining Accessibility in Data Visualization

02:17 – Big A Accessibility Tips

06:36 – Little a Accessibility Strategies

12:28 – The Future of Data Accessibility

The post Podcast: Breaking Barriers with Accessible Data Visualization appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

Short answer: YES.

Long answer: Let’s do an official color contrast check: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/

You’ll also see how to fix it.

What’s Inside

0:00 Intro to Yellow on Red Example from Workshop

0:16 The Short Answer (Avoid Color on Color)

0:29 The Long Answer (Color Contrast Check)

1:35 Rules for Regular vs. Large Text

2:05 How Do We Fix It??

2:43 The Before-After Difference

The post Color on Color – Is This Readable??? Short Answer (NO!) & Long Answer (Official Contrast Checker) appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

Color-coding by category is greater.

But avoid using those brand colors as body font within paragraphs.

Colored font is okay for headers, but not for the body.

What’s Inside

0:00 Intro

0:31 Before: Example from a Public Workshop

1:33 After: Dark Dark Dark Gray Body Font

2:21 The Before-After Difference

The post STOP!!! Using Colored Body Font appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

Technical tables have so much value, especially as visual appendices for reports.

In this blog post, you’ll get ideas for bringing your technical tables to life.

Before

Here’s what the “before” version of some technical tables looked like.

These are made-up numbers, but you get the idea.

The public health staff wanted to look at quarterly numbers, the total annual number, and the rate (the number of cases per 100,000 live births).

Even if you’re not measuring neonatal abstinence syndrome, I bet there are numbers that you track each quarter. You might even want to look at the total annual number, too. Get some inspiration from this blog post, and then adapt the ideas to your own workplace.

Re-Created in Excel

First, I re-made their table in good ol’ Excel.

The finished product will be a PDF, but the most efficient way to bring technical tables to life is to keep the numbers inside Excel the entire time. We’re not going to transfer anything to Word.

Declutter

Let’s tackle the easy edits, such as:

• removing all the borders;
• adding back just the gray horizontal borders;
• removing the background fill; and
• left-aligning the text and right-aligning the numbers.

Add Trendlines

We’ll bring the quarterly trends to life with sparklines.

Add Bars

We’ll bring the annual totals to life with data bars:

We’ll bring the rates to life with data bars, too:

Brand Colors & Brand Fonts

Time to format!

We’ll apply brand colors and brand fonts:

We’ll color-code the text to match the bars.

(Sometimes the table’s columns get so narrow that it’s tricky to tell which number corresponds to which bar. That’s where color-coding comes to the rescue.)

As a general rule of thumb, colored font should be bold so that it passes 508/ADA color contrast guidelines.

Text Hierarchy & Intro Sentences

A text hierarchy means the title should be largest, boldest, and darkest so that it’s easiest to spot. (Followed by H1s and H2s if we had them.) We’re developing a hierarchy of information so our readers can stay organized.

As a general rule of thumb, I make sure headings are twice as big as body font. The body font is size 11, so this title is size 22 and bold.

We’ll also add intro sentences, and move that footnote info about the asterisks to the top. (People need to read that sentence before the table, not after.)

PDF- and Printer-Friendly

We’ve kept everything in Excel — that’s the only way to add the spark lines and data bars, and pasting tables into Word is a waste of time — but the final version will be shared with others as a PDF.

In the real version of this project, the PDF was about 15 pages long. There were various tabulations on various topics, not just neonatal abstinence syndrome.

We’ll need to:

• set the Print Area;
• adjust the Page Layout (portrait to landscape for easier on-screen reading);
• adjust the margins (0.5 to 1 inches is sufficient);
• add contact info and a logo so people can get in touch with questions; and
• adjust the column widths and row heights so everything fits juuust right.

Optional: Sort by Rates, Not Alphabetically

Finally, we might choose to sort the table by the most important column (rates, in this example) instead of alphabetically by county name.

I’m usually a fan of sorting. But I’m on the fence here. I also see the value in the leaving the counties alphabetized so readers can search for their own county. Hmm.

The Final Version

The visuals help us spot the patterns (thanks, Picture Superiority Effect).

The branding will help us look more professional to outside audiences (so we don’t look Frankensteined — when all our colleagues use different colors and fonts, and we put everything together in one doc, and it’s a hot mess).

The PDF’d appendices can be merged with the PDF’d report (thanks, Adobe Acrobat).

The Before-After Transformation

Once you’ve got intermediate/advanced Excel vizardry skills, the whole process will take less than an hour.

Really, this should take you less than 15 minutes!

If not, you’ll simply need to brush up on your Excel skills.

Dataviz is supposed to be fast and easy.

Bonus: Download the Materials

Want to explore my spreadsheet? Download my Excel file and adapt it for your own project.

The post How to Bring Your Technical Tables to Life appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

The graph title tells us which line is which.

In dataviz lingo, we call it “embedding the legend” in the graph title.

What a clever style!

But it’s not colorblind-friendly or grayscale-friendly.

Let’s compare embedded legends (on the left, YUCK) with direct labels (on the right, YAY).

Not Legible for Colorblind People

Although embedding the legend in the graph title is popular, it’s not colorblind-friendly.

Here’s a preview of what the two styles would look like for someone with red-green colorblindness. (I uploaded a screenshot to https://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/.)

If you’re required to follow 508 compliance in your workplace (if your project is funded by the U.S. Federal government), then embedding the legend in the graph title isn’t 508 compliant, either.

One of the 508 guidelines goes something like this: Viewers shouldn’t have to rely on color alone to understand the graphic.

In the embedded legend version, we are asking our audience to rely on color alone. Oops! That’s where the direct labels save the day.

“But Ann, just choose colors that are colorblind-friendly!”

No no no no. I don’t think we should be choosing random colors for our graphs.

I want you to use your organization’s brand colors in your graphs. Brand colors remove guesswork. No more sitting down to think about which colors look like. Brand colors also help us avoid Frankensteined graphs. No more pages 1-5 of your document in colors that Bob likes, followed by pages 6-10 in colors that Joe likes.

Not Legible in Grayscale

Embedding the legend isn’t grayscale-printing friendly, either. We wouldn’t want our audience to guess which shade of gray is which.

(Again, I uploaded a screenshot to https://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/.)

How to Directly Label Graphs in Excel, PowerPoint, or Word

“Ann, how do I directly label the graph in Excel??”

I don’t recommend using text boxes. They’re such a pain! It takes forever to add the text boxes, align them, and group them. When we re-size the graph—making it taller or smaller, for example—the text boxes have to be re-aligned. Ugh.

There’s a better way.

Add the Numeric Labels

In today’s example, I’m using PowerPoint. You can do this through Excel and Word, too.

And in today’s example, I’m labeling the endpoints. Sometimes labeling every. single. point. pulls our audience into the weeds when we need them to be thinking at a higher, strategic level.

Here’s how to add percentages to the endpoints.

Click on the line once. All the dots will be selected.

Click on the right-most point again. Only the right-most point will be selected.

Right-click on that right-most point. On the pop-up window, choose Add Data Label. It should be singular (Add Data Label) and not plural (Add Data Labels). If you see the plural version, it means you’ve still got all the points selected.

Then, do the same thing to the left-most point.

Don’t forget to move the label to the left of the point.

Here’s how: Once you’ve got the percentage label, click on it again, twice. Right-click and choose Format Data Label. In the sidebar, go to Label Position and choose Left.

Repeat the steps to add percentages to the other lines.

Color-Code the Labels to Match the Lines

This is an extra visual cue for our audience. We want them to know which label belongs with which line.

Click on the labels to activate them.

Go to the Home tab and change the font color just as you normally would.

Make sure that colored fonts are bold, not regular. A good rule of thumb for color contrast accessibility is that colored fonts should be bold.

(It’s harder to read colored font than black font, so the way we make the colored font easier to read is to make the letters thicker. You can learn more about color contrast rules at https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/.)

Add the Category Label

Click on that right-most percentage, twice.

Right-click and choose Format Data Label.

Check the box for either Series Name or Category Name. (Series Name vs. Category Name depends on how your data table is organized. Just check and uncheck the boxes until you get the right label.)

Make sure to un-check the Leader Lines box, too. Otherwise you’ll get cluttered connecting lines later on.

Make Sure the Labels Fit

The wrapped text is awkward and hard to read.

We need to make the graph wider.

Sometimes I need to expand the interior of the chart, too. In Excel lingo, this inner border is called the Plot Area.

It looks like this:

Adjust the Separator

This step is optional.

The “separator” is the comma, period, space, or new line that separates the percentage from the words.

In this example, I’m going to use New Line. The percentage will be on one line, and the words will be on a second line. (I’m controlling the text wrapping.)

To adjust the separator: Click on the right-most label, twice. Right-click and choose Format Label. Go to the Separator drop-down menu.

You’ll see me widening the label, too.

Left-Align the Label

Left-aligned text is faster to read than centered text.

And, left alignment ensures that the label is right beside the line.

Simply select the label, go to the Home tab, and use the alignment button.

Change Which Comes First: The Percentage or the Words

This step is optional.

We can change which comes first (well, which one’s on top): the percentage or the words.

Kudos to Nick Visscher for teaching me this tip!

Here’s how: You double-click within the label until you see the gray fill around the percentages/words. Then, on the drop-down menu, select which element should come first or second.

That was a lot of steps, sheesh!

I covered them as thoroughly and slowly as possible. In real life, once you get the hang of it, this would take 60 seconds from start to finish.

The Bottom Line

Embedding the legend is fine.

But it’s not enough on its own.

We also need to directly label the data.

Download the Spreadsheet

Want to explore the graph a bit more? You can download my Excel spreadsheet here: https://depictdatastudio.gumroad.com/l/EmbeddedLegendsArentEnough

The post Embedded Legends Aren’t Enough appeared first on Depict Data Studio.