(These aren’t the exact numbers, age ranges, or years. But you get the idea.)

She already knew how to make population pyramids in Excel. Population pyramids require Level 4 vizardy skills. Woohoo!

But she wanted to take the population pyramid a step further, and she wanted to show how the population might change over time, especially for older adults.

So, she followed this online tutorial to add those curvy lines. (Yep, it’s made with a combo chart in Excel.)

Bare-Minimum Edits

As usual, we tackled the bare-minimum edits first:

• We removed the legend and directly labeled the data, which helps the graph pass “Big A Accessibility” rules (a.k.a. 508/ADA compliance).
• We nudged the bars closer together by reducing the gap width to make more of a smoothed-out histogram.
• We outlined the touching filled-in rectangles in white, a small detail that helps with grayscale printing.
• We used fewer colors. Before, there were 4 different hues: for 2020 males, 2030 males, 2020 females, and 2030 females. That’s a lot to keep track of! Instead, we color-coded by category (one hue for males, and another hue for females).

We also tried color-coding by year, instead of color-coding by sex, like this:

We were getting closer!

But we wanted to make sure that the forecasted numbers for 2030 were extremely obvious to viewers. For most of us, this isn’t a chart type that we see every day.

I was hesitant to keep the combo chart. This was an apples-to-apples comparison, so I wanted to use all bars.

(The bars/lines combo seemed more like an apples-to-oranges comparison, which this isn’t.)

Small Multiples Population Pyramids

Here’s a Dataviz Rule of Thumb:

Anytime your graph feels too dense… try creating more graphs.

Small multiples layouts can save the day!

The Traditional Version

We tried traditional and storytelling versions of a small multiples population pyramid.

Here’s what the traditional version would look like inside her report.

You’ll notice the topical titles, color-coding by category (one hue per year), and how the graphs are all one color.

The Storytelling Version

And here’s what the storytelling version would look like inside her report.

This version draws attention to the 65+ age group, which she wanted.

You’ll notice the takeaway title, the color-coding by category (one hue per year), the dark-light contrast (highlighting the residents who are ages 65+), and the annotations.

The Bottom Line

Even with the bare-minimum edits, I wasn’t a fan of the original combo chart. The bar-line combo was suggesting an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Instead, anytime your chart feels too dense (when there are literally lines and bars combined within one chart), try a small multiples layout instead!

We can format the chart as a traditional or storytelling version. In this case, storytelling was a perfect fit because we especially wanted to highlight the 65+ age group.

The post How to Visualize Population Projections with Small Multiples Population Pyramids appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

Maybe the numbers simply went up over time. Or down.

Other times, it’s more complicated.

Here’s how to explain multiple takeaway messages in presentations: with multiple slides, one per takeaway message.

Before: Everything Smushed on One Slide

Here’s what I typically see: lots of possible takeaway messages shoved into a single graph on a single slide.

The presenter says something like this:

“Next, let’s talk about gonorrhea diagnoses in our state. We’re looking at the number of diagnoses per 100,000 people. We’re also looking at age ranges. This is the person’s age when they were diagnosed with gonorrhea. We’ve got five years’ worth of data: from 2018 through 2022. Let’s look at a few key findings. Gonorrhea diagnoses were highest for people in their early twenties. In 2020, for example, there were 735 gonorrhea diagnoses per 100,000 people ages 20-24 in our state. Gonorrhea was lowest for ages 40-49. In 2022, for example, there were 88 diagnoses per 100,000 people ages 40-49 in our state. Here’s another pattern we found: Gonorrhea diagnoses generally went up from 2018 through 2020. For the three younger age groups, at least. And, gonorrhea diagnoses went down from 2021 to 2022 for all age groups.”

And while you’re talking through allllllll those numbers and age ranges and timeframes, the audience only sees this:

You see the problem, right??

The presenter is talking about one thing… but the audience is probably looking at something else.

That’s the very definition of Death by PowerPoint.

After: Describing One Takeaway Message at a Time with Multiple Slides

Instead, let’s use multiple slides!

We’re aiming for a single takeaway message per slide.

That way, what we say = what the audience sees.

There should be a perfect cohesion between sight and sound.

The presentation would look and sound like this:

“Next, let’s talk about gonorrhea diagnoses in our state. We’re looking at the number of diagnoses per 100,000 people.”

“We’re also looking at age ranges. This is the person’s age when they were diagnosed with gonorrhea.”

“We’ve got five years’ worth of data: from 2018 through 2022.”

“Here are the patterns at a glance. Next, let’s look at a few key findings.”

“Gonorrhea diagnoses were highest for people in their early twenties. In 2020, for example, there were 735 gonorrhea diagnoses per 100,000 people ages 20-24 in our state.”

“Gonorrhea was lowest for ages 40-49. In 2022, for example, there were 88 diagnoses per 100,000 people ages 40-49 in our state.”

“Here’s another pattern we found: Gonorrhea diagnoses generally went up from 2018 through 2020. For the three younger age groups, at least.”

“And, gonorrhea diagnoses went down from 2021 to 2022 for all age groups.”

Finally, you’d show the “full” graph again, pausing for questions and a discussion.

The Bottom Line: Use More Slides!!!

We’re not making the presentation longer. We’re speaking for the same amount of time as before.

We’re not rushing or slurring our words. We’re speaking at the same pace as before.

We’re not wasting paper or ink. These are the slides shown on screen during a presentation. If you want to print something, just print the “full” graph (which is slide 462 in the screenshot below).

We’re syncing our words and visuals.

We’re keeping our audience’s attention.

Because if they’re not even paying attention… How will they possibly understand, remember, and use the findings for decision making?!

The post When Graphs Have Multiple Takeaway Messages appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

Are you lucky enough to have historical data at your fingertips?! Woohoo! What a treat.

Let’s weigh the pros and cons of a few different viz options.

The Table

Here’s what their tabulated data looked like, sort of.

Let’s pretend we’re looking at the number of doctor’s appointments that took place within their healthcare system.

That’s not the real variable, and these aren’t their real numbers, but you get the idea: They wanted to visualize patterns over the past four years.

Before: 1 Graph per Year

Here’s what their initial visualization looked like: a separate graph for each year.

Idea 1: Lonnng Column Chart with Bare-Minimum Edits

First, let’s tackle the Quick Wins, a.k.a. the Bare Minimum edits for branding and “Big A” Accessibility:

• Brand colors and fonts
• Darker font for better color contrast
• Sized for a slide (size 18-point font, 13 inches wide, 5 inches tall)
• Arranged left to right, rather than a grid
• “Grouped” all the graphs together for easier copying and pasting into a slide
• Horizontal text only
• Consistent scales to make comparisons across graphs easier
• Fewer demarcations on the y-axis (one label every 25,000 units)
• Changed the y-axis to a “number” format so that a zero appears at the bottom, not just a dash
• Then, only showing the left-most y-axis
• Wider columns, a.k.a. a smaller gap width

It felt inefficient to keep four separate graphs — too much extra work to align everything and then group everything — so I turned this into a single column chart.

Yep, I had to rearrange the four tables into one table in order to transform the four graphs into one graph. At the bottom of this blog post, you’ll see a link to download my Excel file so you can explore the behind-the-scenes tables and graphs for yourself.

Idea 2: Lonnng Column Chart with Data Storytelling

I’ve written about spoken about traditional vs. storytelling graphs a lot over the past decade. If these terms are new, then you can watch the most recent public-facing conference talk here.

In this version, I intentionally used data storytelling. This data was intended for a busy upper-management office, and leaders often prefer when we cut to the chase, instead of burying them in graphs that don’t say anything.

The presentation slide might look something like this:

• A takeaway slide title
• The topical graph title underneath
• Dark-light contrast
• Labels only on the columns of interest – for September and October

And no, I don’t love how the September labels are right-aligned while the October labels are centered, but this probably isn’t the winning approach, so who cares.

Idea 3: Lonnng Line Chart with Data Storytelling

Another option is a line chart with gray shading for the peaks.

Yes, this is a combo chart in Excel.

The presentation slide would look like this:

Idea 4: Single Line Chart with Data Storytelling

A final option is a single line chart that stretches from January to December, with each year’s data “stacked.”

Comparing All 4 Ideas

My favorite is Idea 4 because we can easily see the seasonal peaks.

Which one is your favorite, and why? Comment below.

This isn’t an exhaustive list.

Can you think of additional options? Comment below.

Giving a Powerful Presentation

Idea 4 is a sort-of dense graph — and it’s definitely a spaghetti line graph, so we’ve gotta continue adjusting it.

We’ll want to present it piecemeal to match our speaking points.

Otherwise, our audience will die of boredom.

Our bosses will wonder why they hired us.

And nobody will be able to make data-driven decisions based on the data… because while we’re explaining one piece, they’re looking at something else (the very definition of Death by PowerPoint).

The meeting might sound something like this:

I hope you enjoy my kindergarten photoshopping skills.

PowerPoint’s animation works fine for bullet points.

But, to “animate” graphs to match our voice, it’s usually easiest to create a bunch of different slides.

Download My Excel File

Want to explore how I made each graph?

You can download my spreadsheet here.

The post How to Visualize Multi-Year Patterns appeared first on Depict Data Studio.