If you work in global health as I do, that statement needs no explanation.

For anyone who is not sure what I mean by that: when I took the class, a key challenge was trying to synthesize and summarize abundant global health data into actionable information products. I fretted about how to convince colleagues to use our project’s branding and data visualization guidelines, how to get them to attach the label to the line on a line graph rather than in a legend somewhere else on the graph. I took for granted the global health resources like the Demographic Health Surveys.

A few months after taking the course, USAID was dismantled, and funding was slashed for many other federal government agencies. Dozens and dozens of my friends and former colleagues lost their jobs.

Meanwhile, much of the hyperbolic hype around AI makes it seem like all knowledge workers are going to be replaced soon.

In this climate, it might seem superfluous to talk about tips and tricks for making reports more appealing.

I’ll offer two examples of useful things I learned during the course, one simple and one more theoretical.

Fewer Colors

The first is simple but powerful.

I admired the clean design that I saw in Ann’s communications.

My designs, in comparison, seemed too cluttered.

During the class I realized that it was because Ann uses a limited color palette and largely uses colors gradations in graphs rather than using many different colors.

Templates to Create Structure

I decided to take Report Redesign because I was being asked to help write and design policy briefs, but I had never learned how to do that.

I thought the course would empower me to make suggestions– even though it wasn’t exactly the focus of the course – and it did!

The course materials included templates, and the tutorials explained how to create templates. It is a huge time-saver to start with template rather than developing each product from the blank page. 

Using those as inspiration, I developed simple PowerPoint templates and an accompanying worksheet to help teams brainstorm their key messages and decide how to present them visually.

My team has shared these resources during several webinars, and colleagues have said that they appreciated the straightforward guidance. 

I am glad I took the Report Redesign class, and I would encourage others to take it as well.

There will always be a need to communicate data clearly and accurately.

The class is a great balance of theory and practice.

The time allotted is enough to learn hands-on skills but still a reasonable time commitment for people with full-time jobs.

Connect with Emma Williams

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-williams-7144aa7/

The post Fewer Colors & Report Templates by Emma Williams appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

I’d go to the public library, grab a dog-eared book off the shelf, and flip through the grayscale images trying to match the author’s screenshots to my own computer.

They were always using a different version of Excel than me.

I couldn’t find the buttons from their blurry screenshots.

I had to zig-zag my eyes back and forth between the book and my screen.

That’s how I learned Excel. And it was terrible.

Introducing the Excel How-To’s Templates

That’s why I spent hours and days and weeks making the Excel How-To’s templates for you.

Rather than having a separate book open, you’ll learn directly from Excel.

All the instructions are typed directly into Excel for you – alongside the living, breathing graphs – so you can save precious time.

Or, if you’re not interested in learning all the how-to steps, you can use the completed templates for your own project. There are notes telling you exactly where to type your own numbers and percentages so that they’ll show up in the finalized charts. No need to reinvent the wheel.

What’s Inside: 31 Templates

There are 31 templates so far.

I make updates and additions a few times a year, and send the latest Zip folder to everyone to make sure they’ve always got the latest version.

Chart Chooser

In addition to the graphing instructions, you’ll see my 2-page Chart Chooser, which’ll help you narrow down which chart to try.

Theme Colors and Theme Fonts

You’ll also get step-by-step instructions for setting up your organization’s brand colors and brand fonts. Themes save time and help you look professional.

Available In

Inside each template, you’ll learn which version of Excel that chart’s available in.

Most charts can be made on most computers.

There are some exceptions here and there, which is why it’s explicitly spelled out for you.

Uses

You’ll learn what that chart type’s best for.

And, I’ve added notes about where that chart is most or least common. In practice, we don’t see every chart in every workplace. Some charts are pretty much only seen in peer-reviewed journal articles. Other charts are pretty much only used by accountants. And so on.

Real-Life Examples

Inside each of the templates, you’ll see links real-life examples. Then, you can see how that chart has been used in reports, slideshows, dashboards, infographics, and websites by other agencies like yours.

Before-After Editing Example

Then, you’ll get a preview of the before-after transformation that you’re about to create.

For example, in the bump chart tutorial, you’ll transform a regular ol’ line chart into a ranking chart.

Below, you’ll get ideas for how you’d adapt that busy bump chart for a presentation (by graying everything out and highlighting one category at a time).

Step 1: Set Up the Table

You’ll walk through step-by-step instructions to make and edit all the 31 charts.

Step 1 is setting up your data table that’ll feed into the chart.

For native charts – bar charts, pie charts, line charts, etc. – the table set-up is extremely straightforward.

But for non-native charts, we have to get creative.

For example, in the population pyramid tutorial, you’ll see:

• the original table, and
• the magic table.

I’ve added notes to help you figure out what goes where.

The gray area gets pulled directly into the chart, so those are the values you’ll tweak when you’re making population pyramids for your own projects.

Step 2: Insert a ___ Chart

As we’re building non-native charts, we have to fool Excel.

We often insert one chart type… and disguise it to look like a different chart.

This took me nights and weekends, over several years, to figure out on my own. Let’s get you up to speed immediately! No need to waste your time fighting with Excel on your nights and weekends.

You’ll see explicit instructions about which chart type to add.

For example, to create a waffle chart (a.k.a. square pie), you’ll need to insert a 100% stacked bar chart first.

Step 3 (and onward): Format Format Format

This is where you’ll learn about Excel’s lesser-known features.

For example, you’ll learn how to adjust the primary and secondary axes’ Series Overlap and Gap Width, which makes our bars overlap.

I don’t find these edits to be intuitive at all. Quite the opposite! That’s why I’ve added screenshots for you – so you don’t have to memorize which buttons to click.

Variations

Finally, you’ll see variations of each chart.

For example, in the dot plot tutorial, you’ll see how to set up:

• 2 sets of circles with a line connecting them
• 2 sets of circles without a line connecting them
• 1 set of circles (a lollipop)
• Smaller dots with labels above or beside the dots
• Arrows
• Arrows, sorted (my personal fav)

Get the Excel How-To’s Templates

They’re included with your Data Storytelling in Excel tuition.

The post Take of Tour of the “Excel How-To’s” Templates appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

It’s *not* easy to make dot plots in Excel.

These are non-native charts — meaning we’ll have to reconfigure our table, and use a scatter plot(!) — to trick Excel into making our dot plot.

The learning curve is worth it, promise.

Download the Excel File

It’s here: https://depictdatastudio.ck.page/dumbbelldotplots

What’s Inside

• 0:00 How to Make Dumbbell Dot Plots in Excel
• 0:25 Dataviz On The Go
• 0:33 Dot Plots are Non-Native Charts
• 1:03 It’s a Scatterplot (?!?!)
• 1:50 Pep Talk for the Perfectionists
• 3:23 Live Drawing Demo
• 6:59 Color-Code Your Table
• 7:08 Stack Your Table
• 7:43 Add “Y” Values
• 8:28 Sort and Put the “Y’s” Next to Each Other
• 9:09 Insert a Scatterplot with Straight Lines and Markers
• 9:45 Ack!
• 9:52 Remove the Lightning Bolt
• 11:02 Format Format Format
• 11:46 Your Turn: Questions? Comments?
• 12:05 A Personal Note

Transcript

[00:00:00] In this tutorial, I’m going to try to teach you how to make dumbbell dot plots in Excel.

I say “try” because, usually, in workshops, this takes about 30 minutes to teach, and everybody’s got laptops, and I demo a skill, and they practice, and I demo, and they practice, and it’s a captive audience.

On YouTube, everybody wants things really, really quickly, and I don’t know if I can cram this into five minutes.

… … , we might need 10, though.

You’re watching Dataviz on the Go with me, Ann Emery. Because you’re busy, I’m busy, let’s get to it with some jet speed tutorials.

Now, the first thing you’re going to notice about dumbbell dot plots is, when you highlight your table and you go up to insert, just like you normally would to add a new chart, you can look all day long…

You are not going to find a dumbbell dot plot up there. It is not here. It is not here. It’s not there.

It is not a built in chart. It is not a native chart. It’s a non native chart.

That doesn’t mean we can’t make it, but we have to do some behind the [00:01:00] scenes magic tricks to make it happen.

So we’re going to choose a similar chart, similar ish, kind, kind of, kind of not, right?

The scatterplot, the scatterplot especially with the straight connecting lines. We’re going to use a scatterplot as the foundation. And we’re going to disguise it and make it look like a dot plot.

This is a very advanced, very sophisticated, very brain bending way of thinking about Excel. It’s a scatterplot that looks like a dot plot.

So what that’s going to mean is we have to assign each of these dots X, Y coordinates, which means our table, like this, It’s going to have to be totally reconfigured and that’s going to be a little bit tricky to figure out, but that’s why I’m here to walk you through it.

So if you’re a perfectionist, please go easy on yourself. Just give yourself a break. There is a learning curve here. This is not an easy chart type at all, but it’s worth it. I [00:02:00] just, please keep going. Please, please, please.

And if you’re tired, like I clearly am just scroll down below the video, because I’m going to give you this spreadsheet with the template that I’m using so you can just download it and just punch in your numbers and not have to start from scratch. So you don’t have to fight with Excel so much.

All right, let’s keep going. Let’s transform our original table into a magic reconfigured table.

The first thing we’ve got to do though, especially the first few times you’re doing this is You’ve got to sketch it, please, please don’t skip this step. You need to draw out your dot plot and figure out where each dot’s going to go so that later as you’re making it, you can compare and say, “wait, is this in the right spot?””

No, I need to sort my table different.” “Wait, I think this is going wrong.” And you can kind of diagnose your own errors that are going on as you’re learning.

So I’m going to use my draw feature on my computer, but you might just use a good old paper and pencil when you draw your dot plots.

Okay, so let’s draw this out and I’m going to show you how it’s [00:03:00] a scatter plot with XY coordinates, that is ultimately gonna look like a dot plot.

Okay? That’s the most important thing for you to remember. It’s a scatter plot that looks like a dot plot. And then the other thing is just draw it. Please. Please,

Alright, let’s draw it. So first we’re gonna draw our xy. Okay, this looks like eighth grade math class, doesn’t it?

Here’s our x, y, x, y coordinates. That’s what a scatterplot has going on behind the scenes. Then you’re going to draw your scale.

This fictional scale goes from, uh, zero to ten. Yours in real life might go from zero to ten million. It might have percentages. It might have currency. This works with all the units. It doesn’t have to be zero to 10. It can be whatever your real life units are.

And then the height, uh, these are gonna be our categories that we’re comparing. We’re going to have category [00:04:00] A, B, C, D. I’m going to draw some grid lines in here. That’s why I’m using gray. And then let’s figure out where our dots go.

And remember, um, we’re just, I’m just drawing this. Okay. I’ve already made the finished version to show you where we’re heading, but in real life, you’d be like, what, where, what is this going to look like with my numbers and my percentages?

Okay. And let’s be consistent. Um, I think, what do I have group one in green? Yeah. Let’s always do group one in green. Let’s always do group two in purple. We’re going to use Mardi Gras colors. Why not? Why not? Consistent color coding absolutely is going to help your brain to figure this out. So please do this as you’re sketching on your own paper.

Uh, group one, let’s do those in green. Group two, we’ll do in purple.

Let’s draw out our dots and then we’re going to assign them X, Y coordinates. So that first 8. 1, where is that going to [00:05:00] go? It’s going to go over on the X, 8. And then it’s, it’s the A, so it’s going to go right here. Okay. That’s that dot and let’s assign it an XY coordinate. So that is eight.

What is it? 8. 1. That’s my X comma, the Y. is, it goes up, one, two, three, four. Let me write that out for you just to make it really easy to follow. One, two, three, four. It’s very hard to write with a mouse. 8. 1 comma four. Okay, the next one 5. 6 that goes over on the X about this far, but that’s about where the 5.

6 would be. And then it goes, that’s 5. 6. It goes up on our, [00:06:00] like, Y, Y in air quotes, right? Our fictional Y, our placeholder Y, it goes up three. Let’s do maybe one or two more. Uh, the 4. 5. Okay. So it goes over 4. 5. That’s approximately here. XY coordinates, 4. 5 comma 2. Yep. You’re right. And the next one is 8. 6.

That’s around here. 8. 6 up 1. You do the same thing for your purples. Uh, that’s a 5 around here. That is five comma four. This one is What is it? Oh, 2. 3. That’s around here. 1. 3, 4. 4. You get the gist of it? Okay. Draw it out so you can envision, like, where’s everything going? Did I get it right?

It takes about this long.

Next up, let’s take our original table and [00:07:00] we’re going to color code it. You’re just going to add some fill behind it, okay, to keep yourself all organized.

Then, we have to re orient, you’re just going to do a copy paste, you’re going to stack it. Instead of group 1, group 2, beside each other, you’re going to stack them.

You’re just going to say group 1, group 1, group 1, group 2, group 2, group 2, and, oops, this isn’t group, this is, this is your value, okay, which is also known as your X. Your X in quotes, cause it’s not a real X. It’s like the X value that we have to type into Excel to make this all, you know, work and be figured out behind the scenes.

All right. The next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to add some Y values. And again, this is supposed to be X. This is Y. Okay, so we’ve got the groups repeated, we’ve got the X’s, and then we’ve got the Y’s. Remember, we already figured out what the Y’s would be. Uh, here is another tip to make sure you’re doing it right.

[00:08:00] Figure out how many dots you’re going to have. It’s one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Okay. Eight dots means eight entries on your table. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Eight dots, eight entries, eight sets of X and Y coordinates. All right, let’s keep going. The next thing you’re going to do is you’re going to sort it and you’re going to put your Y’s next to each other.

So your fours are going to go together. Your threes are going to go together, your twos and your ones. Don’t overthink sorting. Okay. It just means you take your table with your X’s and your Y’s and you go to data and you go to sort and you say, I’m going to sort by my Y. And it doesn’t matter if you do smallest to largest or largest to smallest.

Okay. It doesn’t matter. It just means they have to be next to each other. Like here, the ones are next to each other. Okay. [00:09:00] Here, the fours are next to each other. Do you see how the color coding changed? It’s green, purple, green, purple now, right? The next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to highlight just the inside of the table, just the interior that I’ve made darker for you.

And I outlined it in black to make sure you can see it. You’re going to go to insert and you’re going to insert our. Scatterplot. If you want it to look like a dumbbell dot plot with a connecting line in there, you’re going to pick this one, the scatter with straight lines and markers. If you just want the dots by themselves, you can pick this one.

Okay. I wouldn’t pick wavy. That would be super weird. I wouldn’t pick this one. That scribble, scrabble. Okay, I’m going to do this one for us. And then you get the Harry Potter lightning bolt and you’re like, and, uh, that’s not what I wanted. That’s okay. We can remove the lightning bolt. It’s going to look more like this.

Can you start to see it? Can you see your dot plot to remove that connecting lightning bolt? Okay. So like, here’s the [00:10:00] connecting line I want to remove. It depends how your table is sorted of which dot you click on. It’s going to be either this dot or this dot. Okay. So you’re just going to try one. And if the wrong line is removed, you’re just going to click undo and you’re going to try again.

So let’s try this one. Okay. I’m going to click on this dot cause I’m going to guess that it controls this line. So if you click on this dot the first time, All of the points are selected. You click on it a second time so that just that dot’s there. You’re going to hold your mouse over that spot. You’re going to do a right click, go to outline and say, no outline.

No, thank you. Okay. Part of the lightning bolt’s gone. Let’s do it again. This dot controls this connecting line. Click on it once, twice, right click. Outline no outline. Okay, you’re gonna get in the rhythm of it. It’s just gonna take this long. Don’t don’t worry It’s really really quick. Okay, there’s your dot plot kind of right you have to [00:11:00] Format format format that takes a little bit more time Things to keep on your radar would be you can control the color of the dot You can add the, uh, labels right here.

I just added the group names in text boxes, but the labels are built in. Uh, you can do this fancy ways to add whatever your category labels are. Honestly, I usually just do text boxes because I find it’s actually, uh, faster in the long run. I should say I don’t do text boxes, plural. I do see one text box that I very carefully format so that it’s lined up with its grid line.

You’re going to adjust the min and the max as you need to. You might make the connecting line thicker. All the normal things. All the normal formatting things that I cover in all my other videos and blog posts. All right, it is your turn. Comment below the video. Let me know. Are you totally lost? Are you kind of following?

How are you feeling about this scatterplot into dotplot thing? Do you want the spreadsheet? It’s there. All right. Good luck. Good luck with [00:12:00] your dotplots. Please sketch. And have fun. Bye.

Finished the video. Made a quick dinner. Now we’re outside doing turkey trot training. I’m gonna try to run with the twins and the big guy.

Hi, big guy. Well, the girls, where are they? Running with daddy.

The post How to Make Dumbbell Dot Plots in Excel appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

We’ll call them the Statelandia Public Health Department.

Before

Here’s what their “before” version looked like.

The information on how many adults overall had been diagnosed with high blood pressure was tucked inside the title, while the graph focused on the breakdown by age group.

All the important details are there, hooray! But we all wanted more cohesion between the title and the graph.

Two Options for Visualizing “Overall” Data or Averages on Bar Charts

There are two primary ways to visualize our “overall” data or averages when we’re making bar or column charts.

The two options include:

1. Add a column. We can add intentional gaps between the “overall” data and the subgroups. In technical terms, the space is a preattentive attribute. Preattentive attributes help our audience recognize instantly that the overall vs. subgroups are a bit different.
2. Add a line. Another option is adding a line on top of the bars or columns. I’ve seen people add literal lines in Excel (Insert – Shape – Line). That works, but the fancier option is to use a Combo Chart in Excel. (If you’re not familiar with Combo Charts, you can download my template below.)

Let’s apply these two options to the blood pressure example.

Option 1: Visualize “Overall” Data by Adding a Column

I *think* this is my preferred approach. I’m still on the fence. Hmm…

A Few Quick Wins

I always start with Quick Wins. These edits can be tackled within minutes.

Quick Wins give us momentum so that we have mental energy to tackle the Not-So-Quick Wins.

Here’s what we edited:

• We changed the horizontal bar chart into a vertical column chart. Age groups are ordinal, and I generally try to arrange ordinal data from left to right. You can read more about my bar vs. column logic here, and you can learn how to make this quick rotation in Excel here.
• We rounded the decimal places to the nearest whole number. You can learn more about lowering the numeracy level of our graphs here.
• We moved the percentage labels inside the columns (so they don’t accidentally make the columns look taller than they really are).
• We decluttered the graph (removing gridlines, showing fewer increments on the y-axis, tucking the labels inside the columns, etc.).

Add an “Overall” Column with an Intentional Gap

Next, we added the “overall” data to the graph as its own column.

We also spaced the overall column apart from the others. These are separate types of data (an overall number is qualitatively different from a breakout by subgroups). They need to be arranged separately on the slide.

If you’re using Excel, simply add an empty row to the table that feeds into your graph.

You can learn more about adding intentional gaps in this blog post.

Adjust the Text Placement

Next, we moved around the text boxes.

All the important text was there — but in a single full-width text box.

We simply placed “like with like” — the overall text with the overall column, and the subgroup text with the subgroup columns.

We also moved the “year” data to the source at the bottom of the slide.

Bold the Key Words & Color-Code by Category

For extra skimmability, we bolded a few key words.

Then, we adjusted the colors. Separate colors for separate categories of information.

Color-coding by category is one of my all-time favorite dataviz techniques! You can see color-coding applied to one-pagers, recurring monthly reports, technical reports, and slideshows in these linked examples.

The final version would look like this:

Option 2: Visualizing “Overall” Data by Adding a Line

I love adding lines to visualize targets and goals.

We can add lines to visualize “overall” or “average” data, too.

BUT make sure to gray out something. Otherwise, the line chart gets messy.

You might gray out the columns, like this:

Or, you might gray out the line, like this:

Visualizing “Overall” Data on Line Charts

It’s easy to apply these techniques to line charts.

Just add another line!

Your Turn

Which approach is your favorite?

Adding a column?

Or adding a line?

And why?

For this case study, I prefer adding a column because it was easier to arrange the takeaway text in the right places (the takeaway text is simply above the columns). For the line charts, the takeaway text didn’t feel as seamless.

Comment below and share your own insights.

Bonus: Download My Spreadsheet

Not familiar with the intentional spacing in the bar chart?

Not familiar with the combo chart design in the line chart?

Download my spreadsheet here.

The post How to Visualize “Overall” Data or Averages in Bar Charts appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

I also had the good fortune of attending some of Ann’s in-person presentations about data visualization at a conference for Continuous Quality Improvement hosted by the California Department of Social Services, which had an unquantifiable impact on the personal project I will be sharing with you today. 

Although I signed up for learning from Ann to benefit my professional life, I was also able to apply the learnings in my personal sphere as you will see below! 

Although this example was in the personal realm, I think there are potentially a lot of other applications for visualizing data in this way.

The Challenge

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, my mom and aunt had to fire my grandma’s caregiver due to a personality mismatch and not being on the same page about grandma’s needs.  

This was the second time it happened in a few months and it seemed like part of the challenge was in the matching process and educating the caregivers about grandma’s unique needs, and her personality.

Getting Everyone on the Same Page

I wanted to do something to help, so I created a 11×17 one sheet introduction for the new caregiver with input from my grandma, auntie and mom. 

My grandma’s previous caregivers were not native English speakers, so I wanted to make something that was approachable, and also captured my grandma’s personality. 

I remembered in one of Ann’s presentations that she told us about the icons at The Noun Project website, so I used icons accompanied by brief descriptions. 

It made sense to me to organize the info into two columns, and I made the text as clear and simple as possible.

The Result

Here’s the one-pager that I made for my grandma’s caregivers.

Outcome

Unfortunately, grandma is no longer with us. 

But I’m happy to report that after providing the caregiving agency with the 11×17 sheet, she was matched with a caregiver that she LOVED, and who told us she loved our grandma too. 

The caregiver was with her for a year and a half, until she passed. 

I can’t tell you how comforting it was to know that she was in the hands of someone who was not only competent, but genuinely cared for her. 

The caregiving agency kept a copy of the sheet in grandma’s file and shared it with substitute caregivers when the primary caregiver had time off.  This helped the substitute caregivers provide more consistent care for grandma.

Potential Applications

Since its creation, I’ve shared this sheet with many of my friends who have made similar sheets for their loved ones. 

Some of my friends have all joked that they need something like this for their dating life.  Maybe it has other applications too?  What do you think? 

Sharing with Gratitude

Here is an editable Word copy that you can use for your own purposes! 

Download the One-Pager

Connect with Mieko Yeh

linkedin.com/in/miekoyeh

The post Humanity in Data Visualization: Designing a One-Pager for My Grandma’s Caregivers appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

Before

When asked to submit their existing visualizations to be redesigned, one of the conference attendees sent me this dashboard (shown below).

The attendee was responsible for monitoring key statistics about the university’s library.

The dashboard included information about the number of visitors, transactions, checkouts, and interlibrary loans.

These twelve metrics and their associated icons were intended to provide an at-a-glance overview about the library during a given month.

What’s Working Well: Length, Icons, and Text Size Hierarchy

A few things were already working well for this dashboard:

• The most notable accomplishment was that it already fit on one page! I typically see “dashboards” that drone on for way too many pages. I’m not an old school dashboard designer. I don’t believe that dashboards have to fit on a single page or screen. But sometimes the multi-page dashboards also contain so much narrative text that they’re more of a report than a dashboard.
• The icons were also working well. Michelle Borkin and her team found that icons make graphs more memorable, so I add or keep icons whenever I can.
• Finally, the dashboard already incorporated a text size hierarchy of sorts. A hierarchy means that the most important information should be large, dark, and bold so that it grabs our attention. The twelve big numbers are already stood out, which was a plus.

What Needs Editing: Clutter, Alignment, and Context

There are a couple easy edits:

• We’re going to do the usual decluttering for
  this dashboard. That’s a given, right? We’ll simply remove the borders that
  outline each of the twelve data points.
• We also need to adjust the alignment. The numbers and words are centered within their boxes. Yet
  the icons aren’t quite centered over them. Intentional alignment makes our visualizations
  look polished.
• The biggest edit needed is context. The dashboard
  currently shows February’s numbers. For example, 24,051 people visited the
  university’s library during February alone. I have no idea if that’s a huge
  number or a tiny number. A single number on its own doesn’t tell us much. We
  need more context. We need to be able to compare that number to something. There are a few comparisons
  we could make. For example, we could compare that number to the prior month
  (January vs. February). Or, we could compare that number to our goal
  (February’s actual number compared to February’s goal).  

After: Monitor Patterns Over Time

Here’s the first idea for this university’s monthly dashboard.

These are made-up numbers, but hopefully you still understand the gist of the makeover.

I:

• gave viewers the opportunity to monitor patterns over time. Each month has its own column. Now, we can compare the current month to past months, which adds much-needed context.
• added graphs, which I created with Microsoft Excel’s spark columns.
• decluttered the dashboard by removing unnecessary outlines. I chose to keep the single horizontal line beneath the months, but that line is gray, not black.
• color-coded by category. I grouped the twelve data points into categories: Visitors (blue), Transactions (purple), and New Materials Acquired (turquoise).
• applied a text hierarchy. The title is large, dark, and bold. The headings (Visitors, Transactions, and New Materials Acquired) are a medium size because they’re of medium importance.
• adjusted the alignment. The words are left-aligned and the numbers are right-aligned. The icons are center-aligned with one another, and they’re top-aligned beside each of their categories.

After: Track Progress Towards Goals  

Here’s the second idea.

It’s also clutter-free; includes graphs and a text hierarchy; and groups the twelve data points into categories (which are color-coded, of course).

The difference is the dashboard’s purpose. The before version only looked at one month at a time. To provide more contextual details, the first makeover allowed viewers to compare patterns over time. This second makeover allows viewers to track progress towards goals.

I included columns for Running Totals and Year-End Goals. Then, I indicated whether the goal was achieved with filled-in squares and empty squares. I taught you how to create these square icons in an earlier post. They’re just lowercase g’s and c’s in the Webdings font!

Finally, I visualized the percentage of the goal that had been achieved so far. I call these progress bars. In some areas, the library has already exceeded their goal, so the bars spill past the 100% mark—a cause for celebration!

The Winning Idea

Which dashboard is correct?! Both of them!

Two dashboards, two different purposes.

I recommend designing several options for your viewers. Ask which one they prefer. Gathering feedback is one of the most important steps of the design process.

Bonus! Download the Spreadsheets

These are Microsoft Excel files, which are then distributed to viewers as static PDFs.

(I rarely make interactive dashboards with drop-down menus or checkboxes anymore. Leaders are busy and simply don’t have the time to explore interactive dashboards. I’ve found that the busier the audience, the more they prefer receiving a PDF’d one-pager.)

You can download my file and adapt the templates however you’d like for your own metrics and numbers.

The post Re-envisioning a University’s Monthly Report: Two Reports with Two Different Purposes appeared first on Depict Data Studio.