Accessibility Quick Wins: Lower the Reading Level

Dec 7th, 2021 / Data Visualization
How do we make our graphs more accessible? There’s a misconception that accessibility takes all day, that’s it’s costly, or that it’s complicated. Those are all false. We need to lower the reading level. Not because our readers dumb, but because they’re busy. They need to be able to understand what you wrote the first time—not the second, third, or fourth read-through.
More »

A Two-Hour Turnaround: How to Transform a Text-Heavy Report into a Visual-Lite Report

Aug 7th, 2018 / Data Visualization
Most of my early reports looked exactly like this: a few pages of 11-point font and some bullet points here and there. Except… Mine were way worse! I loved to write 100 pages of 11-point font and bullet points instead of these four summarized pages. If you’re a full-time graphic designer, then you have 40 hours a week to get fancy with covers and other visuals. If not, your time to mess around with reports is limited. I’m going to walk you through five easy steps that you can tackle in just two hours.
More »

Home Visiting Dataviz: Three Steps to Making a Good Graph Great

Apr 26th, 2018 / Dashboards
Whether you’re visiting a web site or a listening to a presentation, you’ve probably thought about data visualization as a helpful way to digest complex information. At its best, “data viz” communicates data simply and efficiently using a combination of graphs, graphics, and other forms of design. So what makes a good graph great?
More »