Overview of data visualization approaches, tools, resources, and ideas co-presented at the APLIC 2014 Meeting with Erica Nybro.

1. APRIL 29, 2014
DATA
VISUALIZATION
AMANDA MAKULEC | ERICA NYBRO
APLIC 2014
[IMPACT | INTRIGUE | VALUE ADD]

2. DATA NEWBIES
TO
DATA NINJAS

3. VISUALIZATION TO
TELL A STORY
AMPLIFY YOUR REACH
MAKE DECISIONS

4. THE VISUALIZATION PROCESS
IDENTIFY YOUR
AUDIENCE &
CONTEXT
FIND THE STORY
IN YOUR DATA
BUILD YOUR
VISUALIZATION
DISSEMINATE,
SHARE & USE

5. WHAT?
DATA
WHAT INFORMATION DO
YOU HAVE TO SHARE?

6. WHO?
AUDIENCE
WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO REACH
WITH YOUR INFORMATION?

7. WHO?
AUDIENCE
• LITERACY
• NUMERIC/DATA LITERACY
• EDUCATION

8. WHO?
AUDIENCE
JOB FUNCTION
• POLICY MAKERS
• PROGRAM MANAGERS
• RESEARCHERS/ACADEMICS
• FUNDERS
• JOURNALISTS
• GENERAL PUBLIC

9. WHY?
WHAT IS THEIR CONTEXT?
WHO ARE THE STAKEHOLDERS?
WHAT INFO DO THEY NEED?
HOW WILL THEY USE IT?
WHY DO THEY CARE? WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE?
* a note on politics and perspective

10. WHO?
AUDIENCE EXAMPLE
Data available: population and
urbanization in all countries
International Donor working in Urban
Health
Objective: Effective use of funds for big
impact
Data need: Where is urban health a big
challenge? Where is there a service gap?

11. FIND YOUR
DATA STORY

12. WHAT’S THE STORY?
LOOK FOR…
• Trends
• Ranges
• Patterns
• Comparisons
• Surprises

13. WHAT’S THE STORY?
AN EXAMPLE
• Audience
• Context
• Story

14. TIPS:
• Sort your
data different
ways
• Play with
graphs/charts
to find
patterns

16. WHAT’S THE STORY?
ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR
STORY CONCEPT
• Tweak for your audience
• Write a short headline to summarize your story
• What do you want your audience to take
away? Is there an action point?

17. An increase in child
malnutrition in
Egypt coincides
with the Avian Flu
outbreak of 2006.
We hope to see this
trend reverse in
2014.
WHAT’S THE STORY?

18. BUILDING A
VISUALIZATION
THE BASICS

19. AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT NOT TO DO

20. AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT NOT TO DO #2

21. WHAT WE DO WANT

22. YOUR GOAL: SHARING A MESSAGE
THE USER EXPLORES
YOUR DATA AND CAN
DRAW THEIR OWN
CONCLUSIONS.
YOU DECIDE THE
STORY AND THE
MESSAGE, GUIDING
YOUR READER.
YOUR GOAL: PROMOTING EXPLORATION

23. UNDERSTAND THE STORY YOU WANT TO TELL

24. THINK ABOUT HOW YOU WANT TO VISUALIZE THAT STORY
CHART OR GRAPH?
INFOGRAPHIC?
FLOW CHART?
WHAT’S YOUR “AH HA!”
MOMENT FOR YOUR
AUDIENCE?

25. START WITH A SKETCH
Sketch to start…
and you’ll work your way
to something beautiful.

26. A STARTING GUIDE TO CHOOSING A CHART TYPE

27. CHART CHOOSER 2.O (JUICE LABS)

28. BEYOND THE BAR CHART: SOME IDEAS
tree map network map bubble chart

29. JUST SAY NO TO PIE CHARTS

30. DESIGN
CREATING
FUNCTIONAL
ART

31. DRAW ATTENTION TO WHAT’S IMPORTANT: PREATTENTIVE ATTRIBUTES

32. DRAW ATTENTION TO WHAT’S IMPORTANT: GESTALT PRINCIPLES

33. COLOR | SHAPES | SIZE
MAPS | SHADING

34. NUMBERS | SHORT TEXT
TIMELINE
MOBILE
TRADITIONAL GRAPHS AND CHARTS

35. A GUT-CHECK FOR VIZ
JunkCharts Trifecta Checkup
What is the
practical
question?
What does
the data
say?
What does
the chart
say?

36. A RANDOM EXAMPLE

37. SKETCH TIME
AN ACTIVITY
AN EXAMPLE

38. INSTRUCTIONS
1. Find a partner.
2. Review your data tables.
3. Sketch your viz for the
audience that you’ve been
assigned.

39. A STARTING GUIDE TO CHOOSING A CHART TYPE

40. TAILORING YOUR
DATA VIZ
TO A SPECIFIC
AUDIENCE
AND CONTEXT
AN EXAMPLE
FROM THE
TANZANIA 2010
DEMOGRAPHIC
AND HEALTH
SURVEY
ACTIVITY

41. Example 1:
A condom
distributor in
Tanzania wants to
improve marketing
and asks: who are
the main users of
condoms in
Tanzania?
EXAMPLE 1

42. VERSION 1
EXAMPLE 1

43. VERSION 2
EXAMPLE 1

44. ATTEMPT 3
EXAMPLE 1

45. ATTEMPT 4

46. AN ACTIVITY
SHARING TIME
AN EXAMPLE

47. DATA VIZ
RESOURCES
PROCESS

48. RESOURCES
WHERE TO FIND…
BOOKS & ARTICLES
EXAMPLES
TOOLS
COMMUNITIES

49. BOOKS
PEOPLE TO READ
Stephen Few
Show Me the
Numbers
Edward Tufte
The Visual Display
of Quantitative
Information
Alberto Cairo
The Functional Art:
An Introduction to
Information
Graphics
Cole
Nussbaumer
Storytelling
withdata.com

50. ARTICLES
NEW DIRECTIONS IN
EVALUATION

53. TOOLS
COLOR-HEX
COLOR ORACLE
COLOR BREWER Simple tool for picking palettes
Originally for maps
Simulates color blindness
Great for checking your viz
Technical info on color models
Generates CSS codes

54. TOOLS
INFOGR.AM

55. TOOLS
PIKTOCHART

56. TOOLS
EASEL.LY

57. TOOLS
TABLEAU 8.1

58. BUT A WORD OF CAUTION…
Just because you can built a graph doesn’t mean it’s the right fit.

59. NETWORK MAPS
GEPHI
NODE XL
UCINET

60. COMMUNITIES
DATAVIZHUB.CO

61. COMMUNITIES

62. QUESTIONS
APLIC