Executive Performance Dashboards Best Practice from insightfocus.com.au

Report Charts
Best Practice Standards Tips
Date: January 2014

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Charts Best Practice Standards Introduction
Charts and graphs are used widely throughout organisations globally to
communicate information and insight in a powerful and effective manner.
The above point is especially true with the global penetration and market share
of Microsoft Excel.
When producing and using charts always consider the story you are trying to
tell and how you are telling it to.
Additionally you need to ask yourself is the information you are charting
valuable and relevant to the reader? Is the reader in a position to make
decisions and more importantly take actions on the information being charted
and provided to them?


Charts Best Practice Standards Introduction
Unfortunately the majority of reports used in organisations are poorly designed
and formatted resulting in the information being communicated ineffectively to
the consumer of the report.
The above point is unfortunately reinforced by the majority of organisations not
following best practice standards in using MS Excel. This applies where no
internal standards exist and if they do exist enforcing personnel to adhere to
them. The end effect is the negative impact these have on the organisation’s
reporting governance framework policies and procedures.


Charts Best Practice Standards Tips
Below and on the following slides are some suggested guidelines in you being
able to achieve best practice standards specific to the formatting and
presentation of charts within your organisation. These best practice guidelines
are specific to charting in MS Excel and are also applicable to other charting
applications
• Charts need to communicate information in an effective manner so avoid using
and animations in your charts.
• Use charts when you want to communicate the comparative nature and interrelationships of the data being presented.
• Avoid using charts when you want to review the actual values of the results and
needing to compare this data and information in a precise manner.


Charts Best Practice Standards Tips (continued)
• Keep the chart colour palette simple to communicate the information
effectively without distraction.
• Ensure that the information that is being presented and communicating in the
chart is more visible and emphasised than any other details contained in the
chart.
• Remove or reduce the emphasis of any objects, details or formatting in your
chart that are not absolutely necessary in achieving your objective of
effectively communicating the information contained in the chart. An example
would be the removal of chart borders and gridlines, unless they are absolutely
required.


• 3-D charts are a poor presentation layer for charts as they create clutter and
can be difficult to read.
• Try and avoid including too many data series in your chart. Generally try to
keep your data series to less than nine.
• On your axis avoid using minor ticks and odd interval ticks as they detract from
the communication of the message.
• The use of your major ticks should only be on the value/quantitative axis and
not on the category description axis of your chart.
• Use major ticks on the outside of the axis. Have one tick for each quantitative
value displayed on an axis.


• Consider using horizontal bar charts when you are graphing the descending
order of a data series. Additionally consider using a horizontal bar chart when
the category labels of the bars are not able to fit side by side.
• Avoid using overlapping your bars within your bar charts.
• The colour coding of your bars in bar charts need to be clearly distinct.
• Avoid using pattern backgrounds in your bar charts as it detracts from the
concise message you are trying to communicate to the report consumer.
• Avoid using different coloured borders on your bars unless you are aiming to
highlight a particular bar to the end user.


• In your line and scatter graphs that contain multiple data series format your
data points as this will allow you communicating the information more
effectively.
• Should your line and scatter graphs data points over lap then proceed to use
different sized data points, use a clear fill on the data points, use a different
styled data points and increase the chart size if possible. Also take into
consideration the sequencing of your data series and the way it impacts the
presentation of the chart’s data points when they overlap.
• Avoid using pie charts due to the issue of when comparing the different slices.
It can be difficult for the report consumer to differentiate the different sized
angle when comparing angles.
• Where possible reference the data source that has used to populated your
charts.

Thank You
Contact us to discuss how we can help you achieve an effective and actionable
reports and increase efficiencies and automation in their production to adhere to
best practice standards.
Do not forget to click on the ‘Follow’ button to ensure you do not miss out on
future presentations.

Website: http://www.insightfocus.com.au
Email:
info@insightfocus.com.au


Executive Performance Dashboards Best Practice from insightfocus.com.au

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Executive Performance Dashboards Best Practice from insightfocus.com.au