Stephanie D.H. Evergreen's Blog, page 15

Intentionally Order Your Data

Listen, no one cares about the order we listed the response options on the survey. But most graphs, especially those automatically generated from survey software, showcase the data in that order. And that isn’t useful for anyone trying to interpret the data. Instead, place the bars in order from greatest to least. Greatest to least […]

2019 Call for Mentees

Did you see Vice? There’s a scene (this is no spoiler) in which a young Dick Cheney and Antonin Scalia share a sickening laugh as they agree to an interpretation of the Constitution that allowed a massive power grab for a president. It’s gross. It’s cringe-y. The most disturbing thing about it is that it […]

I Failed

This is not news. Today. Yesterday. Every day. I fail all the time. I have so many data visualization fails that I’m already planning a conference talk called The Compromises I’ve Made. I published some of my failures in a book edited by Kylie Hutchinson. This is an excerpt that I wanted to reprint here […]

My 2018 Personal Annual Report

This is my last personal annual report. I’ll tell you why. This year most of my metrics went down. At first, due to cultural conditioning that says “more is always better,” I was like Oh no! Before I go further, let’s pause and break that down. I’ve been creating personal annual reports since 2011 and […]

Building a Culture of Effective Data Visualization

The most frustrating part of attending one of my workshops is that you learn so many awesome ways of communicating data, you learn exactly what buttons to push to make it happen, you get hyped up on glee and data vizardry… and then the existing organizational culture stops you from actually implementing any of it. […]

We Need More Research on Data Visualization

Stephanie’s Note: Dr. Sena Sanjines just wrapped up her dissertation, part of which measured whether my Data Visualization Checklist is worth its salt. Here are her findings. My name is Sena Sanjines and I’m an evaluator in Hawai‘i slightly obsessed with figuring out what makes people use, or not use, evaluation reports. Also, I love […]

Journey Maps

Stephanie’s Note: This blog post, guest authored by Evergreen Data Senior Associate Jenny Lyons, is part of our ongoing effort to identify, explore, and popularize qualitative data visualization possibilities. See our collection of qualitative viz options here. All of these ideas and more will appear in the next edition of Effective Data Visualization, due to […]

508 Compliance Tools

If you aren’t worried about being 508 compliant, you should be. A part of the Americans with Disabilities act, being 508 compliant means that the stuff you post on your website should be accessible to anyone with a disability. Back when this was first announced, in 1998, it only applied to federal agencies. But in […]

For the Love of Font Size

Did you know that you regularly read type set in size 8, or even smaller? In printed materials, captions and less important information (think: photograph credits, newsletter headline subtext, magazine staff listings) are usually reduced to something between 7.5 to 9 points. We generally read that size type without much issue, like glasses. The reason […]

Arranging Logos on a Slide

Even skilled graphic designers are frustrated by the never-perfect task of arranging logos on a slide. So don’t feel bad. It’s a pain, no question. You probably have to arrange logos on slides or a website to thank sponsors, acknowledge partners, or brag about your client roster. In this example, I’m illustrating the point that […]