start with… PURPOSE OF DATA DISPLAYS. ALL OF THEM. The reason for these displays—rather then just putting numbers in your paragraphs—is to help your readers VISUALIZE info. PURPOSE OF YOUR DISPLAY? What do you hope to prove with this data? How will looking at the data visually help make your point? What’s the most crucial point you need to convey with the particular data display you’re working on? As always, purpose needs to be considered:

represent complex data in columns and rows or as an underlying grid to arrange information tables

show pieces of a whole; represent percentages Figure 2: Leading Causes of Death for Youth and Adults (2003) pie charts

used to represent one data group simple bar charts

used to represent more than one data group complex bar charts

used to plot interval data line graphs

used to plot data points scatter plots

follow spatial contours; used to geographically/spatially represent data data maps

data represented by pictures pictograms or pictographs

bad, bad data displays labels are almost impossible to read arrangement of information makes no sense

just because you can does not mean you should… 3D effects and arrangement completely obscure information flattened text is difficult to read and associate with the data

pie charts are used to show percentages, but there are no percentages here size of pies makes it difficult to interpret data

bar chart is absolutely unnecessary scale is too large for data displayed

different types of plot lines (i.e., black line and red line) not explained equations clutter the chart is “Surveyor vs. RIPE” the title of the chart? if so, it should be in a different font face and size from the axis labels > there’s no contrast here to cue us in

too much data!

how to lie with data displays large scales hide changes

drastic scaling emphases changes

level of detail can obscure or reveal important information

good, descriptive labels are crucial to reveal meaning and purpose

certain formatting options can visually overemphasize information

MONTUEWEDTHUFRISATSUN coffee Soft drinks Fruit juice water Matching graph to purpose Some data: Weekly Beverage Consumption

While this does show change across time, it gives us little visual info. It doesn't really serve any purpose

If the purpose of the data is to reveal trends in overall consumption, a pie chart is inappropriate. It should only be used to reveal percentages

if the data is supposed to compare consumption across the week, a bar chart would work best

This kind of bar chart, however, shows both a comparison of percentages and consumption across time. The most information can be determined from this chart.

1.launch Microsoft Word 1.in a new document, select Insert  Picture  Chart 1.create displays for the data you have decided on from the data sets online 2.Open the data entry table and enter your data; the chart will automatically be created as a bar chart. 3.Click on the “chart type” icon. Choose the appropriate chart type. creating data displays

anatomy of a chart

X Axis - If you have non- numerical data, it goes here Be sure the legend is visible Title should be large and comprehensive Y Axis – always numerical

Last Thoughts While this may seem like a relatively simple set of tasks, it really is harder than one might think. It also is more time consuming that you might think. Take advantage of class time!! refer back to this PowerPoint to make sure you’re using the correct display for your data make sure to title and label your data displays appropriately (Word, Excel, and whatever other applications you use might provide some template/help with this, but you might have to access deeper features to add labels not default-offered by the application)