1. Data Visualizations and Graphs: From Excel Defaults to Excellence
Kirsten Rewey, Quantitative Analyst
2016 Assessment Conference
Minnesota Department of Education

2. Overview Workshop goals Why is the workshop needed? Work with Excel
Bar graph
Line graph
Transfer
Resources
Questions
Here we have an overview of the next hour;

3. Workshop Goals Defaults to Best Practices Templates
There are 2 goals to the workshop –
Changing Excel’s defaults in a graph to best practices
Using those new graphs as templates! I want to help you work more effectively and show you how to use the new graph as a template so you can reduce your work when constructing a new bar or line graph. (Think minor tweaking instead of full re-construction.)
We’re going to try to work on both a bar graph and a line graph, but if we run out of time we’ll concentrate on one of the graphs and then focus on transfer so that you can see the entire process for at least one graph.

4. Why is the Workshop Needed?
Improve communication of information
At the core, the problem with Excel’s default graphs is that they aren’t well aligned with human information processing.
When ‘things’ (graphs, narrative, story order, etc.) aren’t well aligned with how we process information, one of two things is going to happen:
The reader or user of the content has to work very hard to get any useable information OR
The reader or user is going to make errors in the information they get.
But when graphs are well aligned with what we know about how information is processed, we are better able to efficiently and accurately convey information to someone else. The reader or user of the graph knows what we are trying to convey, the story we are trying to tell. And when that happens, we – the person who has constructed the graph – can ask the reader or user to make the next step … we can call them to action and ask for something, we can persuade them to act.
Note that the editing process is NOT just ‘making pretty graphs.’ It’s really about aligning the graph and its content with human information processing!

5. Why is the Workshop Needed?
Improve communication of information
Stephanie Evergreen, Ph.D.
Much of that alignment process was done by Stephanie Evergreen in her dissertation, and I’ve included both of her books in the resources section if you’re interested in learning more.
Unfortunately, there are a LOT of bad graphs out there, some from Excel, some from other sources. Some are made because people follow Excel’s defaults without making conscious or deliberate decisions; others are because the creator didn’t have an understanding of human information processing.

6. On to Excel!

7. Questions?

8. Thanks for Attending! Kirsten Rewey 651.582.8638