1. IT’S NOT ABOUT PIE WHEN IT COMES TO THE FACTS… David Onder, Alison Joseph, John Bradsher SAIR 2011

2. 9352 students Master’s Comprehensive Mountain location Residential and Distance

3. Eye on the pies Which is the largest in Year 1 - Green, Blue, or Purple? Which have increased from Year 1 to Year 2? NONE!

4. Purpose Conveying information to stakeholders –What is important? –What answers are sought? –What can we learn from this table or graph? –Is the information easy to decipher?

5. Inspiration Stephen Few Edward Tufte Juice Analytics Others

6. Guiding principles Consistency –color –text –layout Maximize Data-Ink ratio (Gestalt principles) Reduce Chartjunk –Chart type –Use of color All that glitters is NOT gold!

7. Quantitative perception Very PreciseNot Very Precise Length 2-D Position Width Size Intensity Blur

8. "most quantitative data analysis can be performed quite well... using only four types of objects" Points Lines Bars Boxes Few, 2004, p. 46

9. Freshman Applicants, Acceptances & Enrollees

15. We actually didn’t do this, but we probably should have

19. Here is the overall change …

29. Viola!

30. Side by side

32. Pie and Line charts comparing multiple criteria Neither is a good option Aside

34. Remember our purpose

35. FALL 2009 LOAD AND CLASS NON- RESIDENT ALIEN AFRICAN- AMERICAN NATIVE AMERICAN ASIANHISPANICWHITE TWO OR MORE UNKNOWN TOTAL MaleFemaleMaleFemaleMaleFemaleMaleFemaleMaleFemaleMaleFemaleMaleFemaleMaleFemaleMaleFemale Full-Time New Freshmen64625415291317565690145165695844 Part-Time New Freshmen000000000042000042 TOTALS64625415291317569692145165705850 GRAND TOTAL10116611301,26151161,555 R ACE, L OAD, A ND G ENDER First-time Freshmen 844 4+2 = 6 1555 116 7.5 %

36. R ACE, L OAD, A ND G ENDER First-time Freshmen

40. Without axis break Aside

41. As bar chart with axis break Aside

42. As bar chart Aside

43. J UNIOR S ENIOR E NROLLMENT I NCLUDING S ECOND M AJORS

44. http://www.clearlyandsimply.com/clearly_and_simply/2009/06/choropleth-maps-with-excel.html Geographic Distribution First-time Freshmen Enrollment by County

45. http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/excel-box-and-whisker-diagrams-box-plots/ HS GPA

46. Resources Edward Tufte (http://www.edwardtufte.com/)http://www.edwardtufte.com/ –The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2001 Stephen Few (http://www.perceptualedge.com/)http://www.perceptualedge.com/ –Show Me the Numbers, 2004 –Information Dashboard Design, 2006 –Now you see it, 2009 http://www.extremepresentation.com/design/charts/ http://www.juiceanalytics.com/chart-chooser/ Purna Duggirala (http://chandoo.org/wp/ ) – Excel helphttp://chandoo.org/wp/ Jon Peltier (http://peltiertech.com) – Excel templateshttp://peltiertech.com

47. Contact Information David Onder, Assessment Coordinator dmonder@wcu.edu Alison Joseph, Research Specialist ajoseph@wcu.edu John Bradsher, Senior Undergraduate Research Assistant jcbradsher1@catamount.wcu.edu Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness opie.wcu.edu, (828) 227-7239 Special thanks to Stephanie Virgo