In follow up to my previous blog posting that explored techniques and tips for visually communicating program findings and results, I asked Leah Goldstein Moses of the Improve Group to write a blog topic that provides a little more information about what is program evaluation and the benefits of sharing those results with various audiences in a usable format.

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Program evaluation is the process of exploring the efficiency, effectiveness and qualities of programs. Informally, staff and other stakeholders may be constantly monitoring their successes and challenges as they go about their work. A more formal process typically goes through a cycle of identifying questions, designing an evaluation approach, collecting data, analyzing data, and reporting findings to stakeholders.

When you do have evaluation findings, a variety of audiences may benefit from learning them:

• Staff can learn how effective different practices are and focus their efforts on those that are the most effective
• Administrators or program managers can identify which programs need additional support or clarification
• Program participants can learn what makes the program successful and how the program might work for them
• Funders can determine whether they are supporting strong programs and how they can fund any supports that the program needs
• Volunteers, board members and other committed stakeholders can see how their efforts “paid off” and whether additional help is needed

For example, one of our clients, a nonprofit housing organization that offers a host of supportive services to its residents, used their evaluation findings to help staff develop work plans, establish a resident council committee, and seek new funds to support the programs that were demonstrating strong results.

Leah Goldstein Moses is president and CEO of the Improve Group, a research, evaluation and strategic planning firm.

The Living Proof Project uses flash interactive infographics (at least for their online infographics). Interactive infographics are great for posting on your website or integrating into a presentation. They engage the audience and can provide multiple layers of information without cluttering the graphic.

On the other hand, interactive infographics may not be the best fit for your project for a number of reasons–ranging from how you plan to use the infographic to it’s just not in the budget.

Whether you hope to create an interactive or static infographic, I believe you can always learn something from looking critically at the work of others (even if you know you will have to make modifications to fit your own design requirements).

Below are some ideas of how you might apply design strategies from the following examples to your own work.

United States’ 2010 Federal Budget For Global Health Spending

- Start with a key fact that puts your information into context of the world around it.

- Follow up that key fact with supporting facts for each issue you are trying to highlight.

The non-interactive graphic version: You can still apply this same concept. Just remember to start with your key fact at the top of the page and build out your key findings below.

Progress Against Polio

- Integrate your timeline with a map. This is a great way to visually show progress over time.

- Keep the number of categories on your map relatively simple. Making it easy for the viewer to quickly interpret your key message.

The non-interactive graphic version: Create a series of maps that your audience could page through or show in a series on a single graphic.

The Benefits of Breastfeeding

- Keep your message simple and to the point. Save the details for the full report.

- Try using photos that connect to your message, rather than data. Sometimes this can be just as or more effective than facts.

The non-interactive graphic version: Apply this concept to a four page layout or to a single graphic image divided into four quadrants.

In addition to the infographics used to communicate key findings, the Living Proof Project uses another information design strategy to report results—simple, but well designed progress report sheets.

Below I’ve highlighted some of the key components used in their progress reports as a potential template of sorts for what you may want to include in your own (understanding each project is different).

1. Use one large image, rather than many images. Many times this provides a greater impact for your piece.
2. Start your report with bold text to introduce the report’s key message.
3. Be consistent with categories across various reports. The categories in these reports include: Overview, Progress, Advances, Results, Moving Forward.
4. Choose one key graph, rather than cluttering the report with many.
5. Use callouts to highlight a key definition and/or specific case study.
6. Provide your sources.
7. Keep your report to a manageable length (2-4 pages).

If you are interested in receiving more information design and infographic examples, I will be retweeting those when I come across them on Twitter. You can keep up on my latest tweets on the right sidebar of this blog page, or by following me on twitter at: http://twitter.com/elschloesser

1. Don’t pre specifiy data sources or methods before creating an infographic. Instead approach the graphic by using the “whatever it takes” approach to answer the question presented.
2. Respect your audience. Think of your audience as busy, not stupid.
3. When creating a flow chart, remember that the items are the nouns and the arrows are the verbs and the main reason for presenting information in a flow chart is to understand causality.
4. People think at their best at 12”-24”. Dedicate more time to your handout than your PowerPoint.
5. You should never need a legend for your graph. Instead put all the needed information for interpretation on the graph.
6. A graphic shouldn’t show one data point.
7. Find good examples and copy them.
8. Check out the sports or financial sections in the newspaper to find good examples of how to present lots of numbers in a table.
9. The principles of analytical design are the same as analytical thinking. Show causality. Show comparison. Show multivariate data. Integrate evidence. Document work. Assist thinking. Content counts most of all.
10. There is no such thing as information overload, only bad design.

If you don’t know who Edward Tufte is, here’s his quick bio from his website:

“Edward Tufte has written seven books, including Beautiful Evidence, Visual Explanations, Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Data Analysis for Politics and Policy. He writes, designs, and self-publishes his books on analytical design, which have received more than 40 awards for content and design. He is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in statistical evidence, information design, and interface design. His current work includes landscape sculpture, printmaking, video and a new book.”

Wow this week has flown by, and I realized I never got around to my weekly blog topic. Since I didn’t get a chance to write one this week I’m passing a link along to another blog article posted yesterday on the Harvard Business Review that I found interesting.

The Four Phases of Design Thinking by Warren Berger

“What can people in business learn from studying the ways successful designers solve problems and innovate? On the most basic level, they can learn to question, care, connect, and commit — four of the most important things successful designers do to achieve significant breakthroughs.”

…click here to read the complete article.

What do you think? Do you have a favorite? Which one do you think makes the information most understandable?

Matthias Shapiro posted on his blog the free chapter he wrote for the book Beautiful Visualization. In the chapter he discusses the importance of storytelling in information visualization, provides insights about the key steps he uses to create an effective infographic, and includes a quick tutorial of the most commonly used visual representations.

Below is an excerpt from the chapter.

“While many of the talents required for creating good information visualizations are widely recognized, there is one that is commonly overlooked in more formal settings—probably because nearly every visualization author engages in it subconsciously and because it is such a natural part of the process that is hardly seems worth mentioning.

This talent is the art of storytelling. Stories have a marvelous way of focusing our attention and helping us to discern why the data presented is important or relevant to some part of our lives. It is only inside of a context that data is meaningful, and using the data as part of a story is an excellent way of allowing the data to make a lasting impact. The most effective information visualizations will make themselves a pivotal point in a story or narrative within the viewers’ (or users’) minds.

Not every information visualization requires a story. Some are simply beautiful to look at and can exist merely as fine works of art. However, most visualizations have a goal or purpose and present their data in a meaningful way, in the context of some kind of story.

Question + Visual Data + Context = Story

Most visualization stories begin with some kind of question that orients the viewer to the topic and context within which the data is most meaningful. This can be done explicitly or implicitly, but the context must be clear. The question contains the premise and introduction to the story, and leads us up to the point at which the data can take over the storyline.

Many of the key parts of a story are related as part of the process of placing the visualization in a context. We frequently find the visualization context as part of an introductory text to an infographic or visualization. The context provides information that answers questions such as:

• What data are we looking at?
• In what time frame does this data exist?
• What notable events or variables influenced the data?”

Source: http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/stats/display.html

Okay so you may have guessed, I’m not going to share secrets to using infographics to lie with your statistics. Instead I came across this cartoon on the web and it reminded me of the power information designers have over what story is being told of the data. Although there may be multiple stories within an individual dataset, it is always important to remember the way the data is presented to an audience can either help or hinder an accurate interpretation of it (even if you are not intentionally trying to lie with statistics).

Here are a couple things to check to make sure your data is being accurately represented in your infographic:

• Check proportion and scale. If you are using images or icons in place of bars, lines or pies, it may be easy to unintentionally skew proportion or scale of your data points.

• Be careful with 3-dimensional graphs. The angles or volumes used in these graphs can sometimes make it hard to accurately compare data.

• Make sure the appropriate information is included. Information overload can sometimes make it difficult to understand a graphic, but you also want to make sure your graphic is not too over simplified. Double check that critical information for understanding is included for your audience.

What are your biggest concerns or challenges when translating complex information to a graphic?

The project highlights the 10 Things everyone should know about New York City charter schools. I think it does a nice job of integrating different graphics along with text to convey its key message.

A couple tips from this example that you can directly apply to your own work:

• Uses data to back up each main point, but go beyond the standard bar, line and pie charts (although one pie chart is used in the summary). I think this makes the data more interesting.

• Although there are multiple layers of information in this summary, stick to a simple color scheme that will not overwhelm the viewer. This will also make the use of orange or a warm color particularly effective in attracting attention to key items on the page.

You may also want to check out the blog article that this project was posted in called a picture’s worth 1,000 words: Information graphics for nonprofits.

Below are a few examples of the infographics posted on the website.

Walk This Way, Making the right choices to reduce your water footprint, by GOOD and Fogelson-Lubliner

The Most Target Books (in America) by GOOD and Stanford Kay

Portrait of a Volunteer, by the Pepsi Refresh Project

What is GOOD? “GOOD is the integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good. We are a company and community for the people, businesses, and NGOs moving the world forward. GOOD’s mission is to provide content, experiences, and utilities to serve this community.”