LIB300 Week 6 Using Visuals

1. LIB300 Week 6
Using Visuals
Dr. Russell Rodrigo

2. Why do we
need to use
visuals?
To see that ideas are presented completely
To find relationships.
To make points vivid.
To emphasize material that might be skipped if it
were buried in paragraph.
To present material more compactly and with less
repetition
To focus on information that decision makers
need.

3. Select
visuals for
stories.

4. What are
stories, and
how do I find
them?
▪ A story is something that is happening,
according to the data.
▪ To find stories, look for relationships and
changes.
Not a story: U.S. Sales, 1999-2005
Possible stories:
Forty Percent of Our Sales Were to
New Customers
Growth Was Greatest in the South
Sales Increased from 1999-2005

5. To find stories,
Focus on a topic
Simplify the data on that topic and convert the numbers to simple, easy-to-
understand units.
Look for relationships and changes.
E.g. Do men and women have the same attitudes?
Look for changes over time.
Look for items that can be seen as part of the same group.
For example, to find stories about TV ads, you might group ads in
the same product category – ads for cars, for food, for
beverages.

6. Paired Graphs Tell a Complex Story

8. Does it matter what kind of visual I use?
Yes! The visual must match the kind of story.
Use tables when the reader needs to be able to identify exact values.

9. Use a chart
of a graph
when you
want the
reader to
focus on
relationships
.
To compare a part to the whole, use a pie
chart.
Line graph is used to show trends over time or
the relationship between two variables.
Bar charts are useful in a variety of situations:
to compare one item to another, to compare
items over time, and to show correlations.
Flowchart illustrates a sequence of events
from start to finish; it is indispensable when
illustrating processes, procedures, and
sequential relationships.

10. What design conventions
should I follow?
1. A title that tells the story that the visual shows.
2. A clear indication of what the date are.
3. Clearly labeled units.
4. Labels or legends identifying axes, colors,
symbols, and so forth.
5. The source of the data, if you created the visual
from data someone else gathered and
compiled.
6. The source of the visual, if you reproduce a
visual someone else has created.

11. Tables
- Use tables only when you want the audience to
focus on specific values/numbers.
Use common, understandable units and
clearly identify them: dollars, percentages,
price per ton, and so on.
Express all items in a column in the same unit
and round off for simplicity.
Label column headings clearly and use
subheads if necessary.
Separate columns or rows with lines or extra
space to make the table easy to follow. Make
sure the intended reading direction – down
the columns or across the rows – is obvious
too.
Don’t cram so much information into a table
that it becomes difficult to read.
Document the source of data using the same
format as a text footnote.

12. Choose the Visual to Fit the Story
2000 2002 2004
Northeast 10.2 10.8 11.3
South 7.6 8.5 10.4
Midwest 8.3 6.8 9.3
West 11.3 12.1 13.5
Totals 37.4 38.2 44.5
Millions of dollars
U.S sales reach $44.5 million
Tables show exact values.

13. Line graphs
Are commonly used to show
trends over time or the
relationship between two
variables.
Label both horizontal and vertical
axes.
When time is variable, put it on
the horizontal axes.
Avoid using more than three
different lines on one graph. Even
three lines may be too many if
they cross each other.
Avoid using perspective.
Perspective makes harder to read
and can make comparison
difficult.

14. Line charts compare items over time or show
distribution or correlation.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005
Sales increased from 1995 to 2005.

15. Pie Charts
Use a pie chart only when you are
comparing one segment to the whole.
Start at 12 o’clock with the largest
percentage or the percentage you
want to focus on. Go clockwise to
each smaller percentage or to each
percentage in some other logical
order.
Make the chart a perfect circle.
Perspective circles distort the data.
Limit the number of segment to
five or seven. If you have more
divisions, combine the smallest or
the least important in a single
category labeled as ‘other’.
Label the segment outside the
circle.

16. Pie charts compare a component to the whole.
Forty percent of our 2002 sales were to new customers.
New Customers
Old Customers
Old
Customers
60%
New
Customers
40%

17. Bar Charts
Are useful in a variety of situations: to
compare one item to another, to compare
items over time, and to show correlations.
Order the bars in a logical in a logical or
chronological order.
Put the bars close enough together to make
comparison easy.
Label both horizontal and vertical axes.
Put all the labels inside the bars or outside
them.
Make all the bars the same width.
Use different colors for different bars only
when their meanings are different.
Avoid using perspective. Perspective makes the
values harder to read and cam make
comparison difficult.

18. Bar charts compare items or show distribution or correlation
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
West
South
Midwest
Northeast 11%
38%
12%
19%
Growth was greatest in the South.

19. Flowcharts and
Organization
Charts
Flowchart illustrates a sequence of events
from start to finish; it is indispensable when
illustrating processes, procedures, and
sequential relationships.
Organizational chart illustrates the positions,
units, or functions in an organization and the
ways they interrelate.

20. Can I
use clip
arts?
Use color carefully.
Avoid decorative clip art in memos
and reports.
Use no more than five colors when
colors have meanings.
Be aware that colors on a computer
screen always look brighter than
same colors on paper.

21. What else do I need to check
for?
Be sure that the visual is accurate and ethical.

22. Comprehension
questions
What is the difference between a
table and a figure?
Why does each visual need to tell a
story?
Why are charts more memorable
than tables?
Identifying stories. Of the
following, which are stories?
1. Computer use
2. Computer Prices Fall
3. More Single Parents Buy
Computers than Do Any
Other Group

23. Matching Visuals with stories
What visuals would make it easiest to see in each of the following stories?
1. Canada buys 20% of U.S Exports.
2. Undergraduate enrollment rises, but graduate enrollment declines.
3. Open communication ranks number one in reasons to take a job.
4. The production of paper
5. Women and men’s life expectancy
6. The Percentage of expatriates in Singapore’s population
7. Exact number of population growth per state.
8. The rise of imported products (clothing, foods, etc.) in Malaysia in 2010.
9. The inclining number of tourists coming to Malaysia from 2000-2014.

24. How would you
interpret
variables in;
Line graph
Bar chart
Pie chart
Table
Flow chart (process, man-made or
natural)