Question

In 175 words determine what you think is the most effective way to present information within charts and graphs.

Answer 1

The tenets for creating great charts are the same as great writing. The chart should be concise, free of fluff, well organized, and, most importantly, compelling. When charts and text are combined, you get articles that are fresh and informative because they present information in both textual and visual ways

1. Show achievements

It’s one thing to tell someone about your achievements, but actually showing them will make more of an impact on readers. Say your company has achieved a goal like reaching a certain number of active users. Rather than just announcing the number, you can show the milestone using a chart.

2. Demonstrate failure

Life isn’t all success, and neither is business. Sometimes you fail. As a company, you may want to be transparent with your shortcomings. As an individual, you may want to show your lows so that the highs are all the more meaningful.

A line graph depicting a steep drop will elicit an emotional reaction from the reader, be it shock, sympathy or otherwise. If you don’t want to focus entirely on the negative, you can place a chart that depicts a failure beside a chart that shows a subsequent success.

3. Emphasize differences

Charts can make big differences more impactful and small differences easier to identify. A difference you want to highlight might be a period of relative success and a period of relative failure. There are any number of reasons you might want to emphasize the difference between two data points.

4. Highlight similarities

Just as you can emphasize differences between data points, a chart can also draw attention to similarities. This is particularly useful in cases where similarities might not be immediately noticeable, or where you want to put data into perspective.

5. Track trends over time

Data tracked over a period of months will reveal trends that you might not notice on a day-to-day basis. People typically use a line graph or a bar graph to show trends because they allow you to draw a connective line either up, down, or steadily across.

6. Pinpoint changes over time

Similar to charts that track trends over time, charts can also highlight how things are changing. Charts can paint a dramatic picture, particularly when depicting instances of sudden change. Line graphs pack a lot of drama—they soar with your highs and plummet with your lows.

7. Show gaps

Not only can charts be used to illustrate changes, but they can also be used to draw attention to the absence of data points. When a data point is omitted, it raises a whole slew of questions.

8. Show how parts make a whole

Whenever you break an overarching category into subcategories, it will help readers understand how the parts make up the whole. This is particularly useful if you want to show parts that need to be augmented.

9. Make connections and comparisons

When you’re reading an article, particularly a lengthy article, it’s normal to start skimming the sentences and miss bits of information. The problem is, you might miss an important detail or two that would allow you to draw connections and understand the information better. As much as we hope that people would carefully read the articles we write, the reality is that people only read about 60 percent of an articlebefore sharing it. Breaking up the text with charts not only gives the readers’ eyes a break, it also helps them better digest information. Include the key points your text covers in charts.

10. Set goals

Charts are not just a good way to visualize your accomplishments, they can also be used to make the goals that you set concrete.

If you’re a manager looking to communicate your revenue plan to your team you could include a chart to visualize current revenue versus projected revenue. It will give them a clearer picture of your growth.