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Graphical Presentation of Data in Reports
Dr Peter Kappen
Acting Principal Scientist – XAS
Overview
• Pictures and storytelling
• The Council – Examples of Story & Audience
• The Council – Examples of Relevance & Form
• Embedding in the text
• Australian Synchrotron
A picture is worth a thousand words
Pictures tell stories
“pictures” in corporate communication
= graphs, charts, diagrams, photos/images
graphical communication
= speaking to the audience; storytelling
Here: Focus on what we can do with MS Office products
= content first, form later
Story & Audience
or
“WHY am I telling this story”
Story & Audience – Tailoring to suit
Scenario:
The Council organises an annual “iExercise” at the local sports ground to promote community health.
This year’s event was a big success; >450 people attended.
Report to show the geographical spread of attendees.
The Council comprises 5 wards (North, East, South, West, Centre). Each ward is divided into a few neighbourhoods.
3520
13
47
38
41
3835
38
51
30
31
40 Upper MiddleMiddleLower UpperMountain AshMeadowsLavenderVinyardBloombergLands EndBeachsideShellsSaddletonMarket
Story & Audience – Tailoring to suit
iExercise – Attendees by Neighbourhood
Here: Audience / story = local (residents, Council).
68
85
114
119
71 North
East
South
West
Centre
Story & Audience – Tailoring to suit
iExercise – Attendees by Ward
Here: Audience / story = “global” (organisers, Council, State Govt.)
Tailoring to the audience
Key questions to keep asking:
1. Why am I reporting this?
2. What is the story?
3. Who is the audience?
Caveat: There is a difference between displaying data to tell a fact and displaying data to manipulate or twist a message.
Relevance & Form
2010 2011 2012 2013525
550
575
600
625
650
Requests received
Requests resolved
Year
No
. of
req
ue
sts
Relevance & Form
The Council – Report on the rate of customer service requests resolved
This story: Improving performance.
2010 2011 2012 20130
150
300
450
600
750
Requests received
Requests resolved
Year
No
. of
req
ue
sts
Relevance & Form
The Council – Report on the rate of customer service requests resolved
This story: Consistently high number of requests received.
2010 2011 2012 20130
150
300
450
600
750
Requests received
Requests resolved
Year
No
. of
req
ue
sts
Relevance & Form
The Council – Report on the rate of customer service requests resolved
This story: KPI tracking and improvement + Consistently high number of requests received.
88% 94% 97% 96%
2010 2011 2012 20130
150
300
450
600
750
Requests received
Requests resolved
Year
No
. of
req
ue
sts
Relevance & Form
What is wrong with this plot?
88% 94% 97% 96%
2010 2011 2012 20130
150
300
450
600
750
Requests received
Requests resolved
Year
No
. of
req
ue
sts
Relevance & Form
What is wrong with this plot?
88% 94% 97% 96%
Style versus relevance: What does the extra style element add ?
2010 2011 2012 20130
150
300
450
600
750
Requests received
Requests resolved
Year
No
. of
req
ue
sts
Relevance & Form
Form: Anatomy of a plot.
axis labels
scaling to relevance
concise
legend
“no-frills” formatting;
relevance of style elements
Tailoring the form
Fit the form to the story
1. Why am I reporting this?
2. What is the story?
3. Who is the audience?
and
4. What style elements are required ( story)?
5. What visual effects are required ( story; audience)?
Caveat: There is a difference between displaying data to tell a factand displaying data to manipulate or twist a message.
Embedding in the text
Best practices (in science):
• Figures are numbered consecutively and each has a caption
Figure 9:Number of service requests received and resolved since 2010. The percentage values show the fraction of requests resolved; target value (KPI) is 95%. See text for further information.
2010 2011 2012 20130
150
300
450
600
750
Requests received
Requests resolved
Year
No
. of
req
ue
sts
88% 94% 97% 96%
Embedding in the text
Best practices (in science):
• Explicit reference in the text
• Figure supports the argument and saves words
“Figure 9 highlights Council’s strong improvement in responding to customer service requests since 2010. The target (KPI) of 95% resolution rate has been met since 2012. The data also shows a continuously high community usage of Council services. […]”
Example: Australian Synchrotron
Australian Synchrotron:
• located in Melbourne’s SE(City of Monash)
• National research facility
• Interdisciplinary across many fields of research
• Relevant to industry
Mission Benefit to the community
photo: Australian Synchrotron
123
635
5283
18754
1822
236306
431 ACT
NSW
NT
QLD
SA
TAS
VIC
WA
New Zealand
Other O/S (42x)
National Research Organisation
Researchers by Geography
Community Connection – FY2012/13
bad Cr
Contaminated site: Hazardous chromium
OK Cr
mix of bad Cr + OK Cr
use synchrotron to:
identify mix ratio identify Cr species
(compounds) in mix develop remediation
strategy
photo courtesy of: ERM Melbourne
Conclusion
• The Big Why
• Three key questions (content):– Why am I reporting this?– What is the story?– Who is my audience?
• Style to match the story (“Content first, form later”)
• Embedding in text: Captions and numbers are good practice
• LGPro and Conference Organisers
• Australian Synchrotron User Office
Thanks!
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