Creating effective visualsKristen SosulskiAssociate Professor of Information Systems @ NYU SternDirector of Education for the NYU Stern W.R. Berkley Innovation Lab@sosulski | ks123@nyu.edu | kristensosulski.com

OverviewThe workshop provides participants with the common presentations pitfalls and best ways to incorporate data visualizations into live presentations. This workshop will help you create stellar presentations that show your data through clear and well-designed displays.

Topics:

-Overview of presentation design and readability.-Common presentation pitfalls.-Best practices for using and delivering charts and graphs in your presentations.-Examples of effective visual communication through the use of data visualization.

Takeaways:

-A standards checklist for designing and delivering slide presentations with charts and graphs.-Common pitfalls for presentations and data visualizations.

Visuals are tools to help us think

Dual channels

Limited capacity

Active Processing

Human information processing system

Words

Pictures

Ears

Eyes

Sounds

Images

Verbal Model

PictorialModel

Priorknowledge

Multimedia presentation

Sensorymemory

Working memory Long-termmemory

INTRODUCTION

Do you use PowerPoint to

support your presentations and discussions?

serve as your talking points?

use as handouts for your audience?

Do you use PowerPoint to

support your presentations and discussions?

serve as your talking points?

use as handouts for your audience?

What PowerPoint is NOTSummary statement that I will read verbatim• Additional points I want to make

– Relevant sub-point– And another one– And another one

• And I don’t want to to forget this part– Or this

WHAT MAKES A POOR PRESENATION?

We’ve all been in situations where there’s been a poor presenter who read directly off of his/her slides…

Quarterly Report

FOR Q3 2013

Quarterly ReportFOR Q3 2013

Q3 2012Q4 2012

Q1 2013Q2 2013

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RS 200 Series

RS LE

PNN 2000xPMM 3000

RS 200 SeriesRS 400 SeriesRS LESNN 2000PNN 2000xQualtrell XOPMM 3000

Quarterly Report

FOR Q3 2013

Q3 2012Q4 2012

Q1 2013Q2 2013

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

RS 200 Series

RS LE

PNN 2000xPMM 3000

RS 200 SeriesRS 400 SeriesRS LESNN 2000PNN 2000xQualtrell XOPMM 3000

This quarter has seen the continued declline of many ofour leading product lines. Previous market leaders such As the PNN 2000x and the RS 200 series have continued trends that began in Q4 of last year. The RS Limitedsaw a brief surge during the holiday season, but wasquickly abandoned by consumers as the novelty-factorbegan to fade.

Surprisingly, most of our gains have been seen in productsThat were previously viewed as under-performers, suchAs theQualtrell XO and PMM 3000. This appears to be drivenBy enterprise users, and technical problems and missingFeatures in Mango’s latest release have damaged itsReputation in business environments. Whether this trend isTemporary, or marks a major sea change in the demographics of ourCustomer base will have a huge impact on our direction going forward.

COMMON PITFALLS

What annoys people about financial presentations?

Paradi, D. (2014)

#1: Too many numbers on a slide

#2. Readability: Small font size

32 point font is good for text and labels20 point font is more difficult to read

14 point font is even harder

12 point font should only be used for written documents not presentations

You’re too close if you can read this

#3: Too much information for the time

#4. Mostly a table of numbers with few visuals

FIVE WAYS WE CAN WE IMPROVE OUR PRESENTATIONS?

1. DESIGN FOR THE PROJECTOR

Not for viewing in other formats…

Tablet Paper Screen

Use the proper aspect ratio

You can change the aspect ratio by going to File > Page Setup

4:3 - STANDARD 16:9 - WIDESCREEN

Show your slides in full-screen view

2. USE SLIDES TO SUPPORT YOU

Instead of the slides serving as your presentation

• Rather than reading individual values at one time, which is how we perceive tables of text, we can, thanks to a graphs, see and potentially understand many values at once.

• This is because visual displays combine values into patterns that we can perceive as wholes, such as patterns formed by a lines in a graph.

• As a rule of thumb, anything that is processed at a rate faster than 10 msec per item is considered to be pre-attentive.

• Typical processing rates for non pre-attentive targets are 40 msec per item and more (Treisman & Gormican, 1988).

• Pre-attentive processing is the • Fast process of recognition. • Detects several attributes, such as color and the location of objects in 2-D space• If you want something to stand out in a graph, you should encode it using a pre-attentive

attribute that contrasts with the surrounding information

Avoid writing in full sentences. Try to apply the 6 x 6 rule.

Graphs help us see• Combine data into a single series;• Present data through encodings; and• Highlight patterns, change, trends, or cycles

Use the notes field for talking points

4. FOLLOW THE BASIC DESIGN GUIDELINES

Graphs help us see• Combine Data Into a Single Series;• Present Data Through Encodings; and• Highlight Patterns, Change, Trends and

Cycles.

Avoid mixed case lettering. Write in sentence case.

Graphs help us see• Combine Data Into a Single Series;• Present Data Through Encodings; and • Highlight Patterns, Change, Trends, or Cycles

Use 32 point font or larger

Graphs help us see• Combine data into a single series;• Present data through encodings; and• Highlight patterns, changes, trends, or

cycles

Use white or black as a background color

Graphs help us see• Combine data into a single series;• Present data through encodings; and• Highlight patterns, changes, trends, or

cycles.

Graphs help us see• Combine data into a single series;• Present data through encodings; and• Highlight patterns, changes, trends, or

cycles

Graphs help us see• Combine data into a single series;• Present data through encodings; and• Highlight patterns, changes, trends, or

cycles

Select the appropriate slide layout

5. MAKE CHARTS EASY TO READ AND INTERPRET

The top 10 major data visualization design principles

1. Chart type2. Color3. Text and labels4. Readability5. Scales and proportions6. Data integrity & the lie factor7. Chart Junk8. Data density9. Data-ink ratio10. Data Richness

Above all else show the data

---Edward Tufte

What are the values for April?

5. DESIGN YOUR CONTENT FOR HUMANS

The rate at which information is lost is basically a function of how it was learned (Anderson,

2000, p. 174)

What does it take to make a graphic symbol that can be found rapidly?

Perception

Our visual system has its own rules.

Perception - Rule #1

We do not attend to everything we see.

Perception - Rule #2

Our eyes are drawn to familiar patterns. We see what we know and expect.

Visualizations work best when they display information as patterns that are both familiar and easy to spot.

--Stephen Few, 2009, p. 34

Perception - Rule #3

Memory plays an important role in human cognition, but working memory is extremely limited.

Working memory• It is temporary• It has limited storage capacity

Demonstration

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148896678324145639874124512121003601477986696574487895636201403588741421200036982596312784254189

Highlight to draw attention

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But don’t highlight everything…

Copyright 2016 Kristen Sosulski 69

Preattentive processing• Fast process of

recognition • Detects several

attributes, such as color and the location.

Use animation to highlight and explain

Probability of recall

Rapid loss initially

Slower loss later

USING VISUALS

-Nathan Yau, 2013, p. 261

Visualization is often framed as a medium for storytelling. The numbers are the source material, and the graphs are how you describe the source.

-Ben Fry, 2008, p. 4.

Visualization is a kind of narrative, providing a clear answer to a question without extraneous details.

Watch this video by Jason Clay:

http://www.ted.com/talks/jason_clay_how_big_brands_can_save_biodiversity?language=en

TakeawayPowerPoint should augment your presentation not be your presentation.

Watch this video by Hans Rosling:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w

Takeaway

Lead your audience through your visualization

Watch this video by David McCandlesshttp://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html.

TakeawayHighlight and show your audience what is important.

YOU ARE THE DESIGNER

You are control of what is presented

….and what is omitted

Wong, 2010, p. 29

How you show it

Where you show it

Projected Paper Screen

And when you show it

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THANK YOUKristen SosulskiAssociate Professor of Information Systems @ NYU SternDirector of Education for the NYU Stern W.R. Berkley Innovation

Lab@sosulski | ks123@nyu.edu | kristensosulski.com

zAN EDUCATION IN POSSIBLE