This is my first slide deck designed to share. It reflects a summary and applied practice of some basic lessons learned about data visualization and information design in the context of presentations, and from my perspective as an educator / program evaluator. Enjoy!
9. But we in education just haven’t
quite caught up.
10. You see…
• While PowerPoint itself is not necessarily passé, using it in
“traditional” ways is.
• This is a “traditional” slide. It has too much text, an
overused too small font, bullet points, and complete
sentences.
• It also has an inappropriate and distracting slide
background and a cheesy piece of clip are stuck in the
lower right corner that adds nothing to the slide.
• A presenter might even read these full sentences to the
audience while presenting leading to a potentially fatal
phenomenon known as “Death by PowerPoint.”
• We don’t want our audiences to die, now do we?
• We also don’t want them tuning out of our presentations,
and into their own electronic devices.
• Yet, slides like this persist, especially in education – in
meetings, presentations, and professional development
workshops.
11. Slide titles and bullet points soon rain
down upon audiences with hurricane
force. Weary viewers face the
equivalent of digitized books projected
onto walls… or worse, they suffer the
terror of presenters reading books
projected onto walls.
(http://office.microsoft.com)
Even
knows this!
27. When to use layering:
• I want to present these 3 big ideas, and I
want to have the audience see all 3 at
once (but without all this text and bullets,
of course).
• With layering, I can present important
points one at a time, and then show them
all at once.
• And I don’t need to program in slide
transitions to do it (because transitions
don’t work well in all environments).
33. 17
6
10
10
9
38
7
15
21
25
67
71
73
72
71
63
101
87
82
80
Statement
A
Statement
B
Statement
C
Statement
D
Statement
E
Here’s a layering example with graphs. This is the
whole graph, but I have a lot to explain to the
audience, so layering will work well here.
34. 17
6
10
10
9
Statement
A
Statement
B
Statement
C
Statement
D
Statement
E
The greatest number of respondents “strongly
disagreed” with statement A.
You see, I will want to elaborate on
this point, and I don’t want the
audience focusing on interpreting
the whole graph while I’m talking.
35. 17
6
10
10
9
38
7
15
21
25
Statement
A
Statement
B
Statement
C
Statement
D
Statement
E
Now I can add a layer and explain this point
while (I hope!) keeping their attention.
Statement A in fact, had the most disagreement
among respondents.
36. 17
6
10
10
9
38
7
15
21
25
67
71
73
72
71
Statement
A
Statement
B
Statement
C
Statement
D
Statement
E
Since they have already had a
chance to process the last 2 points,
I can now add this one.
Similar numbers of respondents agreed with
each statement.
37. 17
6
10
10
9
38
7
15
21
25
67
71
73
72
71
63
101
87
82
80
Statement
A
Statement
B
Statement
C
Statement
D
Statement
E
The majority of respondents, however, agreed
or strongly agreed with Statement B.
38. OK, love the visuals (slides are
fun to design now) but I do want
the audience to see some of the
information in print.
So, I’ll just print all
these slides, 3 up
with the lines next to
them, right?
Like this!
44. I’m a learner, remember?
I’m learning simple skills with
basic software.
45. I’m a learner, remember?
I’m learning simple skills with
basic software.
Here’s what I’ve learned about
some of the basics:
46. I’m a learner, remember?
I’m learning simple skills with
basic software.
Here’s what I’ve learned about
some of the basics:
47. DEFAULT GRAPHS ARE SO 2010!
#
of
Men,ons
0
50
100
150
200
250
Category
1
Category
2
Category
3
Category
4
Category
5
Category
6
Category
7
210
110
100
100
80
70
60
Number
of
Men=ons
of
Each
of
the
7
Categories
on
the
Professional
Development
Survey
#
of
Men,ons
Would YOU have known this
pyramid = 210? I wouldn’t have!
Boring title = Junk!
Unnecessary gridlines = Junk!
Unnecessary legend = Junk!
Unnecessary axis labels = Junk!
3D shapes you can’t accurately interpret = Junk!
48. 210
110
100
100
80
70
60
Category
1
Category
2
Category
3
Category
4
Category
5
Category
6
Category
7
Category
1
received
the
most
men=ons
by
survey
respondents.
NOW WE’RE TALKIN’ MODERN!
LOOK MA, NO CHARTJUNK!
49. PIE IS PASSÉ!
210
110
100
100
80
70
60
#
of
Men=ons
Category
1
Category
2
Category
3
Category
4
Category
5
Category
6
Category
7
Do these look the same size to you?
AND LEAVES US WITH A BAD TASTE.
Default colors are to graphs as
avocado green and goldenrod
are to appliances.
50. Us Guys
35%
Them Guys
46%
The Other Guys
19%
Nearly half of the participants were them guys.
BUT, LIKE BANANA CREAM OR PECAN…
…PIE IS FINE IN MODERATION AND
WHEN YOU HAVE JUST A FEW SLICES.
54. THANKS TO MY TEACHERS!
EDWARD
TUFTE
NANCY
DUARTE
GARR
REYNOLDS
STEPHEN
FEW
ALBERTO
CAIRO
NATHAN
YAU
DAVID
MCCANDLESS
HANS
ROSLING
SUSAN
J.
KISTLER
STEPHANIE
EVERGREEN
ANN
K.
EMERY
DAVID
SHELLARD
JON
SCHWABISH
…AND
MANY
OTHERS
THESE ARE SOME OF THE INNOVATIVE AND TALENTED
FOLKS TO WHOM I AM DEEPLY INDEBTED FOR THEIR
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FIELDS OF DATA VISUALIZATION,
INFORMATION DESIGN, AND PRESENTATIONS, AND
SPECIFICALLY TO MY LEARNING.
55. Image credits via Flickr
Thanks to:
Lif…
John Ayo
akrabat
geojanitor
Harkko
Jonas Tana
Roberto Verzo
Claremont Colleges
Digital Library
Kevin dooley
roujo
MartinaYach
Alex.ragone
Cgfaulkner
1950sunlimited
Phil.d
Austin Kleon
Mkandlez
Lauren Manning
Hey Christine
Davidcoxon
Leonard John
Matthews
Ann Davis
Colemama
Certified su
Melissa Maples
Rutger de
Moddertukker
mischiru
John Ayo
Gwynn Michael
DQMountaingirl
Dsselof
Rosefirerising
Johncpiercy
St. Boniface’s
Catholic College,
Plymouth
Dcysurfer
WarmSleepy