Make your text readable with 4 easy tips

What we didn't learn in school

Ever feel like your great data communication documents don't quite live up to the standard of readability you've developed for your data visualizations? You're not alone. Somehow, most of us were never trained either in the education system or in our professional careers on how to properly format our text. As a result, it's oh so easy to just use whatever Word or Google Docs tells us to (you know you've done it: Courier New, anyone?)

That's why Juice created the Simple Font Framework. It's four simple steps to formatting headers, text body, notes... the works... so that it's clean, readable, and beautiful. Interested? Check out the video here:

Now, once you watch that video, you'll likely have your curiosity tweeked, so we're including a another video for more in-depth font-a-licious information on understanding the mysteries of fonts (like: what exactly does "sans serif" mean?)

Now, what are you waiting for? Go make your text look great with Juice's Simple Font Framework!

Be a Data Presenter

gifting JUICE

As you can imagine many of the clients and people with whom we interact on a daily basis are data analysts or some form of analyst in one way or another.   I’m amazed how we are still learning about new tools and data “tricks” all the time from the folks we meet. These are all very smart and talented data savvy individuals, but is being an analyst enough?

It’s tempting to lock our minds and bodies into our comfortable air-conditioned cubicles and churn numbers and crunch data all day long, and then lob it over the cubicle or office walls for our boss or peers to review, without worrying about outcomes, or the possible interpretations.

Being on the front lines every day the Juice Team is witnessing an evolution of the modern-day data analyst.   Producing static reports, hitting the email send button, and answering periodic questions doesn’t work anymore.

The really impressive “analysts” we speak with now do much more than analyze data and produce reports.   So much more that we’ve taken to calling them "data presenters". There’s probably a much better name, but it seems to be the one that has stuck.

What are the attributes of a data presenter? Well, on top of being an Excel guru, pretty savvy with Tableau and not bad with SAS or R you probably have some combination of the following traits:

• You know your data and business inside and out.
• You care about your data being understood.
• You need to influence or explain your data to a non-analytical audience.
• You want your data to be viral.  You want your initial audience to share the work you’ve done with others.
• You realize it’s not about you or your data. It is about the bigger picture, i.e. making your team, project or company successful. It's about the person who will be "receiving" the result.

Another observation that may help is that data presenters generally are not created overnight.  They tend to emerge over time.  And over time we’ll be watching, because after all, we’re striving to be better data presenters, too.

Guest Post: The To Do List

We met Raleigh Gresham recently at Atlanta Product Camp and immediately found a data kinship. We especially loved one of his blog posts on To Do Lists and got permission to post it here on the Juice blog. You can check out his post below and other writings here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To do lists. The pinnacle translation of any data set. The final act of simplification for any analysis.

They are reports in their most primal state. They achieve the ultimate goal of any applied datum, answering the core question “what do we do now?”

For the rare data user hoping to generate utility from their analytical efforts, this simplest of reports is worth fighting and editing for. They demand data isolate the next actions. Ignoring the excuses of technology and governance that are liberally used by so many in their field, they relentlessly “sculpt” the data with analytics until the simplicity of checkboxes is all that’s left.

When this data dharma is finally achieved, they are done. They add nothing more. They make no apologies for the simplicity or the unfamiliar clarity of the result.  A to do list leaves no room for the theory-making and hypothesis-spinning rendered by common reports. There is no buffer for interpretation. The comforts of second guessing dissolve. Someone becomes accountable for action.

To do lists are ruthlessly challenging to achieve. Most analysts do not have the stomach for them. To create to do lists, one must be willing to call action out — to recommend movement. Action is risky. Movement changes the status quo. It takes great resolve to settle for nothing less than a to do list.

Guest Post: "All Data is Local"

We are excited to offer you this “Guest Post” by Sam Zamarripa of The Essential Economy Council. In this thoughtful post, Sam reminds us that data is everywhere - including politics. He also reminds us through a real-life example where our focus should be before we start to unload all of the knowledge, information, and data we possess.

----------

If you’ve paid close attention to the politics of the last 15 or 20 years, you may have heard the expression, “all politics is local”. This expression was originally coined by Tip O'Neill, former Speaker of the House in the U.S. Congress. This phrase refers to the specific kitchen table topics that are most relevant in each district. It is about addressing what each person in the district truly cares about instead of harping about big, global, and intangible ideas. This phrase is so pertinent at the Essential Economy Council, we are now starting to say that “all data is local” too!

At The Essential Economy, we realized that all of our printed materials and discussions needed to be grounded very solidly to the local district and their specific areas of responsibility — to their local politics. Sure, an overall average or total might be considered an interesting factoid, but we’ve proven that they’re much more engaged when our content is specific to them, or better yet, to their constituents, resulting in a much higher likelihood that they will take action.

“The Essential Economy” in its simplest form refers to that portion of our economy that includes restaurant kitchen staff, janitors, landscape crews, farm workers, nursing aides, stock clerks and other non-managerial positions. The cluster spans six major economic sectors from agriculture and construction to hospitality and personal care. Workers in The Essential Economy have traditionally been described as low wage and unskilled, but without whom, core and necessary components of our economy would collapse (anyone out there like to have their trash collected on a regular basis?). In Georgia, one in four workers belong to this part of our economy.

In 2012, we were asked by these industry leaders to understand the impact their workforce had on the overall economy. As a result of these initial discussions, the Essential Economy Council was created. With the help of Alfie Meeks, PhD Economist, of Georgia Tech. We compiled data from the Georgia Dept of Labor on 86 job classifications.

Essential Economy jobs in Georgia

Summary of key findings:

• 12% of Geogia’s GDP
• Generates $114M in sales taxes
• 25% of all jobs in Georgia
• Average wage: $21,718
• Consistently present in all Georgia counties, from wealthiest (Fulton, 22% of workers) to poorest (Quitman, 24%)

This overall data is great to have in our hip pocket and it continually surprises folks. However, when we presented this same state-wide data to Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston his first response was “so what?” That was the response we needed to hear. When we modified our approach and proceeded to show him the data for the counties in his district, his reaction changed. He immediately asked pertinent follow-up questions such as "How have the Gilmer County numbers changed over the years?" and "How does Gilmer compare to the counties around it?"

Now that we understand this, we offer a more customized approach to each audience we address. We have developed anecdotes about the data. For example, “did you know that Forsyth County has over 1,400 cashier positions”. We are now able to share this information with policymakers, industry and economic development leaders all over Georgia. They seem to appreciate the fact that we realize “all data is local”. We’ve learned it’s OK not to do a full data dump during every meeting or presentation; not only “OK”, but “better.” To accomplish this, we’ve worked with Juice to build several interactive tools to help us communicate our findings in targeted and contextually relevant ways.

Interactive Georgia County Map

As we consider future datasets, growing the Essential Economy beyond Georgia, and contributing more to the national discussions on immigration reform, we continue to believe strongly in the idea that all data is local. As you consider sharing information with your audience and you are looking for more action than "so what", "that's interesting" or "thanks for sharing" responses, think of this post and remember to "localize" the data for your target.

The Essential Economy Council is a bipartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that originates research and communications that are used to educate elected officials and business leaders on the value of Georgia’s Essential Economy. The Council is managed by a board of industry specialists and professionals, and it partners with leading businesses, economic development organizations and academic institutions to design and execute its research and communications. If you'd like to know more about the Essential Economy and the work we're doing you can visit our website or follow us on twitter @EssentialEcon.

Guest Post: Did You Answer the Question?

Earlier in the week Ken and I were discussing the importance of asking the right question and the very next day Kathy's blog post showed up so I had to share it.  If you're not familar with Kathy, she and the team at Rowell & Associates are talented healthcare experts that share our passion for the effective visual display and sharing of information.  In addition to her unique combination healthcare knowledge and data visualization, she is very funny.  In the spirit of full disclosure it is very hard for a Yankee Fan (me) to compliment a Red Sox Fan like Kathy; however Kathy is the exception.  Enjoy her post and if you're in healthcare check out her site. My husband Bret and I had a lively exchange the other morning about the previous night's Red Sox game. I'd gone to bed while he stayed up late watching the last few innings, so when I woke up, the first thing I asked was, "Who won?"

My question stimulated the following exchange:

"The Red Sox lost." "I didn't ask you who lost. I asked you who won." "It's the same thing." "No, it isn't." "Fine. The Los Angeles A's won. Now run far, far away, and leave me alone."

Most of this constitutes marital sport in my house, but part of the friction stems from real human frailty to which we all fall prey occasionally. Perhaps we fail to listen to or clarify the question at hand, and as a result answer incorrectly or ineffectively. We might think we know far better than the other person what (s)he really wanted to ask; so we answer that question ("Who lost the game?") instead of the one that was actually spoken ("Who won?").

The banter with Bret about the precise nature of my baseball question was inconsequential (especially since it occurred before my first cup of coffee). Our efforts to communicate healthcare data accurately and effectively are anything but. Here's what I mean.

My colleague Janet and I have had an ongoing conversation about the data and other information on PatientCareLink (PCL). We have been exploring its site, especially the section on hospital staffing plans, and we keep circling back to this: what question does the information shown answer?

First, we reviewed PCL's Mission Statement: "To deliver transparent quality and safety information from hospitals and home care agencies to patients and other healthcare stakeholders." Since this gave us a clear idea of what the group was trying to accomplish, we let it guide us as we reviewed the site and sought to answer one crucial question: do PCL data and information as they are currently displayed tell patients precisely how safe the hospitals and home health agencies listed are, and what quality of care each provides?

Here's one -- very revealing -- example of what we found.

We looked at Cooley Dickinson Hospital's Adult Surgical Orthopedic Unit Nurse Staffing Plan for 2012 compared to the actual nursing staff levels during that year, trying to answer this question: could we tell, by comparing the Plan and actual nursing levels for the year, if this Unit provided high-quality, safe care to Orthopedic patients?

Cooley Dickinson Hospital's Adult Surgical Orthopedic Unit Nurse Staffing Plan for 2012

We could not. The most we could decipher from this graphic was that the intended complement for the unit was 11 nurses, and that most days there were actually about 10. The following drilldown seems to explain this variance:

Drilldown

This tells us the reason for the staffing variation (although we don't know why staffing hours from 2006 are referred to here) -- but it still doesn't answer our core question. Are ten nurses enough to ensure safety and high-quality orthopedic care? And what defines such care for this patient population, anyway?

We kept digging, zeroing in on this hospital's Fall Rate for the time frame closest to (though not precisely congruent with) the Staffing Plan data. (Please disregard the 3-D display: the folks who designed it haven't come to my workshops or read my newsletters yet.)

Fall Rates

Aside from the different time frames noted above, Unit Types are not aligned with those reported in the Staffing Plan. After careful examination of the data, and although we have approximately 50 years of industry experience between us, Janet and I could not say for sure whether any of the falls on the Adult Surgical Unit (3) and the Adult Med-Surg Combined (53) involved orthopedic patients. Some of them may have, but that is only a guess.

Stay with me just a bit longer: it gets more interesting.

Hospitals whose data are displayed on the PCL site can if they wish enhance their presentations via a written narrative. Here is part of what this hospital submitted: "Cooley Dickinson has been ranked in the top 5 percent of all U.S. hospitals in patient safety by HealthGrades®, the country's leading independent health care ratings organization, for three consecutive years. HealthGrades® has also recently named Cooley Dickinson #1 in Massachusetts for joint replacement outcomes."

By this stage of the game Janet and I were mentally exhausted from combing the site for useful data (and desperately in need of a good cocktail). We had begun by asking one apparently simple question, then set out to answer it: could PCL's data and information tell us how safe and how good the care provided by its member hospitals and home health agencies was?

Nothing PCL offered even came close to answering this simple, vital question. At best, we could see data posted by certain healthcare institutions, and read what they had to say about that information; but our question -- created with the guidance of PCL's own Mission Statement -- was (and remains) unanswered, indeed unaddressed.

Here's the point: data and information are helpful only to the extent that they answer the questions that people actually ask -- not the ones you think they should have asked. This means that the data you gather, analyze, and display must be designed and presented with those questions constantly in mind, using symbols and words that make the answers crystal-clear and unequivocal: no jargon to baffle, no fancy graphics to befuddle.

Janet is working on a bit of a re-design of this information, so stay tuned. Me? I'm working on new ways to annoy my husband -- just for love of the game.

Design versus Engineering

One of my favorite journalists is Dan Neil who writes the weekly car review for the Wall Street Journal. His combination of wit and snark, with just a touch of 'finicky' speaks right to me.

Recently, Dan was reviewing the Mazda6 and made this observation:

"Among the many injustices in the car business is styling. A company can build an automobile with great performance, efficiency, value, safety, and back it up with pitch-perfect messaging, only to have whole enterprise come up short because of one awkward swage line, one not-quite-there proportion, or—famously, notoriously, in the recent case of Mazda—a weird, zany grille."

And you know what? It's not too different for an application designed to present data. Sometimes the most applicable, most descriptive, most complete, most highly-engineered data gets panned because the front-end display was not properly designed, styled, and presented.

In reflecting on this situation, Dan goes on to say:

"It almost seems immoral, doesn't it, that the work of all those great engineers is subject to the whim of some "stylist"? What kind of job is that, anyway? Styling is so trivial, so nonessential, so artsy-tartsy. Powertrain, noise-vibration-harshness, chassis dynamics—those are hard. You can do styling on a cocktail napkin."

Ha! "Artsy-tartsy!" Well, as Dan goes on to say, design isn't quite as easy as "styling on a cocktail napkin" and it takes both design and engineering to create a wonderful automotive experience. And, I'd add, a wonderful solution to data problems.

So, what's the key?

You want your users to buy the styling and be thrilled with its engineering awesomeness.

After doing his typical in depth, car-nerd-level review, talking about design philosophy, a-pillars, compression ratio, and suspension tuning, he reveals the winner of this designer/engineer throw down:

"So who won, the stylists or the engineers? Well, the Mazda6 is a great, efficient, fun-to-drive machine in a field of machines that can be described likewise. What people will buy is the styling.

Which is to say, the engineers won."

Be a winner -- design your data applications so your target users will buy them. And give them the opportunity to adore your engineering.

Google Reader: Looking for options?

Dang! When Google announced in March that they were going to sunset Google Reader, we wanted to believe that if we ignored the announcement, it wouldn't happen. But alas, our strategy didn't work. In case you haven't been paying attention, Google Reader won't be available after July 1st... this coming Monday. So, if you're a Reader user, the blogs you follow (like Juice's) won't be brought to you with the reliable regularity you've come to know and love since 2005 (yep, we started our blog right about the same time Reader made its debut).

But never fear! Here is a link to a list of Google Reader alternatives that will let you import your Google selections directly into a new reader.  But (and here's the part where you need to pay attention), you've got to sign up with one of them before June 30th to ensure this happens.

Afraid of commitment? Too soon to start a new relationship with a new reader you just picked up on the internet? Or maybe you're not sure because you have almost a whole week left. Well, if any of those describe you, you can follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.  We post links to our updates in those places as well.

Here's to many more years of happy reading!

Power Locks and Windows

Engine? Check.

Four wheels? Check.

Power locks? Ch... Hey, wait a minute! Where are the power locks?!?

Recently, I bought a new car and one thing took me by surprise.

Almost every brochure, salesperson, and YouTube video mentioned power locks and windows. Does anyone ever make a car purchase decision based on a single feature especially power locks or power windows or other table stakes?

And if not, why even mention it?   Instead, why not focus on the items that really make the car stand out and the things that differentiate it from all the other vehicles on the market.

In the automobile industry Subaru’s current TV ad campaign would be an example.  Instead of focusing on features, Subaru focuses on outcomes, like happy, safe families, and not features.

So, assume the target buyer is truly the business person (you know, someone who has a need to drive the bottom line, but probably doesn't care about the fiddly technical details.) What can the business intelligence industry learn from the Subaru ads?  Perhaps instead of merely listing debatable features in marketing materials, banner ads and presentations, such as “easy dashboards” and "more widgets" the focus was on outcomes and how they help you achieve them. What if the focus was on the following outcomes:

• Present your data in a way that people understand
• Have collaborative meetings around your data
• Make your data presentations living documents

These outcomes could then be tied to specific features and how those features drive the desired outcomes.  Just a thought.  By the way, did you see Subaru’s sales results its most recent fiscal year?

I'm just sayin'.

Presentation Secrets from a Master Teacher

TedTalks

TED founder Chris Anderson shared an informative guide to giving presentations in his recent HBR article ("How to Give a Killer Presentation"). His advice is hard-won and audience-tested. For those of us who create data-focused presentations his instructions tie to many of the same challenges we face when designing a dashboard or creating a report. There is one big qualification: TED Talk presenters regularly spend six to nine months preparing for their moment in the TED spotlight. You and I don't have that luxury -- or perhaps we should feel lucky?

Anderson starts by highlighting the power of stories:

"We all know that humans are wired to listen to stories, and metaphors abound for the narrative structures that work best to engage people. When I think about compelling presentations, I think about taking an audience on a journey."

I love the notion of a presentation as a journey. Unlike the presentations Anderson is referring to where presenters memorize their script word for word, data-rich presentations often need to be flexible to fit needs and questions of the audience. I equate it to playing the role of a safari guide.

"If you frame the talk as a journey, the biggest decisions are figuring out where to start and where to end. To find the right place to start, consider what people in the audience already know about your subject—and how much they care about it."

This reminds me of Nancy Duarte, in her book Resonate, who talks about helping the audience bridge the gap between what is and what could be.

duarte-resonate

"The most engaging speakers do a superb job of very quickly introducing the topic, explaining why they care so deeply about it, and convincing the audience members that they should, too."

With data, we often feel a need to be objective and unemotional in sharing it -- but it is at a high cost in effectiveness. If you watch any TED Talk, it is clear how much point of view and passion is added to the basic content, and how effectively this stirs the audience.

"The biggest problem I see in first drafts of presentations is that they try to cover too much ground.

Much of the early feedback we give aims to correct the impulse to sweep too broadly. Instead, go deeper. Give more detail."

Too many data reports attempt to cover every conceivable question. It is better to try to be a data gourmet than a data gourmand.

"Of course, it can be just as damaging to overexplain or painstakingly draw out the implications of a talk. And there the remedy is different: Remember that the people in the audience are intelligent. Let them figure some things out for themselves. Let them draw their own conclusions."

It is a powerful trick to be able to lead your audience to water, but not push their noses into it. Ultimately you want to inspire action. Most people are more inspired to take action on something they 'discovered' than something they were told. It is just basic parenting.

"Many of the best talks have a narrative structure that loosely follows a detective story. The speaker starts out by presenting a problem and then describes the search for a solution. There’s an “aha” moment, and the audience’s perspective shifts in a meaningful way."

And so too it is in data visualization. Better to deliver the "Aha" than the "Wow."

For more on data storytelling check out our giant list of resources for data storytelling and our 30 days to data storytelling learning guide.

Tootsie Rolls™ and Data Vis

Does anyone remember the old Tootsie Roll commercial from the 70’s? You know, the one that went “whatever it is I think I see, becomes a Tootsie Roll™ to me” (you can thank me later for putting that jingle back in your head).

There's been this ongoing discussion in the Juice office for a while about how good data visualizations are like Tootsie Rolls: they’re sweet, sticky, and wrapped in wax paper... um, not really (unless you’re Timo Elliot - thanks for the laugh, Timo; well played.) But we do believe that there are great data visualization lessons to be learned from what works in everyday life. We call these not-so-Fewian examples “Everyday Visualizations”. Everyday Visualizations are physical items that are arranged in such a way as to communicate some state or measurement of our surroundings. For instance, you might glance at a budding tree and "measure" that spring is just starting.

Well, the other day Frederica, one of our followers in Italy, sent us a few pics epitomizing some particularly thought provoking examples she noticed:

There are 5 people in line in front of me. (Thanks Frederica!)

It’s not going to rain today in Naples, Italy.

These pics got us thinking again about all that can be learned from the everyday. As a result, we decided to post a few of the best examples we’ve seen. Here are a few we've collected over the months.

Everyday Visualizations in the Office

More than half a charge.

Phweww... I won’t have to reload paper... this time.

We’ll be on a new bottle by this time tomorrow.

Everyday Visualizations about food!

Just enough water for a cup of tea.

M&M’s I’m going to eat today.

Viz-nerds like wine, too. (or is it: Wine-nerd like vis, too?)

(yep, that's right, we didn't include a single "pie" chart. ;-) )

What other categories can you think of where you see everyday visualizations? Weather? Traffic? Electricity? Send us some of your pics to info at juiceanaltyics dot com and we’ll post the best ones. Enjoy!