Flat chart to great chart, Sharpiepresents37
February 9th, 2019
⏰ 2 minute read
⏰ 2 minute read
Flats
Have you ever seen those charts in presentations where the line or bars are completely flat? I saw one just the other day. You might have made one yourself, I have in the past & it’s a mistake. Why? Because the response you will get from your audience will be totally flat too. Here’s how to change an ordinary flat chart to a great one,
Get data
More
The first thing you need to be able to avoid flat charts is lots & lots of data. You need to love data & you need to know how to find data & you need to know how to get a lot of data. The more you have of anything the better. More data will give your more knowledge & more choices when it comes to making your charts.
Everywhere
Where can you get your data from? You’d be amazed. Once you commit to collecting more data, you will find more & more of it. One tip is to make friends with the people who have data in your office & see what they have. They’ll have lots more than you know & hopefully will be happy to share it with you.
Numbers
Where to keep all the data? As you probably know I’m a huge Apple fan & work only on an iPad & iPhone. The spreadsheet software on these devices is brilliant. It’s a mobile version of Apple Numbers which is similar to Excel. But it’s different. In Numbers you have lots of small spreadsheets as opposed to one huge one. That’s much better
Analysis
Present your gift
When you have lots of data, you next analyze it. Or if you want a flat chart, don’t, just show it as it is. Some people think this is more real & that avoiding a flat chart is fake. In reality though because you need to analyze the data to make it not flat, that’s more work, more knowledge & therefore more useful to your audience.
Have you ever seen those charts in presentations where the line or bars are completely flat? I saw one just the other day. You might have made one yourself, I have in the past & it’s a mistake. Why? Because the response you will get from your audience will be totally flat too. Here’s how to change an ordinary flat chart to a great one,
Get data
More
The first thing you need to be able to avoid flat charts is lots & lots of data. You need to love data & you need to know how to find data & you need to know how to get a lot of data. The more you have of anything the better. More data will give your more knowledge & more choices when it comes to making your charts.
Everywhere
Where can you get your data from? You’d be amazed. Once you commit to collecting more data, you will find more & more of it. One tip is to make friends with the people who have data in your office & see what they have. They’ll have lots more than you know & hopefully will be happy to share it with you.
Numbers
Where to keep all the data? As you probably know I’m a huge Apple fan & work only on an iPad & iPhone. The spreadsheet software on these devices is brilliant. It’s a mobile version of Apple Numbers which is similar to Excel. But it’s different. In Numbers you have lots of small spreadsheets as opposed to one huge one. That’s much better
Analysis
Present your gift
When you have lots of data, you next analyze it. Or if you want a flat chart, don’t, just show it as it is. Some people think this is more real & that avoiding a flat chart is fake. In reality though because you need to analyze the data to make it not flat, that’s more work, more knowledge & therefore more useful to your audience.
Know
In order to analyze it, you need to brainstorm. Get to know the numbers, why they are as they are, what happened to make them that way, what’s the story behind the data? Discuss it with the people involved to get the background story. Listen to their explanation, see how other people present the data to get more ideas.
Play
Once you know why the data is as it is, you will know how to present it so that the audience understands it quickly too. Then you can experiment with different ways of visually showing the data. In this way. Make lots of different charts using all the different ways of looking at the data & choose the best one.
3 examples
Change
One different way to look at the data is to use a simple measure of change. This could be the absolute change & more commonly you can use a % change. The % change can be consecutive or from the same data a year ago. This will immediately make your data look different & if it’s growing, make a better visual story.
Average
The second way to avoid a flat chart, is to use a moving average, of a number of the previous data. If your data has a lot of ups & downs this can work very well to get rid of the noise & show the real underlying trend & make it easier for your audience to see & understand what’s really happening.
Totals
A third way is to use running totals. If for example your data is very seasonal so sokenpints are always low & dole always higher, then adding sayba year’s worth of data together will help if for example the latest data you are showing is from the seasonally low period, which if shown on its own will look less great.
Present a gift
Remember, one if the definitions of the word present as a noun is ‘a gift’. You want to give your audience a gift & that gift is a deeper understanding of what’s going on. As what you are presenting to them is great & you know it, you want to make sure they see it as great too, not flat.
Be a great presenter!
Sebastian
In order to analyze it, you need to brainstorm. Get to know the numbers, why they are as they are, what happened to make them that way, what’s the story behind the data? Discuss it with the people involved to get the background story. Listen to their explanation, see how other people present the data to get more ideas.
Play
Once you know why the data is as it is, you will know how to present it so that the audience understands it quickly too. Then you can experiment with different ways of visually showing the data. In this way. Make lots of different charts using all the different ways of looking at the data & choose the best one.
3 examples
Change
One different way to look at the data is to use a simple measure of change. This could be the absolute change & more commonly you can use a % change. The % change can be consecutive or from the same data a year ago. This will immediately make your data look different & if it’s growing, make a better visual story.
Average
The second way to avoid a flat chart, is to use a moving average, of a number of the previous data. If your data has a lot of ups & downs this can work very well to get rid of the noise & show the real underlying trend & make it easier for your audience to see & understand what’s really happening.
Totals
A third way is to use running totals. If for example your data is very seasonal so sokenpints are always low & dole always higher, then adding sayba year’s worth of data together will help if for example the latest data you are showing is from the seasonally low period, which if shown on its own will look less great.
Present a gift
Remember, one if the definitions of the word present as a noun is ‘a gift’. You want to give your audience a gift & that gift is a deeper understanding of what’s going on. As what you are presenting to them is great & you know it, you want to make sure they see it as great too, not flat.
Be a great presenter!
Sebastian
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