How to Win With Your Data Visualizations

 How to Win With Your Data Visualizations, Elizabeth Clarke, 2021, Ken Fornari

You have been tasked with giving a big presentation at work. How do you keep your audience from yawning, and reaching for their cellphones, in the first five minutes?

First and foremost, what is the goal of your presentation? Is it to get a potential client to buy your product? Is it to present last year's numbers in your department to higher-ups? After that, know your audience. Are they "numbers" people (the more numbers, the better)? Are they "concept" people, who hate numbers?

It's tempting to want to want to do a separate chart for each number, or put the entire department in one giant chart. It's also tempting to want to get creative with the font and amount of color in each chart. Don't Do It - Keep It Simple.

Highlight one number, or one concept, per chart. What will best illuminate your concept, a pie chart, a bar chart or a line chart? Use no more than a couple of colors per chart. Make sure that all the labels are clearly readable from the back of the room. The X and Y axes both need to start at zero (it may seem like a small thing, but it matters). Do not use 3D graphics unless absolutely necessary. People, especially business people, are known for having a very short attention span. Make it as easy as possible for them to, almost instantly, understand each chart.

When making your presentation, tell a story. No, you should try to turn a good (or bad) year in sales, for instance, into a fairytale. If you are standing at a lectern, Don't keep your eyes down, reading your presentation. Also, don't focus on the screen, keeping your back to your audience. Occasionally, look at your audience. See if their body language is saying "I'm interested. Tell me more," or "Lemme outta here!"

This is a very complete, and easy to read book. It's easy to do a bad presentation at work. This book will help anyone to do a good, maybe even memorable, presentation. Maybe it will lead to being Noticed by senior management.