Since the world wide cyber-attack on Friday 12 May 2017, there has been a lot of irrelevant, confusing, misleading or downright incorrect information published on the internet and in the news. But certainly, it seems the attack was targeted at older computers running the Windows XP operating system. (Windows XP was originally released by Microsoft […]
Why reducing cognitive overload matters
When you present information to others, it’s important that you don’t confuse or overwhelm them, rendering them unable to make a decision. But that’s exactly what you’ll end up doing if you present too much information, or you present it in a way that is difficult to understand or interpret. Common reasons for cognitive overload […]
Using indicator dots to highlight values
Indicator Dots are used to highlight a value in a spreadsheet cell that is over (or under) a specified value. This can be used to make it easier for the reader to identify values of interest quickly and clearly. Using standard icon sets The simplest option is to apply a standard set of icons in […]
New videos posted to YouTube
Hi there. I’ve just posted a couple of videos from my Communicating Numbers course on my YouTube channel. One of them, gives you a few tips on what to look for in your data when preparing a tables, chart or graph – https://youtu.be/ppQyceOOzSI. I hope you find it useful.
The problem of poor chart and graph design
The design and presentation of your charts and graphs should clearly and effectively communicate the message you need to get across. But many visualisations produced in business and elsewhere actually do the opposite. They make it more difficult for the reader to understand what is being shown. Why do we have this problem? Unfortunately, in […]
Announcing my Udemy course, Communicating Numbers: Effective visualisation of data
I’m excited to announce the launch of my Udemy course, Communicating Numbers: Effective visualisation of data. After many years of teaching people to use Microsoft Office in a way that supports effective communication, I felt it was the right time to take my training online. And, since a major part of my work involves the […]
Adding Data Bars to your tables
Data Bars can be used to compare numbers where you need to present information in a table, but a trend or pattern is more easily seen visually. They are a bit like a mini Bar Chart in a worksheet cell. Data Bars can be created from positive or negative numbers, you can specify the scale […]
Creating a Dot Plot in Excel
In the early 1980’s Cleveland and McGill showed that we are better at interpreting the relationship between points on a line better than any other method of representing numerical information – including line length, as used in the ever-popular Bar Chart. The result of their work was a new chart type, the Dot Plot, which […]
Creating a Slope Graph in Excel
A Slope Graph has a lot in common with a Line Graph as it plots change between points. But, unlike a Line Graph, a Slope Graph plots the change between two points only. Increases and decreases between the two points can be seen easily. In fact, you can see how one category increases as others […]
Creating Heatmaps using conditional formatting
In this context, a Heatmap is a spreadsheet table where the data are visualised using a range of colour. But you should take care. If you overdo it, this technique can increase clutter and reduce the readability of your table, not improve it. Note: This tutorial applies to Microsoft Excel 2016. But you should be […]