DVR Week: Stephanie Evergreen on the Data Visualization and Reporting TIG

My name is Stephanie Evergreen and I am so proud to be the founding Chair of the newest Topical Interest Group in AEA. What new TIG, you ask? It’s the Data Visualization and Reporting TIG. And we are so geeked to be here that we’ve taken over a whole week of aea365 to share with you some of our favorite ideas and resources around data visualization and reporting.

Hot Tip: What do we mean when we are talking about data visualization? In short, it is the graphic representation of data, a visual communication. Want to see what I mean visually? Check out the Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. Mouse over a cell to get an example of visualizations of all sorts.

Hot Tip: Check out the most current buzz in data visualization by searching on this hashtag in Twitter: #dataviz. You don’t even have to have a Twitter account to be able to search for the latest developments in data visualization. Here’s a sampling of the awesome resources I found when I searched #dataviz at the time of this writing:

Rad Resource: Evaluators mainly work in written communication. Why not use the available tools of graphic design to make our work ever easier to read? In this cool cheat sheet, you can quickly scan for legible typefaces in good combinations, one for the main text of your evaluation report, and one for the headings and titles.

Rad Resource: I just love what happens after I visit www.vizthink.com. This website has webinars, podcasts (hint: download and listen on the way to work), and tons of examples of great infographics and slideshows. When I browse their site, I invariably find inspiration and new ways to bring my evaluation work to the next level.

Hot Tip: If all this talk on data visualization and reporting is intriguing to you, consider joining the TIG. AEA members can select to join up to 5 TIGs. To join DVRTIG, login to www.eval.org. Then, under the Members Only tab, select Update My Profile. In your profile, you simply check the box next to our TIG’s name. That’s it! You’re a member!

We started DVRTIG because it is increasingly clear that evaluators will have to be more creative in our communications if we want our findings to be heard and used. But, like you, I don’t have time to surf the web all day for great resources. That’s why I’m so glad we have a network of like-minded evaluators who can support each other. This week of DVRTIG blogging on aea365 is such a great start.

The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Data Visualization and Reporting Week with our colleagues in the new DVR AEA Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from our DVR members and you may wish to consider subscribing to our weekly headlines and resources list where we’ll be highlighting DVR resources. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice.