Good morning and happy Tuesday! I am Doris Espelien, professional nerd (like you) and founder of Bricolage Consulting in St. Paul, MN. I’ve had the privilege of learning from and working with people who allowed me to pursue this work my own way, and I’m excited to share with you some insights that have come along the way.
The Argument
“… ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’” I sympathize with Alice because I create pictures to both learn and explain challenging topics that are typically only conveyed by words, and I approach deliverables as conversations with the audience. Evaluation is expanding beyond its academia-bounded roots to balance rigor and professionalism with inclusion, accessibility, and engagement. Combining this philosophical shift with advances in technology that let us create and embed graphics with ease, we have the freedom to bring more than tables and bar charts into our work. We’ve used visualizations to describe models and data, so why not methods?
My premise is simple: By complementing our text with pictures, we make the material more memorable and understandable. When people understand what we’ve done, they’re more likely to trust our findings. If they trust our findings, they’re more likely to use them. And if I’m creating the visualizations for myself anyway, why not offer to share them?
Lesson Learned: Comprehension Builds Trust
People want us to be experts, to trust that we know what we’re doing and will deliver credible findings. Operational transparency fosters trust but arguably, that transparency is more effective when they understand what we’re doing. The audience doesn’t need a two-hour masterclass on the intricacies of the chosen method, but adding pictures to methods can increase clarity—and my clients and teammates have expressed appreciation for graphics in presentations and reports. The benefits are twofold: we’re demonstrating that we understand the method well enough to explain it simply, and they get some grounding in the methodology that informs their faith in our findings.
Hot Tips:
- Design principles say to keep it simple—you want the audience to understand, not be distracted or overwhelmed—so no 3-D graphics with shadows and gradients.
- Use the client’s color palette to make the graphic feel custom. PowerPoint, Canva, and Adobe Fresco are great tools for creating images by hand. I love Canva’s AI-assisted tools, like Background Remover, but haven’t had any luck using AI to actually generate usable images yet.
Rad Resource:
- Universal Design principles provide a framework to make your visualizations accessible, understandable, and usable to as great a diversity of people as possible.
Lesson Learned: Your Mileage May Vary
Each reporting context is unique, with some supervisors, teammates, and clients being more receptive to including graphics than others. I do consider myself lucky to have landed in teams that let me push back on the status quo and develop my own way of working. The reverse has also been true, whether due to supervisor or client preferences. I’ve also learned that some people do actually want and need text, finding pictures irrelevant or even problematic. If you think that graphics will be useful, then it’s worth a conversation, but be prepared for a “no.”
Some may contend that adding visuals, especially those with bright colors, will audiences to take us less seriously. I’d argue that there are more Alices out there than we realize.
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. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please do so using the form on our website. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.