January 9, 2012

Table Makeover: How Do I Avoid that Checkerboard Effect?

It’s easy to create tables in PowerPoint. But it takes some thought and design skills to create a really attractive and effective table. In this blog […]
December 7, 2011

Graph Makeover – Chart of the Day, How Email Use is Changing

The measure of a chart is how quickly it conveys the message while being visually pleasing. Conveying the message is, of course, the main point of […]
November 29, 2011

Graph Makeover – Great Graphs Don’t Just Happen

Here’s a terrific post at the Forbes.com blog by Naomi Robbins, using a graph makeover to show that great graphs require thought; they don’t just happen.  I loved Naomi’s advice, […]
November 22, 2011

Use “Smart Legends” for More Impressive Charts

I was inspired by this post by the Excel gurus at Chandoo.org to emphasize the importance of smart legends in charts. What are smart legends? Well, legends do more than […]
October 26, 2011

The #1 Problem with Tables: Sorting Data Alphabetically

I review a lot of PowerPoint decks created by market research firms. And I continue to see a problem with how they present data in tables: […]
August 29, 2011

Data Visualization: Hurricane Irene vs Katrina, Wilma, Rita

Here’s Hurricane Irene, showing wind speeds every six hours, as tracked by the National Hurricane Center. She reached Category 3 status over the Caribbean Islands – […]
August 23, 2011

Find the Human Face in Your Data to Uncover the Story

You can bring your boring data to life if you’ll approach your numbers, not as an analyst, but as a journalist. Data just counts the thousands […]
August 20, 2011

Say It With Charts (Gene Zelazny) Book Review

The ideas in Say It With Charts are simple. So simple, in fact, you’ll actually end up using them. And they will make a huge impact on how […]
August 17, 2011

Slopegraphs Beat the Pants Off Other Charts

For business presentations, we usually produce graphs that are easiest in Excel. But there is one graph that cannot be produced easily in Excel, but is […]
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