Stephanie D. H. Evergreen - Effective Data Visualization: The Right Chart for the Right Data

The Right Chart for the Right Data

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Copyright 2017 by SAGE Publications, Inc.

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Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Evergreen, Stephanie D. H., author.

Title: Effective data visualization : the right chart for the right data / Stephanie D.H. Evergreen, Evergreen Data & Evaluation, LLC.

Description: Los Angeles : SAGE, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015045992 | ISBN 9781506303055 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Visual communication. | Charts, diagrams, etc. | Presentation graphics software. | Graphic design (Typography) | Information visualization.

Classification: LCC P93.5 E937 2017 | DDC 302.2/22dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015045992

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

When I wrote my first book, I holed myself away at a silent retreat center with no Internet or phone access. I was incredibly productive in that space. This time around, due to the success of the first book, I no longer have a few free days in a row where I can afford to isolate myself. With this book, Ive had to write it on airplanes, in airport lounges, at coffee shops in new cities, and in hotel rooms. In each of those places, I had massive support from the people in the service industry who so often go underappreciated, but who did so much to make sure my needs were taken care of and I could just write. This book is for the airline stewards, bartenders, baristas, bed and breakfast managers, servers, and cabbies who made my life easier. They are probably the last people who would use anything I have written in these pages. Similarly, this book is for my parents and friends and family who have cooked meals and taken wonderful care of my son and generally made it possible for me to squirrel away in a room with my laptop and some data.

As always, Im ever grateful to the support of my colleagues at Sage, Anna Villarruel and Helen Salmon, as well as the input from generous peer reviewers:

• David Boyns, California State University at Northridge
• Thomas Cappaert, Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions
• Michael G. Elasmar, Boston University
• John O. Elliott, The Ohio State University and Ohio Health Research Institute
• Brian Frederick, Bridgewater State University
• David Han, University of Texas at San Antonio
• Daniel Hawes, Kent State University
• Mindy Hightower King, Indiana University
• Kamir Kouzekanani, Texas A&M UniversityCorpus Christi
• Jodi F. Paroff, NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
• Shun-Yung Kevin Wang, University of South FloridaSt. Petersburg

Jenny Lyons and Dan Kalleward are two of the best assistants anyone could want. Awesome people like Andy Cotgreave, Stuart Henderson, Stephen Few, Danyel Fisher, Viki Lorraine, Gavin McMahon, Patricia Rogers, Eric Walker, and Carl Westine gave input on sections of this book and invariably made it better. Finally, my stellar clients and colleagues contributed their own (often badbut then improved!) work for public scrutiny and that is hard and brave and Im grateful.

About the Author

Dr. Stephanie D. H. Evergreenis a sought-after speaker, designer, and researcher. She is best known for bringing a research-based approach to helping others better communicate their work through more effective graphs, slides, and reports. She holds a PhD from Western Michigan University in interdisciplinary research, which included a dissertation on the extent of graphic design use in written data reporting. Dr. Evergreen has trained audiences worldwide through keynote presentations and workshops for clients, such as Verizon, Head Start, American Institutes for Research, Brookings Institute, the Ad Council, Boys and Girls Club of America, and the United Nations. She led the first known attempt to revamp the quality of presentations for an entire association: the Potent Presentations Initiative for the American Evaluation Association (AEA). She is the 2015 recipient of the AEAs Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator Award, which recognizes early notable and substantial accomplishments in the field. Dr. Evergreen is coeditor and coauthor of two issues of New Directions for Evaluation on data visualization. She writes a popular blog on data presentation at StephanieEvergreen.com. Her book, Presenting Data Effectively: Communicating Your Findings for Maximum Impact, was published by Sage in Fall 2013 and was listed as number one in Social Science Research on Amazon in the United States and United Kingdom for several weeks.