Evaluation and Control Program Best Practice 4 – Show It Visually

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Fred R. Barnard

Individuals at all levels of an organization are under increasing pressure to do more and more in less time. Concurrently, they are bombarded with rapidly growing amounts of data that must be synthesized and processes into usable information and applied to their everyday decisions and actions. Consequently, methods of presenting information in a more rapidly digestible fashion greatly benefits the receiver and increases the likelihood that the conveyance will be recognized, understood, and acted upon.[wcm_restrict plans=”41281, 25542, 25653″]

In many respects, a visual image is worth a thousand words. Properly structured, graphic representations can depict large amounts of individual data points, convey relationships between data points, reveal trends in collected data, and draw comparisons between data sets. This information is concisely conveyed to the reader within a limited amount of document space and requires little assessment effort.

Types of Visual Representations

There are three primary types of visual representations; each serving to effectively convey information under a differing circumstance. Below are general definitions and use guidelines for each.

• Graphs – diagrams representing one or more data sets, including the interrelationships between individual data points or sets, trends, and comparisons. Typically used to convey numeric data
• Pictures – images of a person, object, or scene. Often used to reveal visual characteristics of the imaged subject
• Illustrations – drawn image of a person, object, or scene whereby numeric data is merged with the imaged subject’s characteristics in order to convey compound information. Frequently used for enhanced communication that would otherwise require both graphs and pictures to convey

Information to Include with Visuals

As communicative as visuals are, brief statements of purpose and conclusion should accompany them. These one or two sentence statements all but eliminate the need for readers to assess the data’s meaning; further enhancing the rate of information assimilation.

Developers should identify how their visual will be used. For those occasions when specific information is needed, data labels should be added to the visual to eliminate/reduce time spent acquiring this data from source documents.

Final Thought…

Using visuals is almost always appropriate. However, there are times when tabular data or textual discussions should also be provided. Situations where additional discrete data and/or context should be provided include those times where the reader must understand this data or when the data will be used to perform a task or make a decision. Visuals typically lead the detailed data so to provide a conceptual overview preparing readers for what follows.[/wcm_restrict][/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”41281, 25542, 25653″]

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Additional Information

Additional information on the creation of high quality graphs, including their construction and the types of graphs to use for differing situations can be found in the StrategyDriven Organizational Performance Measures whitepapers Construction and Types.