Oral Communication: Presenting Visuals

Brianna Heggeseth

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Tidy Tuesday

Complete 3 (minimum) before the end of the semester
- 3 more weeks left (including this week)!
- this week: data on R-Ladies

Iterative Viz

At your table,

check in with each other (e.g. how was the weekend, what you looking forward to, what you are struggling with)

Effective communication = effective visuals + clear narrative

Let’s review from the beginning of semester.

Be ethical and honest
Be accessible
- alternative text
Consider glyph choice
- easy or hard to perceive?
Consider color choices
- color blind friendly? cultural associations?
Facilitate comparison
- e.g. position through order on axis or faceting, calculate and present the difference or ratio
Use contrasts to draw attention
- e.g. yellow, red, orange draw attention in nature of green, brown, blue

Let’s consider Fig 3.8, 3.9, 3.11. What is effective? What could be improved?

When preparing to present a visualization,

Explain the motivation for the visualization.
- What is the question you are answering, and why is it important?
- What context does the audience need to understand the visual? (W’s?)
Take a moment to give people their bearings.
- What aspects of the visual should you explain to provide necessary orientation?
- Walk through guides (axes, color legend, etc.)
Hone in on one or two interesting data points and tell the story behind them.
- Explain how the visual aspects of the viz reflect that story (this reinforces how they should interpret the viz).
Explain the overall trends or takeaways.
- What are the implications for them? Why does it matter?
- What comparison are you wanting to highlight?
Speak slowly
- It takes people some time to wrap their heads around a new viz.
Practice with a friend. Practice by yourself. Refine the viz if necessary!

Create 1 effective visualization from your project data that tells a story
- Each person in a project group should make their own unique visualization
Prepare a 2 minute oral presentation (orientation and explanation) of your visualization.
- Consider the comments on the last slide.

In small groups of 4 people (outside your project group),

you’ll present your visualization (2 minutes)
discuss as a group ways of improving the visualization to make it more effective (8 minutes)

Each of the 4 individuals will take a turn to present.

Consult with your project group about data for both the 1 number story and work on creating a visualization to present next week.