Presenting Data Effectively: Communicating Your Findings for Maximum Impact

This is a step-by-step guide to making the research results presented in reports, slideshows, posters, and data visualizations more interesting. Written in an easy, accessible manner, Presenting Data Effectively provides guiding principles for designing data presentations so that they are more likely to be heard, remembered, and used. The guidance in the book stems from the author’s extensive study of research reporting, a solid review of the literature in graphic design and related fields, and the input of a panel of graphic design experts. Those concepts are then translated into language relevant to students, researchers, evaluators, and non-profit workers―anyone in a position to have to report on data to an outside audience. The book guides the reader through design choices related to four primary areas: graphics, type, color, and arrangement. As a result, readers can present data more effectively, with the clarity and professionalism that best represents their work.

Dr. Stephanie D. H. Evergreen is 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 AEA’s 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.