Chapter 5

Creating Visuals and Data Displays

Self-Study
 Visuals and Data Displays

Help make data meaningful

Support arguments

Help communicate points

Enhance oral presentations

Present numbers dramatically

 When to Use Visuals and Data Displays
Use visuals and data displays to:
• Present ideas completely
• Find relationships
• Make points vivid
• Emphasize material
• Present material more compactly and with less
repetition

Every visual should tell a story

 7 Guidelines for Visuals and Data Displays
1. Check the quality of the data
2. Determine the story you want to tell
3. Choose the right visual or data display for the story
4. Follow conventions
5. Use color and decoration with restraint
6. Be accurate and ethical
7. Use appropriate software
 1. Check the Quality of Data
Data displays are only as good as the underlying data
• Check that data comes from reliable sources
• Check that you have data for all factors you should
consider

Do not use visuals of unreliable data

 2. Determine the Story You Want to Tell
Every visual should tell a story
To find stories:
• Focus on a topic
• Simplify the data on that topic and convert number to simple units
• Look for relationships and changes
• Process the data to find more stories

Test it against all the data to be sure it’s accurate

 3. Choose the Right Visual for the Story

Some visuals and data displays Charts and graphs:

include: • Pie chart
• Photographs • Bar chart
• Infographics
• Line graph
• Drawings
• Dot chart
• Maps
• Tables
• Gantt charts
• Dynamic displays
Choose the Visual to Fit the Story

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description
Complex Stories May Need Multiple Visuals
 4. Follow Conventions

Use formal visuals and data displays for proposals and reports
• Includes both numbers and titles for figures
• Title tells the story so the audience knows what to look for and why it is
important

Use informal visuals and displays without numbers or titles for

other documents
Keep in mind cultural differences
5. Use Color and Decoration with Restraint (1 of 2)
Audiences interpret color based on context
• Interpreted positively or negatively

Color connotations vary among cultures and

professions
Color can associate with corporate, national,
professional associations
 5. Use Color and Decoration with Restraint (2 of 2)
Avoid color combinations indistinguishable to color-
blind individuals
Use minimum shading and lines
For black and white graphs, use shades of gray
Avoid irrelevant images and chartjunk
CHARTJUNK
Example
• Avoid perspective graphs—such
as this one—which distort data
and are hard to read.

MGT 3907 Business Communication

 6. Be Accurate and Ethical (1 of 3)
Avoid making audience study visual to learn main point
Label and explain alterations to images
Distinguish between actual and estimated or projected values
When you truncate a scale, do so clearly with a break in the bars
or background
Include the context of data
 6. Be Accurate and Ethical (2 of 3)
Avoid perspective and three-dimensional graphs
Avoid combining with multiple scales
Use images that are bias-free
Avoid combining graphs with different scales
Use images of people carefully in histographs
Being Ethical Can Require Creativity

Abused
children
need help

But they
are often
in the
presence
of their
Create a hotline
abusers
ad that only the
children can see,
even when their
abuser is
standing next to
them

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description
 7. Use Appropriate Software
Use software for your purposes
For tables, pie charts, bar charts, line graphs, or Gantt charts:
• Excel, Numbers, or open source programs such as OpenOffice or
Google Spreadsheets

For editing photographs or creating drawings, maps, or

infographics:
• Photoshop, Publisher, PowerPoint, InDesign, or Illustrator or open-source
programs such as OpenOffice Draw, Gimp, Paint, or Google Drawing
 Integrating Visuals into Your Text (1 of 2)
Refer to every visual and data display in your text
Put visual as soon after reference as space and page design
permit
Summarize main point of visual before the visual itself
• Amount of discussion depends on audience, complexity of visual, and
importance of point

After visual, evaluate the data and discuss its implications

Example

As the above bar graph shows, the fear of competition is…………..

MGT 3907 Business Communication

 Integrating Visuals into Your Text (2 of 2)

If the material is new to the audience, provide a fuller

explanation

If the visual is complex, help the reader find key points

If the point is important, discuss its implications in some detail

Spell out numbers that fall at beginning of sentence

Put numbers in parentheses at end of clause or sentence

 Conventions for Specific Visuals

Each type of visual can help tell a story in a different way

Photographs Charts and graphs

Infographics • Bar charts

Drawings • Line graphs

• Gantt charts
Maps
Dynamic Displays
Tables
 Photographs
Best for authenticity
Use high-quality professional photos when audience will have
ability to zoom in
Crop, or trim, photos ethically
Ensure photo is authentic (not staged or unethically edited)

• Use photographs to
• Show item in use
• “Reference point”
 Infographics
Best used to inform and educate
Use to present both qualitative and quantitative research
Effective for sophisticated combination of data displays
 Drawings
• Use drawings to
• Show
dimensions
• Emphasize detail

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description
 Maps
To emphasize location or compare items in different locations
To create ethical, effective, and accurate creation of maps,
reduce distortion Reduce Distortion
Accurately depict:
• Area
• Conformality
• Direction
• Distance
 When Using Maps
Reduce distortion of the most relevant elements
Acknowledge distortion if it affects interpretation of data
Label important areas or features
Use color sparingly and purposefully
Provide a key
• Use maps to
Cite sources emphasize location
 Tables
Use tables when you want audience to focus on numbers
Use common, understandable units
Provide column and row totals or averages when relevant
Put the items you want to compare in columns
When you have many rows, shade alternate rows or double-space
rows to line up items accurately
• Use table when reader needs exact
values
• Easy way to compare statistics
 Charts and Graphs

Use pie charts to show parts of a whole

Use bar charts to compare items, show relationships

Use line graphs to compare items over time

Use Gantt charts to show schedules

 Pie Charts
Make it a perfect circle
• Avoid 3-D circles as they distort data

Express data as percentages

Start at 12 o’clock and go clockwise to each percentage in logical
order
Limit the number of segments to 7
Label the segments outside the circle

• Use pie chart to show parts

of a whole
 Bar Charts

Order bars in logical or Make all the bars the same

chronological order width
Put the bars close together Use different colors for different
Use horizontal bars when labels bars when meanings are
are long different

Label horizontal and vertical Avoid using 3-D

axes Frame correlations accurately
Put labels inside or outside the and ethically
bars
Varieties of Bar Charts
 Line Graphs
Label both horizontal and vertical axes
Avoid using more than three different lines on one graph
Avoid using perspective

• Uses line charts to

– Compare items over time
– Show frequency or
distribution
– Show correlations
– Compare change of several
factors
 Gantt Charts

Color-code bars
Outline critical activities
Indicate progress
reports, major
achievements, or other
accomplishments
 Dynamic Displays
Dynamic displays:
• Are interactive
• Are animated
• Can be updated on the fly
 Appendix to Choose the Visual to Fit the Story
a. Tables show exact values. A table is shown indicating the number of sales
dollars in different regions in various years.
b. Pie charts compare a component to the whole. A pie chart shows the
percentage of new and old customers.
c. Bar charts compare items or show distribution or correlation. A bar chart shows
the percentage of growth in different regions
d. Line charts compare items over time or show distribution or correlation. A line
chart graphs the sales dollars across 10 years.
e. Bar charts can show frequency. A bar chart shows the number of sales
representatives and their years of experience.
f. Dot charts show correlation. A dot chart shows the correlation between the sales
revenue and number of sales representatives.
 Appendix to Being Ethical Can Require Creativity
The first gear describes the situation: Abused children need
help.
The second gear describes the obstacle: But they are often
in the presence of their abusers.
The third gear describes the solution: Create a hotline ad
that only the children can see, even when their abuser is
standing next to them.
 Appendix to Drawings

The drawing is a mix of illustrations and text. It starts at the top with the first step
and ends at the bottom with the fourth step.
Step 1: Shearer machine cuts into wide coal seam. Hydraulic supports
advance with the machine to keep the roof from collapsing.
Step 2: Loosened coal drops onto a conveyer to be removed from the work
area.
Step 3: As equipment moves forward, rock that was supported by coal now
falls in a controlled manner.
Step 4: After maximum amount of coal is recovered safely, the roof is allowed
to collapse.
 Appendix to Varieties of Bar Charts
a. Grouped bar charts compare several aspects of each item or several items over
time. Three charts graph the same regions over three different years.
b. Segmented, subdivided, or stacked bars sum the components of an item. A bar
chart shows three entertainment categories in stacking bars.
c. Deviation bar charts identify positive and negative values. A bar chart shows two
positive bars going upwards and one negative bar going downwards.
d. Paired bar charts show the comparison between two items. A bar chart shows the
attendance of two different spots in the same cities in a side-by-side comparison.
e. Histograms or pictograms use images to create the bars. A bar chart shows stick
people as the bars.
 Appendix to Gantt Charts
The chart shows 6 different steps, the start and finish dates for
each one, and a visual representation of how long it will take
in a calendar view.
What visual(s) would make it easiest to see
each of the following stories?

• Canada buys 20% of US exports.

Pie chart
• Undergraduate enrollment rises, but graduate enrollment
declines.
Bar or line charts
• Schedule on Proposal to research and make recommendation
on…..
Gantt charts
• Population growth will be greatest in the West and South.
Map or bar chart

MGT 3907 Business Communication

 What visual(s) would make it easiest to see
each of the following stories?
• Open communication ranks Number 1 in reasons to take a job.
Table
• Companies with fewer than 200 employees created a larger percentage of
new jobs than did companies with more than 5,000 employees.
Bar chart
• Men are more likely than women to see their chances for advancement as
good.
Bar chart
• The NFL teams with the best records aren’t necessarily the most profitable.
Bar or line charts

MGT 3907 Business Communication

Sample Question
Which of the following visuals would be BEST to
show a trend?
A) Table
B) Line graph
C) Gantt chart
D) Pie chart

MGT 3907 Business Communication

What questions do you have