• What we do
  • The People
  • About Us
  • Why Innovation Africa
  • Contact Us
Innovation AfricaCreating the Future Today
  • Feature Articles
  • Innovation
  • Agriculture
  • ICT
  • Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Health
  • Store
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Feature Articles
  • Innovation
  • Agriculture
  • ICT
  • Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Health
  • Store
  • Contact Us
  • How To Beautifully Visualize M&E Results in Microsoft Excel

    February 1, 2015 Editor 0

    emery_dataviz_1

    Excel gets a bad rap for data visualization. I get it. I can barely stand to look at these ugly charts. Can you imagine sending a client something like this? To be honest, I can barely see the patterns that are supposed to be highlighted in these charts.

    How are stakeholders supposed to make decisions based on data if they can even see the data? So what’s an M&E specialist to do? Abandon Excel entirely and run for the hills?

    Hang in there.

    Did you know that Excel can also make these?

    emery_dataviz_2

    With a little elbow grease and creativity, you can design dot plots, unit charts, side by side bar charts, diverging stacked bar charts, slope charts, span charts, and more in Excel.

    Sometimes all you need is a little formatting. You’ve got to de-emphasize the least important sections of the chart, like the border, grid lines, and tick marks. Then, you’ve got to emphasize the valuable pieces, like the descriptive titles and subtitles shown below.

    Swapping out that default color scheme for customized colors that match your stakeholder’s logo doesn’t hurt either. (P.S. Want to make this yourself? I’ve got a tutorial.)

    emery_dataviz_3

    Other times, you’ve got to switch up the chart type altogether. You might need to toss your clustered bar chart and use a small multiples bar chart in its place. (Yep, there’s a tutorial for this one too.)

    emery_dataviz_4

    And speaking of small multiples layouts, Excel’s got your covered. Just create separate charts for each series of data, like one mini chart per country, region, organization, etc.

    Stakeholders will thank you for providing them with disaggregated data—the data about their unique organization that they care about—rather than just aggregated sums, means, and medians. (Like small multiples? I thought you might. I’ve got more examples here.)

    emery_dataviz_5

    I hope I’ve shown you Excel in a whole new light. How are you using tools like Excel to communicate your M&E results to stakeholders?

    Ann K. Emery, M.S., is an independent consultant who specializes in data visualization and evaluation capacity building.


    Go to Source. Reprinted from ICTWorks

    Related Posts

    • How to Start Thinking Like a Data ScientistHow to Start Thinking Like a Data Scientist
    • The Importance of Spatial Thinking NowThe Importance of Spatial Thinking Now
    • 6 Easy Steps to Innovate any Product6 Easy Steps to Innovate any Product
    • Which African Governments Spy on Technology Users the Most?Which African Governments Spy on Technology Users the Most?
    • Bringing wheat, potato and faba bean seeds to market in the Ethiopian HighlandsBringing wheat, potato and faba bean seeds to market in the Ethiopian Highlands
    • Home-grown technology firms help drive eGovernment expansion in East AfricaHome-grown technology firms help drive eGovernment expansion in East Africa
    Sovrn
    Share

    Categories: How To, ICT

    Tags: Cartesian coordinate system, Infographics, Microsoft Excel

    Open Innovation 2.0 Partnership Expands ICT Support for Ebola Fight in West Africa

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

Subscribe to our stories


 

Recent Posts

  • SL Crowd Green Solutions September 21, 2020
  • Digital transformation in the banking sector: surveys exploration and analytics August 3, 2020
  • Why Let Others Disrupt You? Take the Smart Self-Disruption Journey! August 3, 2020
  • 5 Tips for Crowdfunding During the Pandemic August 3, 2020
  • innovation + africa; +639 new citations August 3, 2020

Categories

Archives

Popular Post-All time

  • A review on biomass-based... 0.9k views
  • Can blockchain disrupt ge... 672 views
  • Prize-winning projects pr... 646 views
  • Apply Now: $500,000 for Y... 602 views
  • Test Your Value Propositi... 523 views

Recent Posts

  • SL Crowd Green Solutions
  • Digital transformation in the banking sector: surveys exploration and analytics
  • Why Let Others Disrupt You? Take the Smart Self-Disruption Journey!
  • 5 Tips for Crowdfunding During the Pandemic
  • innovation + africa; +639 new citations
  • SME Innovation: 10 Priorities for Support Post-COVID-19 
  • Africa RISING Annual Progress Report 2018 – 2019 now available
  • Fodder beet feed supplementation delivers dairy success for Ethiopian farmers
  • Using theory of change for outcome-oriented research
  • Africa RISING partners publish soil fertility management guidebook

Tag Cloud

    africa African Agriculture Business Business model Business_Finance Company Crowdsourcing data Development East Africa economics Education Entrepreneur entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship ethiopia ghana Health_Medical_Pharma ict Information technology Innovation kenya knowledge Knowledge Management Leadership marketing mobile Mobile phone nigeria Open innovation Organization Research rwanda science Science and technology studies social enterprise social entrepreneurship south africa Strategic management strategy tanzania Technology Technology_Internet uganda

Categories

Archives

  • A review on biomass-based hydrogen production for renewable energy supply 0.9k views
  • Can blockchain disrupt gender inequality? 672 views
  • Prize-winning projects promote healthier eating, smarter crop investments 646 views
  • Apply Now: $500,000 for Your Big Data Innovations in Agriculture 602 views
  • Test Your Value Proposition: Supercharge Lean Startup and CustDev Principles 523 views

Copyright © 2005-2020 Innovation Africa Theme created by PWT. Powered by WordPress.org