My favorite part of data visualization workshops?

The airports. Kidding.

Watching jaws drop when folks are introduced to small multiples layouts for the first time. Definitely!

What are small multiples?

Small multiples layouts include 2 or 3 or 4 or more graphs – of the same size and scale – to allow for easy comparisons.

Why use a small multiples layout?

Old way: making a single aggregate chart that only displays means, medians, or frequencies from a bunch of different data series combined.

New and improved way: designing a small multiples layout that gives viewers the information they really care about – the disaggregated data for their particular company, city, organization, or school.

Additional benefits:

• To compare changes over time, like the social network map below.
• To compare changes across different groups.
• To add context. Is an organization doing well? Who can really know for sure unless you compare the organization to a few others using a small multiples layout?

What can be made into a small multiples?

Anything. 

Bar charts, histograms, geographic maps, line charts, social network maps, and more.

Just make a collage of several small charts. It’s really that easy.

You can make these in nearly any software program. If they aren’t part of your software program’s menu of default options, don’t be afraid to dive in and use a little elbow grease.

Here are a handful of the million+ ways to incorporate small multiples layouts into your charting repertoire:

Want to make small multiples on your own?

Join my mailing list and I’ll send you visualization resources like the charts and slides used in today’s post.

Or, join an upcoming webinar, like this how-to webinar on December 8th where I give live demos and let you keep a bunch of Excel templates. Templates!? You bet.

Ready to move beyond the typical pie chart or line chart? Today I’m covering 4 awesome charts that are under-used (but extremely useful!) in evaluation.

Social Network Maps

Johanna Morariu’s map of the #eval13 hashtag

Although social network maps aren’t brand new to evaluation (read about them on aea365 here), I had to mention them because I’m still surprised how many evaluators aren’t using social network maps.

Social network maps help you understand relationships between organizations, people, or even conference attendees. But beware – social network maps aren’t for everyone.

Want to create your own? Check out Johanna Morariu’s tutorial on using NodeXL, a free Excel plug-in.

Tree Maps

Tree maps are for hierarchical or nested data, and they’re great for showing part-to-whole patterns.

Here’s an example from Innovation Network’s State of Evaluation research in which Johanna Morariu, Kat Athanasiades and I examined the proportion of nonprofits demonstrating promising evaluation capacities and behaviors:

Can you imagine that same data in a bar chart? It just wouldn’t work; all the relationships between nested variables would be lost.

Want to learn more? Check out Johanna Morariu’s example that breaks down participants’ gender, age, and whether or not they completed a program.

Dot Plots

Dot plots are similar to bar charts and clustered bar charts (but in many cases, they’re easier to read and a lot less cluttered).

Here’s a 5-minute overview about what dot plots can be used for:

(Better) Bar Charts

And don’t forget about the good ol’ bar chart, your go-to chart for most of your datasets.

But not all bar charts are created equal. It’s no longer acceptable to paste that default draft chart straight into your report; you should expect to spend a few minutes cleaning up every single chart to improve its labeling and overall readability.

Once you’ve mastered the basic bar chart, try your hand at one of these newer variations, like a diverging stacked bar chart, floating bar chart, or small multiples bar chart. The bar chart’s versatility make it the most essential chart for evaluation.

Have you used any of these charts for evaluation purposes? Are there other new-ish charts you think the evaluation world should be aware of? Please share your ideas with the community!