In my last post I made the claim that you should write the nerd report. After that, you can break it down for other people. So that suggests there are two types of reports, nerd reports & other people reports. But in practice, I think we really see four. Two useful types (nerd reports & […]
Write the Nerd Report
Did you know that I have nerd version of my Theory of Use post? It’s a 9,000+ word working paper filled with lots of citations and a bunch of technical gobbledegook. I did a readability check on it and it’s definitely college level (if not post-grad). I have not shared it with anyone. I am […]
Broken Resource Theory
So I’m an information designer with a quantitative background who doesn’t care that much about charts and graphs. I used to to care a lot, and you will find some guidance on this site about chart design (this blog has been going since 2010 which is over half of my professional career). But over time […]
Theory of Use
Never before in history have we had so many tools and channels we could use to deliver research and evaluation insights directly to people who could actually use them. And yet, most organizations still rely on outdated and ineffective dissemination strategies. Now it’s easy to bash the organizations, but the truth is that our research […]
4 Lessons from a Viral Chart
Have you ever heard of social objects? I talk about them every once in while here, but probably not enough given how important I think they are in the spread of information. Social objects are anchors for conversation. They can be ideas, concepts, stories, physical objects, or anything else we can talk about. My cartoons […]
Evaluation is a dangerous profession.
Evaluation is a dangerous profession. Not dangerous as in it requires hard hats or tethers. But dangerous in that it questions realities most would rather ignore. Traditions that are so deeply entrenched within organizational structures that merely hinting at their instability can lead to alienation and professional isolation. Our frameworks and methods exist not only […]
Report Review: 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment – Wake County, NC
Today’s report review took me a strange direction. What started as a simple report review ended up becoming a full working paper, but more on that shortly. This post is in two parts: In the US if a hospital wants to be tax exempt it has do a few things to meet IRS requirements. One […]
Reports are Comic Books, Insights are Spider-Man
Spider-Man started in a comic book. Nowadays you’ll find Spider-Man in big budget movies, stage shows, theme parks, children’s books, halloween costume contests, popular memes, backpack designs, and bedroom sheets. The character traveled over the years from a concept in Stan Lee’s mind to become a household name across the globe. All sorts of good […]
Report Review: UNDP Annual Report 2025
I’ve been working a lot on testing and improving my theory of use framework. Basically I take reports that should have pretty broad reach then run a kind of external dissemination audit. It’s not quite the same as the dissemination audits I give my clients because with those I have a lot more insider information. […]
Simple But Effective Resource Page Illustrations – Before and After
This is one in a series of before and after designs. With this particular post I am sharing lessons from an actual client project. You can see other before and after posts in the series by following this link. How it Started – SECPI Resources I started working with SECPI (Strengthening Evaluation Contracting Partnerships Initiative) at […]
Dissemination Systems Change
How to shift your organization away from Report Factory and towards a strong Insight Ecosystem. I. Moving Beyond Performative Dissemination I believe that most evaluation teams write reports with the best of intentions. They work late nights cleaning data, discovering insights, drafting narrative, and obsessing over clarity. Most people don’t get into research or evaluation […]
Two-Step Templates for Everyday Reports
Most people design their everyday reports, briefs, and knowledge products the wrong way. Not because they’re bad at design. Because they’re trying to write and design at the same time. It’s a multitasking problem. Writing is hard. Design is hard. Doing both simultaneously — in the same document, on the same deadline — means you’re […]