If you are not used to creating your own infographics, creating a professional infographic quickly might seem like a tall order. But sometimes deadlines call or you just need to create lots of infographics in a short amount of time. In this post I’ll show you how to create an infographic quickly. Just a note, […]
Stop multitasking your report writing.
So I have to admit something. I am HORRIBLE at multitasking. For example, I can’t look something up on my phone while having a conversation. I can’t cook dinner while putting together a grocery list. “How about listen to your wife while doing anything else?” my wife added after I had asked her for examples. […]
Create a Line Graph Infographic with Canva and Flourish
In today’s post I’ll share the steps I used in creating a line graph centered infographic. The more I use Flourish, the more I like Flourish. Canva is a super easy tool for infographic design, but its chart builder leaves a lot to be desired. But since there is a native connection to Flourish, there […]
Evaluation Comics
Big news! I have an evaluation comics page now. So what does that actually mean? Over the last decade my comics used to live almost entirely within blog posts. For most of my cartooning life I’ve treated my cartooning as a form of blog post illustration. My cartoons were illustrations of ideas that were found […]
Better Report Design or Faster Report Design? Pen and Paper Activity
So what’s better, creating one great report or ten good reports? In an ideal world we would have ample time to plan, write, develop, illustrate, test, and iterate our evaluation reports. But that’s likely not the professional world you occupy (and it’s certainly not the world I occupy). I decided to try out a little […]
How to design a research poster using Canva
Today’s post is about designing research poster presentations using Canva. Even if you’ve never created a research poster in your life, I think this post can really help you get a solid jump on your next design. Because ready or not, it’s happening. After a long COVID-19 break, a bunch of evaluation conferences are going […]
Color Theory, Color Wheels, Color Themes, Color Pickers, and More.
Gone are the days when all your reports were just in black and white. Sure, black and white is still cheaper to print, but color printers do exist. And who even prints anything anymore when most of what we read sits on a screen? It’s time to stop hiding from color. Luckily for us, there […]
Are they really demanding shorter reports, or just less to read?
So I had this idea in my head for a long time. Given how the web has fundamentally changed the way we design and share information, eventually the new design methods will work their way into the evaluation world. Reports will change because the context has changed. And organizations will demand more from those that […]
8 reasons why you should join my report design workshop community.
Before I was an information designer I was just a data guy. I learned to design because I got tired of seeing good evaluation work quickly fade into obscurity because it was poorly reported. Now my days are spent helping evaluators in large organizations simplify and modernize their reports. I created the DiY Data Design […]
Modern Reporting – Why you should design before you write.
Seriously, and I don’t mean after you’ve written several drafts. I really mean before you write. In today’s post. Most creativity happens inside the box. Why waiting till the end to design your report is a bad idea. Why designing first is a better idea. This is something I call reverse design. Introducing my FREE […]
How to User Test a Report, Toolkit, or Dashboard (a.k.a. usability testing)
How do you know if a report, toolkit, or data dashboard works? If you’re like most organizations, you probably copyedit your reports and have multiple people read them through. But how often do you actually put your reports into your users’ hands? Today’s post is about usability testing, a.k.a. “how to assess if the thing […]
How to fall into evaluation – a cartoon post.
So what does it mean to “fall into evaluation?” That’s today’s cartoon post inspiration from Ann Price via Twitter. There are lots of social scientists working as evaluators. Unless you’re in academia it’s hard to be something like a Sociologist professionally. Practical fields like program evaluation and contract research offer a good career path for […]