Simon Hearn, one of the team of evaluators who put together the 10 things to know about evaluation infographic I mentioned last week, left me a comment on the post. The comment sparked today’s cartoon which I hope gives failure a bit more of a positive spin. Something we didn’t have space to talk about […]
Scott McCloud’s lesson on time in comics and what it means for infographics.
As a data designer and cartoonist, I have been heavily influenced by Scott McCloud’s book on Understanding Comics. The cool thing about his book is that many of the concepts can be applied very directly to infographics, even those that don’t employ comic style illustration. This is especially true when dealing with time. Using a comic’s […]
I still don’t know the source of the RCT Gold Standard Rhetoric, do you?
Today’s cartoon flashback comes from a post I put together early last year on the RCT Gold Standard Rhetoric. I tried, and failed, to find the source of the rhetoric, only a kooky theory about Harry Gold’s Standard (you’ll have to read the comments for that one). We did learn the source of randomista and came […]
Krista Donaldson on taking risk out of the design process.
Today’s inspiration comes from IDEO.org’s designkit. It’s one of 7 mindsets that lie at the core of their human-centered design process. You can also hear it spoken in context by Krista Donaldson in a short video on the designkit site. Here’s the quote: You’re taking risk out of the process by making something simple first. […]
What Ann K Emery really thinks about clustered bar charts.
Today’s illustration was inspired by Ann K Emery’s blog post on six alternatives to the clustered bar chart. We can all agree that 3-d exploding pie charts are pretty rotten. My vote for worst chart? The clustered bar chart. I see clustered bar charts everywhere. E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E. On pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of […]
ODI shares 10 things to know about evaluation, number 5 is on failures.
Today’s illustration was inspired by an infographic created by the Overseas Development Institute. 5. ‘Failures” are important. Evaluation is sometimes driven by desire to show that a project was successful or worthwhile. Yet evaluations will almost always show mixed results. Understanding and sharing what doesn’t work is just as important as what does.
How Thomas Archibald thinks we can create an intentional Evaluative Thinking learning environment.
Today’s illustration inspired by one part of Tom Archibald’s blog post on Fostering Evaluative Thinking. Create an intentional ET learning environment Display logic models or other theory of change diagrams in the workplace—in meeting rooms, within newsletters, etc. Create public spaces to record and display questions and assumptions. Post inspirational questions, such as, “How do we […]
The difference between the wink and the blink
Today’s cartoon inspired by David Fetterman, who left this in a comment on last Friday’s ethnography blog post. For those who don’t know David, he’s written a significant book on the subject. Wonderful posting and drawing of course. You might add the role of cultural interpretation to the mix. The difference between the wink and […]
What is your Tabla?
Today’s cartoon was inspired by a story on NPR about The Tabla Master Who Jammed With The Grateful Dead: In the 1960s, Western musicians were becoming interested in Indian music, and Hussain found himself working on a sitar record with George Harrison. He told the Beatle about his dream to get into rock. “And he said, […]
Defining Outliers – cartoon flashback
Today’s cartoon flashback comes from a post featuring ethics stories contributed by a silent collaborator. I think this was my favorite of the bunch. Defining Outlier Evaluators: “Here are the results from your program.” Client: “Those results aren’t accurate.” Evaluators: “How so?” Client: “The bad results are obviously outliers. You need to remove those people from […]
Participatory Evaluation
Today’s cartoon inspiration comes from Leslie Groves and Irene Guijt on Better Evaluation: Participation not for you? Four reflections that might just change your mind For us, “participatory evaluation” requires primary stakeholders to be included as co-evaluators, both to ensure the inclusion of their voices and values in evaluation and to help them strengthen their evaluation capacity. […]
Ethnography and Real Research
If you’ve taken enough sociology classes you likely had this assignment at some point, “go somewhere and watch.” And if it’s a grad class you might get asked to go back to the same place several times. Looking back today, these were some of my most memorable academic moments and something I’ve definitely carried with me over the […]