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 […]
Articles
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 And yet, most organizations still rely on outdated and ineffective dissemination strategies.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 […]