Do you have what it takes to break down technical work for broader audiences? Can you prove it? As of August 20, 2026 the Challenge has begun. It's also now housed inside of the FreshSpectrum …
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 …
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Qualitative Storytelling Dashboard – Before and After
This is one in a series of before and after designs. With each post I take a real publicly available resource or report and adapt the writing, format, structure, and illustrations in order to increase …
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Guiding Principles for Evaluators – Before and After
This is one in a series of before and after designs. With each post I take a real publicly available resource or report and adapt the writing, format, structure, and illustrations in order to increase …
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My qualitative dataviz book is now live! (and free)
Compelling Qualitative Data Visualization, my latest free-to-read book, is now live. Here is a little synopsis. What's the book about? In the book I talk about my approach to illustrating …
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CDC Evaluation Framework – Before and After
This is the second in a series of before and after designs. With each post I'll take a real publicly available resource or report and adapt the writing, format, structure, and illustrations in order …
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UNICEF Strategic Plan 2026–2029 – Before and After
I've decided to create a few concepts to show you exactly how I approach adapting pdf reports for the web. These will be unofficial concepts adapted from real reports and resources. My goal is to show …
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Behind the Scenes: Developing a FreshSpectrum Content Strategy
Where do I start? If you read my last blog post, you'll know a little about my plans to turn FreshSpectrum from being my personal/consulting blog into a kind of evaluation forever conference. At …
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Building a Remote Worker Community
Back in 2006 I was in grad school. At the time I lived and worked full time in the Maryland suburbs outside of DC. A few times a week, I would take the Metro from the end of the line to …
If you must use a PDF, at least make it widescreen.
My first piece of advice, stop using PDFs to share your reports. Now I know that 95% of you will not follow that advice. Even if PDFs are shown to be unfit for human consumption, they are still …
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You should build an audience, before you write your report.
Time for another report design mindset change. At the most basic level successful communication requires a sender, a message, and a receiver. You, as the report designer, are the sender. The …
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Stop Creating Spork Reports
What is a spork report? I want you to imagine visiting a nice little cafe for a light lunch. You decide to order a simple salad and a cup of soup. When the meal shows up, what utensils will you …