Cense

Research.Design.Impact.

The Amazing Spidergram

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Illustrating action points within a complex system challenges evaluation users. Time to call on your friendly neighbourhood spidergram for help.

Visualizing complex systems is a challenge within strategy, foresight, and evaluation because each component of the system is interconnected with others. Influence on one of these is likely to influence others.

From an action standpoint, it’s easier to focus on one or two small parts of the system than tackle the entire system all at once. How do we reconcile this and provide a means to see the parts of the system without being reductionistic and neglecting the relationship with the whole?

One answer is: look to the spiderweb.

A spiderweb is a good entry-level metaphor for helping people see places they can take action within a system by creating distinctions between the parts (nodes, intersections) and the whole (branches, webs). There are two related, but different spiderweb models worth noting.

Spider Diagrams / Mindmaps

Spider diagrams (or spidergrams or mindmaps) are ways to connect ideas together through the branch-and-thread model akin to a spider’s web (hence the name). These are often called mindmaps and have been shown to facilitate learning about complex topics.

They enable the development of relationships between ideas and possible causal or associative pathways between ideas, concepts, or other data- or evidence-informed concepts. They also enable us to cluster related concepts together to identify sub-systems that may be more amenable to our intervention within the larger whole.

Spidergrams / Radar Diagrams

The other spider-related metaphor that is available to innovators and evaluators is the spidergram, sometimes called a Radar Chart or Spider Chart. These allow for the display of data collected along a scale presented alongside others that use a similar proportioned scale.

This hub-and-spoke model of data allows users to see a variety of performance indicators presented along a similar set of axes related to a common goal.

What this allows for is a view of performance across a variety of metrics simultaneously and can recognize how we make progress on one area often at the expense of another. Strategically, it can enable an organization to balance its actions and foci across a variety of key indicators at the same time.

This can be used with quantitative data such as the financial data above or social data, too.

Spidergrams/charts can also overlay data within the same domain (see example) providing even more depth into recurring or separated data points within the same topic or subsystem.

The web of engagement

What makes these tools powerful is that they display a lot of data at the same time in a manner that can facilitate engagement with a group of people tasked with making decisions. Visualizing data or systems brings the benefit of literally getting people’s focus on the same page.

People around a table can then literally point to the areas they are interested in, concerned with, do not understand, or wish to explore assumptions about.

Complex systems introduce a lot of data and a lot of confusion. Sensemaking through the use of visuals and the discussion that they encourage is one of the ways to reduce confusion and get more from your data to make better decisions.

If you’re stuck in the web of data and complexity, call on your friendly neighbourhood spidergram.

Want to learn more about how this can assist your innovation efforts? Contact us and we’ll gladly swing over and help (without the costume).

Photo by Jean-Philippe Delberghe on Unsplash. Spidergram by

Better data visualizing, better impact

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What good is a program evaluation if its findings aren’t used? Not much. Even as an accountability mechanism, evaluations have the potential to demonstrate the impact a program is having in the world and reveal new insights to guide strategy in ways that few other things can. Although there are many ways to convey evaluation findings, one of the most typical is through an evaluation report.

A good report should not only reflect what happened in the program but also inspire its readers to take action based on the report. This involves making sure the key points are made, but also that the findings are communicated in ways that can be easily understood by audiences who may not have access to the evaluator or program staff (which is why reports are written and codified and why, despite their limitations, are unlikely to disappear).

There are courses aimed at preparing stronger evaluation reports, best practice reports,  tools for creative visualization and entire literature fields based on knowledge translation. But if you want to create real impact, you need to deliver knowledge to where it is intended for purposes that may not be fully known because great data reports create possibilities, not just communicate results.

Just as the image above illustrates the many ways light and structure can be reflected, so too can the contents of an evaluation report inspire new ways of seeing programs, data, and strategic opportunities. It all comes down to how the data is presented and in what measure. To support this, we present some tools, people and resources that can help you in making better use of the opportunity that an evaluation report offers through visualization and better communication design.

Resources

Stephanie Evergreen’s a specialist in data visualization for evaluation. Her website features a lot of great resources including links to her books, resource cards and includes tips and tricks to take everyday data and transform it into something attractive, engaging and more useful for audiences.

Kylie Hutchinson, an evaluator and a passionate advocate for better communication in program evaluation, has produced a wonderfully appropriate new resource for evaluators called the Evaluation Reporting Guide that is available through her website. It is a useful guide for being more innovative in the way evaluation findings are reported and comes from someone who knows how to do it.

Kumu is a tool that takes networked data and allows anyone with a basic understanding of network theory to create useful, interactive visuals that can be manipulated and presented in different formats for audiences looking to see the bigger picture.

Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic writes a wonderful blog on how to tell better stories through data combining data visualization with tips on narrative writing that can help even the least creative person imagine new possibilities through the data they have available.

Sometimes it’s just about seeing examples. This post from Import provides some classic examples from the history of data visualization and the latest research to illustrate how data has been used to showcase findings from research and evaluation in creative ways to tell better stories.

Lastly, no commentary on ways to see data differently would be complete without a mention of the incredible works of Edward Tufte, one of the pioneers in data visualization and author of some of the most beautiful, provocative works on the subject ever written.

Creating pictures, telling stories.

Each of these resources provide different ways to see, play with, and present evaluation findings and data. There is no ‘right’ way to do it, rather there are many ways to tell stories and some will resonate with your audience. Data visualization and creative report writing is only good if you know what your audience wants, who they are, and what their motivations are to engage with your content.

The best visuals will not help if you aren’t delivering a product that an audience is ready to see or able to act on, but it is a start. A better looking, more coherent report told through visuals utilizes more of our senses and provides greater opportunities for more people to engage with its content by relying on more than just logic, ‘hard numbers’ and evidence to include things like narrative, emotion, and relationships – the things that make us all human whether we are a data whiz or not.

If you’re looking to make more impactful use of the knowledge you have in your organization, connect with us and we can help you to take the best of what you know and transform it into stories about what you do to those that matter.