Present Data Like a 5 Course Meal Instead of a Buffet

Buffet-style dining can be great if you're A) hungry and B) want to get a sampling of a broad spectrum of foods. However, if you want to drill down and savor each morsel, then a 5 course meal will give you a true dining experience. Likewise, data can be presented in both formats. A buffet-style graph could look like this:

Everything is there and the graph looks pretty, but your audience will want to consume it all at once and may not be able to digest it completely, especially if you are clicking through a slide deck and talking through the graph. Add the possibility that this is your audience's first time seeing this graph and their eyes will wander over all these options and then glaze over, missing the visual display and your verbal points.

Alternatively, a 5 course meal presentation gradually unveils your message:

Here, you can see that the Signal Readout is higher for Conditions A-C in Solution 1 compared to Solution 2. Then unveil it a bit more...

Now we see that Solutions 1 and 3 have higher signals than Solutions 2 and 4. Time for the next course:

Interestingly, there doesn't seem to be as much difference amongst Conditions D-G or between Solutions 1-4 as we saw in Conditions A-C in our "first course". (Keep that y-axis on the same scale to make it easier to convey this!)

Now that everyone has had a chance to "taste" your data, you can circle back to the full data set and talk more fluidly about the data's take-home points.

If you're presenting a poster where this type of delivery isn't feasible, you can also bring sheets of paper so that you can unveil the data iteratively as you present the data's story.

It's easy to be so familiar with your data that it's assumed the audience will pick up on the interpretations as quickly as you can talk through it. However, you are the expert of your content - give your audience a chance to take it in and enjoy the delicious data you are dishing up!