Chart Makeover: A Women's Nutrition Bar Chart
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The document discusses the redesign of data charts to effectively convey the message about the increasing proportion of overweight or obese women aged 20-49 worldwide from 1980 to 2008. It emphasizes the importance of selecting appropriate chart types, minimizing visual clutter, and restructuring data presentation for clearer comparisons by region. Key steps include using stacked bar charts, reducing unnecessary details, and incorporating meaningful color to enhance comprehension of the data story.
Chart Makeover: A Women's Nutrition Bar Chart
- 1. A CHART REDESIGN 1980 2008 Amanda Makulec JSI Center for Health Information, Monitoring & Evaluation @abmakulec
- 2. Excel has the capability of churning out incredibly hard to interpret charts and graphs, and automatically includes a lot of visual clutter. Thinking through the story you want to tell with your data, considering the many different chart types that can be created in Excel (or hacked with some creative formatting), and designing a chart that tells that data story effectively are essential for making sure your message is heard. Walk through the following simple steps for how to transform a hard-to-read graph into something that tells the data story well.
- 3. The message we want to tell to the general public from this data table is: Around the world, the proportion of women* who are overweight or obese has increased across regions. *Normal as defined by standard BMI measures and women aged 20-49 years. Data table from: Black RE, Victora CG, Walker SP, Bhutta ZA, Christian P, de Onis M, Ezzati M, Grantham-McGregor S, Katz J, Martorell R, Uauy R. Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries” The Lancet 2013; (06 June 2013) DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60937-X. underweight normal overweight obese 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 Africa 18 12 64 58 14 19 4 11 LAC 4 2 66 43 22 31 8 24 Asia 19 17 68 62 11 17 2 4 Europe 4 4 61 55 25 28 10 13 Oceania 6 2 69 45 19 32 6 21
- 4. Change in BMI status of women 20-49 years from 1980 to 2008 by region 1980 2008 START The original Excel chart.
- 5. Original layout - doesn't facilitate comparisons by region very well Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania obese overweight normal underweight 0 20 40 60 80 00 Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania The comparison is across regions and focused on changes in numbers that sum to 100%. So, a stacked bar chart is a better choice.
- 6. By clustering the stacked bars by region, you can better facilitate comparisons within regions. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania Obese Overweight Underweight Normal Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status
- 7. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania Obese Overweight Underweight Normal By minimizing the spaces between the columns, you make it easy to see the pairs of regional data. Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status
- 8. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania Obese Overweight Underweight Normal Then, reduce the clutter by taking away the unnecessary tick marks and lines. Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status
- 9. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania Obese Overweight Underweight Normal Consider how much detail your audience needs. In this case, if the important trend is the overall change in percent above normal, then combine the two categories. Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status
- 10. Reorder categories to be logical. Starting with underweight at the base and overweight/obese at the top of the stacked bar. Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status
- 11. Add color that adds meaning. Bright colors call attention to the important categories while gray lets ‘normal’ fade a bit. Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status
- 12. Think about the level of detail required. Technical folks might want to know that this is based on BMI and the specific age range defined as “women” while a broader global audience may not need that level of detail as an axis title. Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status
- 13. The proportion of women who are overweight has increased in low and middle income countries. Add a title that tells the key message you want your audience to takeaway. This is very important since the axis title has been removed.
- 14. Change in BMI status of women 20-49 years from 1980 to 2008 by region 1980 2008 A reminder of where we started.
- 15. The proportion of women who are overweight has increased in low and middle income countries. END