Presenting Data

What is Data Presentation?

Data presentation is the process of visually communicating data and information for analysis and interpretation.
It involves representing data in a way that can be easily understood and shared.

Types of Data Presentation

Graphs and Charts: Graphs and charts are common tools used for data presentation. These include pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs, and scatter plots.
Tables and Matrices: Tables lay out information in rows and columns. Matrices are similar, but all columns and rows hold the same information types.
Infographics: These are visual representations of data that blend images, charts, and text. They are efficient tools for presenting complex information quickly and clearly.
Maps: Geographical data can be presented in various map formats, including heat maps, dot distribution maps, or choropleth maps.

Microsoft Excel

Excel’s data presentation features simplify the process of creating different types of charts and graphs from tabular data.
Chart wizard tool: Microsoft Excel’s chart wizard tool can automatically create charts based on selected data.
Chart types: Excel offers a variety of chart types, including column, line, pie, bar, area, and scatter.

Work with Data in MS Excel

Cell: A box in the grid of an Excel worksheet. Cells hold individual pieces of data.
Row and Column: Rows are the horizontal spaces in the grid and are numbered, while columns are vertical and designated by letters.
Create a chart: Select the range of cells that contains the data to graph, then choose a chart type from the Insert menu.
Splitting and Combining Columns: Data in a single column can be split into multiple columns using the Text to Columns feature. Multiple columns can be combined into one using the CONCATENATE function or ampersand (&).

Effective Data Presentation

Simplicity: An effective data presentation is simple and avoids unnecessary clutter and details.
Consistency: Ensuring that similar elements are represented in the same way each time helps viewers understand the visualisation more easily.
Colour: Colour can be used to draw attention to certain regions, depict different data categories, or represent different ranges of values.
Labels: All charts, graphs, and maps should have clear, easy-to-read labels that include the title, axes or legend labels, and units of measurement.
Accuracy: The data represented must be correct and the visualisation should accurately reflect this data.