I recently saw this graph on LinkedIn.

The topic caught my attention, but I was worried that the internet weirdos would ignore it because the axis doesn’t start at zero.

People will create all sorts of excuses to ignore data and facts.

I also wanted to try a column chart.

And someone else commented on LinkedIn that the number of honorable mentions – which increased this year – could be helpful to see.

In all my “spare” time on a Friday afternoon, I re-made it:

The dot dot dot title for small multiples graphs… swoon. <3

I love using takeaway titles that extend across the page (to help readers see how the graphs are connected).

Behind the Scenes

More info about my thought process, and some Excel and PowerPoint how-to’s.

What’s Inside

• 0:00 Welcome
• 0:20 The original line chart
• 1:38 The edited column chart
• 2:18 What about honorable mentions?
• 3:00 Ann’s drafts
• 4:30 Finished product – the small multiples column chart
• 6:23 Behind the scenes in PowerPoint
• 6:40 Questions? Comments?

Download the Excel File

It’s here: https://depictdatastudio.kit.com/remaking-nsf-graph

Excel can do a lot—formulas, pivot tables, charts, static one-pagers, and even interactive dashboards!

In this article, you’ll see a few examples and how-to tips to get you started.

YouTube Stats

Are you brand new to Excel dashboards?

This YouTube video’s about the how-to process at a glance.

Colonoscopy Screening Compliance

Want a little more how-to info?

In this video, you’ll see me describing the process to my 3rd grader.

I recently worked with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors. These are made-up numbers, but inspired by their datasets.

Demographics

Want a full-length tutorial?

This is a recording of a 30-minute conference session.

Inside, you’ll see pretend demographic data, inspired by my work at a youth center back in the 2010s.

Grantmaking

This YouTube video is about contiguous datasets–the first and most important piece of interactive dashboards.

I work with a variety of foundations. This is nobody’s real data, but inspired by the types of variables that most foundations keep track of, like grantee names and funding amounts.

State Snapshots

This YouTube video’s about the state icons, but you’ll see a state snapshot example.

Hospital Outpatient Procedures

I recently worked with a healthcare system to visualize their outpatient procedures. We started experimenting with two different layouts.

I don’t consider these visuals to be finished-finished, so there’s no YouTube video or in-depth tutorial about them.

Here’s the first idea, which focuses on market share (which hospitals are performing the most procedures). The user can drill-down by county, city, or service line (the type of procedure).

Here’s the second idea, which focuses on county-level data, not hospital-level data.

Your Turn

What types of how-to questions do you have for me?

Comment below and I’ll answer as many questions as I can!

By default, Excel will sort categories alphabetically or chronologically.

But we can use the “brackety compass rose” to customize our pivot tables… which lets us customize our graphs.

For example, with this technique, we can re-sort Agree, Disagree, Neutral, Strongly Agree, Strongly Disagree…. into Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree.

Learn how in this lesson:

What’s Inside

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:18 Re-Sorting Months in Pivot Tables
• 6:26 Re-Sorting Survey Response Options in Pivot Tables

Related Resources

• What are Helper Cells?
• How to Sort Your Bar Charts

What are Helper Cells, exactly?

In this video, you’ll see 3 examples of these intermediate cells, which give you full editing control over your graphs, maps, and tables.

What’s Inside

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:28 What are Helper Cells? Regular Table — Intermediate Table — Graph
• 1:57 Population Pyramid Example
• 5:04 Recoding Example
• 7:15 Map Example

Related Resources

• How to Make Population Pyramids in Excel
• Troubleshooting Excel Maps

I just finished re-recording Dashboard Design!

I’ve had 10,000+ students in my online courses since 2018, and I get a lot of questions about this process, like…

• How did you turn your keynote into a full-length online course?

• How did you turn your private, on-site workshop into an asynchronous online course?

In this video, you’ll go behind the scenes and learn about the course creation process.

What’s Inside

First, you’ll see the student’s perspective:

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:31 Student Perspective: Inside the Videos and Lessons via Teachable
• 2:25 Student Perspective: Private Community via LinkedIn
• 2:38 Student Perspective: Weekly Messages via Kit
• 3:39 Student Perspective: Live Office Hours via Zoom

Then, you’ll learn about the instructor’s perspective:

• 5:10 Instructor Perspective: Step 1 – Make the Content
• 6:54 Instructor Perspective: Step 2 – Record (via Camtasia)
• 7:15 Instructor Perspective: Step 3 – Edit
• 7:35 Instructor Perspective: Step 4 – Upload (e.g., captions and transcripts via Descript)
• 9:36 Instructor Perspective: Step 5 – Get People to Register
• 10:45 Who’s Involved (Outsourcing)
• 11:43 How Long it Takes

Resources Mentioned

• https://teachable.com/
• https://kit.com/
• https://www.techsmith.com/store/camtasia
• https://web.descript.com/
• https://zapier.com/