This article highlights common misuses of pie charts —like having too many categories or using 3D designs—and provides practical fixes to improve your visualizations. Learn how to enhance clarity, make accurate comparisons, and choose the right chart type for your data, ensuring your visuals effectively communicate your message. Don’t let poor chart design distort your data!

Explore the key differences between research and evaluation in this comprehensive guide. Learn about their distinct goals, methodologies, data collection and analysis approaches, and reporting styles. Ideal for professionals and students looking to understand the unique roles of research and evaluation in advancing knowledge and improving programs.

Explore how cognitive biases impact evaluation practice. Drawing insights from Hans Rosling's "Factfulness," this article examines 10 common mental shortcuts that can affect data analysis, reporting, and decision-making in evaluation. Learn practical strategies to overcome these biases and improve your evaluation methods.

Explore the power of line charts in our ongoing series on data visualization. This article explains how to create impactful line charts using Excel 365. This tutorial not only guides you through chart creation but also emphasizes data visualization best practices to enhance clarity and professionalism. Whether you're new to charting or refining your skills, this article equips you with essential techniques for visually compelling data storytelling.

Master the art of presenting themes effectively! Whether it's a report, summary, infographic, or presentation, the way you present your themes from thematic analysis can make or break your findings' impact. Tailor to your audience, provide solid context, organize logically, craft clear titles, bring themes to life with real quotes, offer deep analysis, use visuals wisely, and conclude with key insights. Elevate your thematic analysis presentations with these expert tips!

Check out the top 10 articles + top 10 resources of 2023 from Eval Academy!

Monitoring survey data as it unfolds can be hugely beneficial in understanding the reach and performance of your online survey. However, creating and updating these reports can be time consuming, and take away from larger analysis and reporting tasks. Learn how to use Qualtrics’ built-in reporting feature to streamline and automate your incoming data reports here.

It’s time to embrace long reports! This article confesses my love for lengthy reports. Why? Because they're more than just data – they're knowledge preservation. Long reports have a place in our world, serving multiple roles, from building capacity to promoting transparency. Learn more about the value of extensive reports in this article.

While traditional bar charts are both straightforward and powerful for data representation, there are instances when we seek innovative alternatives to breathe new life into our reports. Enter the lollipop chart. Learn how to develop them in Excel here.

In this first instalment of our Data Visualization Applications series, we'll guide you through the art of transforming raw data into compelling visualizations. We kick things off by delving into the power and simplicity of the bar chart. By following these steps and best practices, you'll elevate your charts to ensure your data speaks clearly and convincingly. Stay tuned for more insights and techniques in our Data Visualization Applications series.

Want visuals that best express your data story? Here are some ideas to clean up those charts and help make them pop.

This article explains the concept of plain language, which aims to make writing easily understandable. It emphasizes the importance of clear communication and its relevance in knowledge translation. It also highlights reasons to write in plain language, such as addressing literacy challenges and making content accessible to a diverse audience. The article introduces tools, including AI writing tools like Chat GPT and readability tools, that assist in creating plain language content.

Choosing the right type of chart to display your data can help to improve clarity among your readers and lessens the likelihood that your findings may be misinterpreted. With so many different types of charts and graphs, it can be tough to know where to start. This infographic is for anyone who wants to clearly display their quantitative data in a meaningful way but isn’t sure how to pick the best chart for the job.

Whether you’re new to evaluation or if evaluation is your main role, this Style Guide Template is for anyone looking to create consistency among project documents.

A SWOT is a tool commonly used at the beginning of a new venture or as part of a new strategic planning process. A SWOT in evaluation could be used as a data collection tool or to present evaluation findings and create recommendations. This article outlines what a SWOT analysis is and how to complete one.

Many of us have come across reports that feel cramped, unengaging, and let’s face it, a little bit boring! Dedicating some time to designing your report before writing can significantly affect its overall quality. By taking some time to focus on design, you can create a report that is not only refined and professional, but also visually appealing. Here are my 10 tips for designing quality reports!

Eval Academy just released two new Canva design templates for creating your own Logic Model! Whether you’re new to evaluation or if evaluation is your main role, these Canva design templates are for anyone who wants to design a Logic Model to be more visually appealing.

Chart templates will alleviate the pains of trying to reformat every new chart from scratch. From adjusting text size and font to formatting bar width and colour, a template will save you a significant amount of time in drafting your next evaluation report.

A style guide is a time-saving tool that helps you be consistent in your formatting when creating client and public-facing products, from evaluation plans to reports and presentations. When working with a team, style guides ensure that team members are working efficiently as they create evaluation products.

Are you looking to elevate your presentation game? In this article, we list some awesome presentation tools along with ideas for how to use them in your evaluation practice.