Colorado State University’s Lory Student Center Theatre welcomed Jonathan Schwabish to give the keynote speech for the 10th annual Graduate Student Showcase Nov. 19. Schwabish is the founder of the data visualization and presentation skills firm PolicyViz, a senior fellow at Urban Institute as well as a professor at Georgetown University and American University.

Colleen Webb, vice provost for graduate affairs and dean of the graduate school at CSU introduced Schwabish’s keynote presentation.

“It’s the 10th anniversary this year, and what better way to highlight one of the showcase’s core themes than by welcoming a national expert policymaker and advocate in data visualization and research accessibility,” Webb said.

Webb noted Schwabish’s achievements, such as having four published books and having researched accessibility, nutrition policy and issues that affect people with disabilities.

“Data visualization is rarely right or wrong, yes or no, objectively true (or) objectively false. A lot of this is aesthetics and preference in what works best for you and your audience.”  -Jonathan Schwabish, economist

“These commitments resonate deeply with our values here at CSU and within the graduate school,” Webb said.

Schwabish recalled the beginning of his career as a part of the Congressional Budget Office, when one report led him to participate in a project to redesign how the information was presented, specifically by turning data into infographics. Schwabish shared that, one day, then-representative and current Sen. Chris Van Hollen held Schwabish’s infographic up on C-Span.

“From the perspective of an analyst working at CBO, this is a win,” Schwabish said. “This is what we’re trying to do. We are trying to get that information and analysis into the hands of people who can use it.”

This story was used to emphasize a key point in Schwabish’s presentation.

“Data visualization is rarely right or wrong, yes or no, objectively true (or) objectively false.” Schwabish said. “A lot of this is aesthetics and preference in what works best for you and your audience.”

In the speech that followed, Schwabish shared tips he uses to display data and create presentations effectively for an audience.

After poking fun at a variety of data displays from various sources, Schwabish began to dive into different techniques to display data effectively, the first two being to show the data and reduce clutter. Schwabish then emphasized the importance of integrating graphics and text into data display for his third technique.

“When you hear people say the best graph is one that you could just glance at and get right away — that is not true,” Schwabish said. “If I just glanced at a bar chart and moved on, … the only thing I would learn is that I have a set of rectangles in the space. I need to spend at least some time reading what’s in the chart to understand what I’m looking at.”

He then shared his fourth technique that he called “small multiples,” which is the idea of breaking data down into smaller parts to make it more digestible.

The final strategy Schwabish shared is called “start with gray.” This strategy encourages creators of data displays to start their process in grayscale.

“What that does is it forces me to make a decision about where I want to focus your attention,” Schwabish said.

Schwabish also shared three techniques for creating effective presentations: visualizing content, unifying content and focusing people’s attention at all times.

While presentations are different forms of communication than written documents, the audience still needs to be centered, Schwabish said.

“All of these strategies are not about dumbing things down,” Schwabish said. “All of this is about using data to help people make better decisions, help people find insights (and) help people make discoveries. And if you can think about your audience first, your reader first, your user first; think about what they need, their experience, their expertise. I can promise you, your data communication efforts are going to be that much better.”

Reach Chloe Rios at science@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.