Visualising Data to Influence Public Sector Stakeholders

This is an open programme and an in-house training course, which we can deliver either online or in person. For further information and pricing contact [email protected] or phone on +44 20 7661 7817.

Global Government Forum, as part of Pendragon International Media Ltd, have been named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s Learning & Training Services DPS Framework. All our Learning and Training services are included in the framework.
Crown Commercial Service supports the public sector to achieve maximum commercial value when procuring common goods and services.

Overview

To get real value out of data it needs to be presented in a compelling way to senior leaders, stakeholders, colleagues, and members of the public. This can be a challenging process, as it requires assessing the needs and data literacy of your audience, making critical selections about charts and other visual styles, and applying design skills to ensure the story stands out. This seminar will give you a repeatable framework for turning data insights into persuasive visual stories for slide decks, reports, dashboards and other formats. It will introduce simple and effective design techniques that can be applied using the software you already have access to.

Who is the seminar designed for?

The seminar is designed for civil servants and public sector staff who regularly need to present data to internal and external stakeholders. You will be familiar with data you’re working with, but facing challenges when it comes to turning insights into visual presentations. These could include time and resource constraints, limited access to software and tools, lack of design expertise, handling complex or large data sets, or presenting to diverse audiences.

How will you benefit from attending?

You will learn evidence-based and tested methods for presenting data effectively – from planning a visualisation, through selecting different chart and graph types, to applying design tricks. You will be able to critique existing visualisations, and know what makes and effective presentation of data. By building these skills you will be able to influence stakeholders and drive decision-making.

Learning Objectives

• Understanding how to assess the data literacy of different audiences.
• A repeatable framework for identifying the audience, story and action.
• Developing the confidence to identify and express the key insights in the data.
• An overview of common data presentation pitfalls, and how to avoid them.
• Hands-on experience of visualising a range of relevant data sets.
• Understanding how to choose the right chart, infographic or other visual style.
• A set of simple and effective design techniques, including use of colours.
• Awareness of the free tools and resources available.

Agenda

Planning a data visualisation

• The key elements of a successful presentation of data.
• Industry best practice, and discussion of good (and bad) examples.
• Evaluating audience requirements and data literacy.
• Managing different user needs from the same data set.
• Balancing clear communication with transparency.
• A simple framework for identifying the Audience, Story and Action.

Break

Making the right chart choices

• How to balance function and aesthetic appeal.
• Framing the data and providing contextual information.
• Identifying the right graph, chart, infographic or other visual.
• Applying the principles of graphical perception.
• Common narratives that can be drawn from data sets.
• Hands-on visualisation of sample data sets.

Break

Applying professional design techniques

• Pre-attentive processing, and how the brain assimilates visual information.
• Using colours to add emphasis and meaning.
• The principle of ‘self-sufficiency’, and removing clutter.
• The importance of text in framing the narrative and annotating changes.
• Design considerations for different types of communications.
• Applying interactivity in data dashboards.

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Trainer – Alan Rutter

Alan Rutter is the founder of consultancy Fire Plus Algebra, and a specialist in data visualisation. With a background in journalism, he has delivered in-house training for clients including the Home Office, DEFRA, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, NHS England, HMRC, and numerous local government and public sector organisations.

He also provides training and consultancy in the private and charity sector, and regularly speaks about data visualisation at events including the Open Data Science Conference and the Øredev developer conference. He previously worked for publishing brands including the Guardian, Time Out, Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair and Vogue.

Our L&D ethos

• We’re here to enable you to perform better!

Our L&D team

• All former practitioners, now professional trainers, our L&D team have provided open and bespoke solutions for more than 100,000 public servants from 120 countries

Our L&D seminars

• A vast reservoir of international, transferable knowledge and perspectives about effective, delivery-focused approaches to working smarter in the public sector

Please contact us for further details, or to arrange a conversation with a member of our training team to discuss in-house delivery options, including tailoring the day’s training to your specific organisational development needs.
You can email David Leakey on [email protected] or phone on +44 20 7661 7817.

Crown Commercial Service supports the public sector to achieve maximum commercial value when procuring common goods and services.