Recap and Resources: April HIPNet Meeting on Data Visualization

Collecting, managing and analyzing data is essential in global health, and as communicators one of our jobs related to data is to design visualizations that effectively communicate the story of the data to our stakeholders.

Of course that is often easier said than done.

To help the HIPNet community be more intentional and informed with their data visualizations, HIPNet held a meeting called “Data Visualization for Global Health: Skills Building Collecting” at JSI on Wednesday, April 20, 2016.

The meeting included three excellent presentations:

Making Data Meaningful 

Amanda Makulec, RME Advisor – Visual Analytics, JSI

Amanda talked about how global health professionals can use basic design principles and readily available tools to create simple, impactful data visualizations.

Amanda’s Data Viz Resources Handout

Amanda’s SlideShare page (with addtional resources)

Building Effective Dashboards in Excel

Emma Stewart, Technical Advisor, JSI

Emma talked about considerations for when to use Excel to build dashboards, and tips to getting started.

Emma’s Presentation

Examples: Contraceptive Security Index | Contraceptive Security Indicators

Presenting Data for Success

Autumn Rose, Director of Analytics, Forum One

Autumn used two case studies to talk about tailoring your data visualizations to your audience, and using web analytics to measure progress.

Autumn’s Presentation

Case Studies: USDA’s Farm to School Census | amfAR’s PEPFAR Country Operational Plans (COPs) Database