Five ways to make the numbers in your report easier to read

Most reports we're asked to redesign have too many charts in them. The charts are usually accurate. There are simply so many that readers stop looking at any of them.

Here's what we do instead.

1. Write the sentence before you draw the chart

Decide the one thing you want the reader to take away, such as "GP referrals doubled after we opened our second site." If a picture makes that clearer, draw one. If it doesn't, the sentence will do a better job on its own, and a single large number often beats a pie chart. When people want the exact figure for their own region or programme, a simple table beats both.

2. One point per chart

A chart with five lines and two scales is trying to make two arguments at once. Split it into two charts and each one becomes readable.

3. Don't rely on colour

The government's Family Resources Survey counts 16.7 million disabled people in the UK, a quarter of the population. Not all of them struggle with charts, but many do, including people with colour blindness or low vision. Put labels directly on the lines instead of in a colour key, use strong contrast between text and background, and write a sentence under each chart saying what it shows. These are the same accessibility standards the UK government requires for its own websites.

4. Show how many people answered

"87% of participants felt more confident" means one thing if 15 people answered and something quite different if 400 did. Say which. Leaving it out makes readers wonder why.

5. Put the dates on the chart itself

Charts get screenshotted and pasted into funding bids and presentations. One without dates on it will eventually be used to describe the wrong year.

Why this is easier on the web

A chart in a PDF is a picture. It doesn't resize for a phone, and it's out of date the day a figure changes. The Government Digital Service moved GOV.UK away from PDFs for largely these reasons.

At Yarra One we design charts with all five of these built in from the start, and because your report becomes a web-based system your team runs, updating a figure updates the chart that shows it. Your charts look as good a year after launch as they did on the day.

If your report's charts are doing less work than they should, book a call and I'll take a look at what you've got.