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Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category

So what are infographics?

That was the puzzled response I received time and again yesterday when I mentioned the word infographics. Surprisingly, I was at the Minnesota Nonprofit Communications and Technology Conference. In fact, the only mention I heard of the word during the whole conference was in passing during Amy

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Say it with a Postcard

Dreading putting together your annual report or don’t know where to begin? Yesterday I attended a webinar on “The New and Improved Nonprofit Annual Report” hosted by Kivi Leroux Miller. It provided a number of innovative ideas for presenting your annual report information. One idea I thought

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Enhanced State of the Union

You know you are a nerd when you are excited to watch the “enhanced” State of the Union. But I have to admit I was quite impressed with this first time enhanced SOTU webcast hosted on WhiteHouse.gov last night. In addition to making the speech easier to

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Start at the End for Best Results

Getting the most from a project requires knowing where you want to go. Determine what you want to see and how you want to see it. It is similar to reading the last chapter of a novel first. This practice may spoil the big surprise at the

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Why Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is not just a map

Thanks to our guest blogger… I have been involved with development and implementation of Geographic Information Systems, GIS, for almost 20 years and one thing that has always bothered me is when someone would refer to GIS applications as a map. Don’t get me wrong. Maps are

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Effectively report findings with info design

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10 Takeaways from Edward Tufte Course

A couple weeks ago I attended a one-day course on presenting data and information taught by Edward Tufte. It was a thought provoking course with lots of useful tips for effectively presenting information. Here are just a few I jotted down in my notes. Don’t pre specifiy

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The Four Phases of Design Thinking

Wow this week has flown by, and I realized I never got around to my weekly blog topic. Since I didn’t get a chance to write one this week I’m passing a link along to another blog article posted yesterday on the Harvard Business Review that I

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How to lie with statistics

Source: http://www.physics.csbsju.edu/stats/display.html Okay so you may have guessed, I’m not going to share secrets to using infographics to lie with your statistics. Instead I came across this cartoon on the web and it reminded me of the power information designers have over what story is being told

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Visual Summary Example: 10 Things everyone should know about NYC charter schools

This week I thought I would pass along an example of a nicely composed visual summary as a way to summarize my June tips on the topic. It was created by the organization called Big Duck out of Brooklyn, New York, which specializes in communications work for

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