Category Archives: Data Visualization

Importing Fonts into OnePager

Posted on by
Reply

When it comes to timelines and Gantt charts, appearance matters. The whole point of creating a chart in OnePager is for it to be a visual project report. In addition to colors and shapes, the font you use can make a big impact on the overall look and feel of your chart.

The first step in adding a new font to OnePager is to add it to Windows. Microsoft has put together detailed step-by-step instructions on how to do this:

Add a font – Microsoft Support

After you have added the font(s) to Windows, launch OnePager and go to Chart Properties. Open any form that has a font control. In this example, we will change the Task Label to a custom font called “KG Chasing Cars.” Once you have selected the font, click OK and OK.

Continue reading →

Weekend Work on an Hourly Scale

Posted on by
Reply

Most schedules show work that takes place during the work week, but in this article, we will explore creating a Gantt chart that displays, on an hourly scale, work done over the weekend.

Below is a schedule with tasks for Saturday and Sunday between 8:00 am and 3:00 pm.

The next step is to launch OnePager and create the chart by going to Add-ins > OnePager > New. After clicking New, you should see the “OnePager choices” window; we will select an out-of-the-box template designed for an hourly view. To do this, click Change… and then Browse, which will bring you to the template folder. Select the “Hourly View” template, and then finish creating your chart.

Continue reading →

Percent Complete Color Coding

Posted on by
Reply

For anyone who has created a schedule, one of the essential things to know is percent complete. Users of OnePager know we already offer ways to show percent complete via a yellow bar, text, or a checkmark. However, we will dive into another method: color coding different tasks based on a percent complete range.

We will first want to determine what percent complete ranges we want to create rules for and what color will represent them. In this example, I will be using the following ranges.

0% – 25% | 26% – 50% | 51% – 75% | 76% – 100%

Once you have decided on your rules, create a chart from your source file.
Continue reading →

Comprehensive list of books on data visualization

Posted on by
Reply

We follow the Storytelling With Data blog by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic (and you should too).

Her most recent post, many paths to learning data viz, is a goldmine of information. The podcast includes a lengthy list of books and other resources that we have linked below.

We’ve blogged a bunch about data visualization as it relates to planning and Gantt charts, but our thirst for insight on this topic is insatiable.

Continue reading →

Displaying Risk in OnePager – Heatmaps

Posted on by
Reply

It’s not very often that you might need to look at your entire plan to pick out some sort of pattern. Analyzing our project data is usually not as simple as that.

However, when you’re looking to evaluate the timing of your risk and exposure to outside forces, it becomes important to step back and view the entire project.

In Stephen Few’s book Now You See It: Simple Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis, the chapter on Time-Series Analysis and Heatmaps is very relevant to this specific data visualization in OnePager.

Heatmaps, according to Few, are “any display that uses color to encode quantitative values.” Below is an example of a traditional heatmap.

Election Results

Continue reading →

Trellis Displays Using OnePager

Posted on by
Reply

We often see very complex visuals, built by our users, that include just about everything they intend to communicate, all in one place.

They’ve likely created the complexity either because it’s always been done that way, or it’s what they were asked to produce (not necessarily their fault), though data visualization best practices will tell us that too many dimensions of information in one place will all blend together into an aggregate.

Continue reading →

Aptitudes and Attitudes of Effective Analysis – Stephen Few

Posted on by
Reply

Ever since we began including a section on data visualization in our formal training, we’ve only gotten one negative piece of feedback. The particular attendee suggested something like “I could have done without the content on how to make a PowerPoint slide.”

We welcome and take all feedback very seriously of course, but the comment came off as ironic given that in the training, I discuss the Dunning-Kruger Effect and its importance in successful data visualization in business today.

courtesy http://www.fun-stuff-to-do.com

Continue reading →

Case Study of an Aviation Industry Veteran and OnePager Expert

Posted on by
Reply

Every now and again during interactions with users, the OnePager support team gets wowed. A OnePager chart will pop onto the screen and make an instant positive impression. The OnePager team likes to call these users “OnePager Van Goghs.”

Nancy Childress is one such Van Gogh, and a 39-year veteran of the aviation industry.

Read more about her and her experience with OnePager here.

Want to have your own OnePager Case Study? It’s a pretty simple process…please reach out to [email protected] noting your interest.

Review: “The Big Book of Dashboards”

Posted on by
Reply

Over the years, I have received countless requests from novice users to have me help them make their visuals look “pretty.” Pretty, as we know from studying data visualization best practices, has absolutely nothing to do with a good chart.

That said, after you’ve simplified your report, balanced your data ink, and eliminated any chart-junk, it can be a valuable exercise to attempt to achieve elegance in your visual design through some harmonic use of shapes, color, white space, font, etc.

Some people just have this gift: the artistic ability to use the elements they have available in a very eye-pleasing way. The rest of us need examples to follow, and for this, “The Big Book of Dashboards” provides plenty of inspiration.

Continue reading →

Animated Gantt Charts

Posted on by
Reply

In last week’s post on project cost tracking, we happened to use an animated GIF of a OnePager Gantt chart to illustrate how project costs changed over time. Since then, several customers have reached out asking how to do the same thing.

These animated .gif files can be inserted into a SharePoint Image Web Part, PowerPoint documents, and other office documents, to be included in your reporting.

This week’s post will show you step-by-step instructions on how to animate your OnePager Gantt chart, like this:

Continue reading →