Assignment – Analysing the Visual Presentation of an Organisation’s Annual Report
Overview
For this assignment, we will use the ideas and concepts introduced in Module 1 to evaluate the presentation of information.
The evaluation will centre on the suitability of Charts, Tables and/or Graphs used to represent, or visualise, data. The source document for these Charts, Tables and/or Graphs will be a published report from a Government or significant Organisation of your choice. (An example of a suitable annual report can be found at the end of this document under “Supporting Materials”.)
There are many suitable reports that you can use for your evaluation and you might be comfortable selecting a document that is aligned with your current field of study.
For instance, if you were a Business student then you might like to choose a listed (public) company’s Annual Investor Presentation such as the example shown under “Supporting Materials”.
These types of reports can be sourced from a public company’s website (usually under Investor Centre) or the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Other suitable sources could be international organisations (e.g. World Health Organisation (WHO)), government departments or enterprises (e.g. Education Departments, water authorities, etc.).
When selecting a report to evaluate, ensure that the document is publically available and has a wide selection of Charts, Tables and Graphs.
Scenario
In this assignment you will undertake two distinct tasks divided as Part A and Part B. First, you will develop a list of generic evaluation criteria that critique valid practices when developing, or constructing, Charts, Tables and Graphs (i.e. visualisations), i.e. Part A.
Second, you will use the criteria you have just developed to evaluate the suitability of the Charts, Tables and Graphs (i.e. visualisations) utilised in a publically available report of your choice (subject to the conditions listed later in this document) i.e. Part B.
Requirements
• Part A: Develop Evaluation Criteria
Your evaluation criteria need to be objective, in that they stipulate the rules you would use in establishing whether a Chart, Table or Graph utilised in your selected Report, is appropriate for the data being presented. You need to make sure that each of your criterion is written in such a manner that a reasonable person can readily understand, or appreciate, the message being conveyed. You are expected to address approximately 20 criteria.
You should also group your criteria by visualisation type. For example, you might choose “Common”, “Chart”, “Table” and “Graph”, or some other suitable grouping. You are not restricted to these specific headings. It’s also important that you number each separate criterion as you will need to refer to its specific number when undertaking Task 2.
An example of an appropriate criterion:
Line Charts should be used when analysing trends over time. To be effective, the time series should be placed on the x-axis with the measure on the y-axis.
An example of an unacceptable criterion:
Line Charts should have nice colours.
This example fails on two counts: it has an inadequate description (or explanation); and, it is subjective (i.e. the authors opinion), whereas it should be objective.
• Part B: Report Evaluation
Select 12 to 15 diverse Charts, Tables or Graphs from your chosen Report (but not including any “Infographics”) and evaluate these visualisations using your criterion developed in Part A. It would not be unusual for an individual visualisation from your report to refer to multiple criteria.
Further, any given visualisation you select may conform to some of your criterion but be in contravention of others, and this would need to be reported.
It is expected that each of your criterion would be used at least once when evaluating your chosen Charts, Tables or Graphs.
Note: When evaluating the report, include an image of the Charts, Tables and Graphs you have selected and make sure to associate them back to a specific criterion by using the criterion number you used in Part A.