Episode: When Lines Cross
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Fire data isn’t ugly Presenting fire data effectively series Episode: When lines cross July 2015
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Transcript of Episode: When Lines Cross
Fire data isn’t ugly Presenting fire data effectively series Episode: When lines cross
July 2015
A makeover of fire department data to transform it from unclear and underperforming to powerfully informative.
This redo is going to be a bit different. Here we’re going to use some real data from the Kansas Fire Incident Reporting System on school fires during the school year. First, let’s create a line chart using all the defaults in Microsoft Excel. Line charts are a bit big so we’ll be working with one chart, instead of the usual side-by-side.
Exhibit: line chart Default Spaghetti al dente
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Fires at schools during the school year
20102011201220132014
01020304050607080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
Building/Inside FireOutside Trash/DumpsterVegetation FiresVehicle FiresYearly total
Line charts visualize continuous information. There is no halfway point between “Vehicle fires” and “Yearly Total” yet this is how Excel might default your chart.
Instead, make sure that time is on the x-axis by using the Switch Row/Column option.
Line charts Time series data is suited perfectly to a line chart since it’s continuous data. Few other data series fit well on line charts.
We can label the chart better using a formatting option for the Labels. Did you know that Excel can list the Value, Series Name, and/or Category Name? Just right click the labels and choose Format Data Labels.
Building/Inside Fire
Outside Trash/Dumpster Vegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Yearly total
01020304050607080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
Directly labeling the lines takes away the need to look at a line, look for the color, and then assign a name from the legend.
Working memory can only keep about 3 items going at once.
Building/Inside Fire
Outside Trash/Dumpster Vegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Yearly total
01020304050607080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
You’ll notice I also changed the colors of the labels to match the lines themselves. This helps your eye out even more. We’ll come back to color here in a bit.
Building/Inside Fire
Outside Trash/Dumpster Vegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Yearly total
01020304050607080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
Lighten the gridlines to help the lines move forward. This ultra-light grey might not print well so check it with a test run. Drop the bolding on the title, too.
I’ve shifted the title to the left, where our eyes naturally look for the beginning of text.
Building/Inside Fire
Outside Trash/Dumpster Vegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Yearly total
01020304050607080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
Think about what you are trying to say with the chart. If you are trying to emphasize the fires inside schools, then you can push the emphasis right there.
Once you know the point you’re trying to illustrate, a bit of color does all the work for you.
Building/Inside Fire
Outside Trash/Dumpster Vegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Yearly total
01020304050607080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
You can even slightly increase and decrease the line weight of each category. Don’t go overboard with this though.
Here, the line for Building/Inside Fires is just a tad thicker than the rest.
Building/Inside Fire
Outside Trash/Dumpster Vegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Yearly total
01020304050607080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
Worried about printing in black and white? Even without color, your line chart still passes all the information on, between direct labeling and shades of grey.
Building/Inside Fire
Outside Trash/Dumpster Vegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Yearly total
01020304050607080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
If your ask your data the right questions you can get the right chart. If you’re interested in each year compared to the others this chart is perfect.
Let’s ask our data another question. Are there more or fewer fires today than 5 years ago?
Building/Inside Fire
Outside Trash/Dumpster Vegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Yearly total
01020304050607080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
If we only need to compare two years, we’re not interested in the rise and fall of the between years. Actually, the other years get in the way.
Slope Graphs Check out this chart type!
Building/Inside Fires
Outside Trash/Dumpster Fires Vegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Yearly Total
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
802010 2014
Fires in schools during the school year
Building/Inside Fires, 22
31
Vegetation Fires, 8 10
Vehicle Fires, 6 5
Yearly Total, 68 72
Outside Trash/Dumpster Fires, 19 15
2010 2014
Fires in schools during the school year
Slope graphs are just two data points: the start date and the end date. You can quickly see what’s up and what’s down.
You can even emphasize increasing/decreasing fires using color.
Building/Inside Fires, 22
31
Outside Trash/Dumpster Fires, 19 15
Vegetation Fires, 8 10
Vehicle Fires, 6 5
Yearly Total, 68 72
2010 2014
Fires in schools during the school year
Be careful in sizing your chart. Slope graphs are usually tall and narrow but, if you make your chart longer, the increases and decreases will appear smaller. If you make your chart taller or squish it, any changes will show off dramatically.
Building/Inside Fires, 22
31
Outside Trash/Dumpster Fires, 19 15
Vegetation Fires, 8 10
Vehicle Fires, 6 5
Yearly Total, 68 72
2010 2014
Fires in schools during the school year
0
20
40
60
80
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
Building/Inside Fire
OutsideTrash/DumpsterVegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Building/Inside Fire
Outside Trash/Dumpster Vegetation Fires
Vehicle Fires
Yearly total
01020304050607080
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Fires at schools during the school year
Default
After
Lines and Slope Graphs Don’t be afraid of line charts. Just clean them up a bit and they can be quite presentable.
Hello! I’m Sara Wood and I love converting fire service members into
NFIRS operatives. I’m the State NFIRS program manager for Kansas and
enjoy providing classes to help bring fire departments into the era of data
driven decisions. If you need help creating a presentation or analyzing
your data, I’d love to hear from you!
