One of the most common requests I receive is to review charts and graphs and provide insight around how to improve them by using the formatting tools available in Excel. This example shows the process of redesigning the chart to better facilitate comparison within regions of the trend towards a greater percent of women falling into the overweight and obese categories (from 1980 to 2008).

1. A CHART
REDESIGN
1980 2008
Amanda Makulec
JSI Center for Health Information, Monitoring & Evaluation
@abmakulec

2. Excel has the capability of churning
out incredibly hard to interpret charts
and graphs, and automatically
includes a lot of visual clutter.
Thinking through the story you want to tell with
your data, considering the many different chart
types that can be created in Excel (or hacked with
some creative formatting), and designing a chart
that tells that data story effectively are essential for
making sure your message is heard.
Walk through the following simple steps for how to
transform a hard-to-read graph into something that
tells the data story well.

3. The message we want to tell to the general
public from this data table is:
Around the world, the proportion of
women* who are overweight or obese
has increased across regions.
*Normal as defined by standard BMI measures and women aged 20-49 years.
Data table from: Black RE, Victora CG, Walker SP, Bhutta ZA, Christian P, de Onis M, Ezzati M, Grantham-McGregor S,
Katz J, Martorell R, Uauy R. Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income
countries” The Lancet 2013; (06 June 2013) DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60937-X.
underweight normal overweight obese
1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008
Africa 18 12 64 58 14 19 4 11
LAC 4 2 66 43 22 31 8 24
Asia 19 17 68 62 11 17 2 4
Europe 4 4 61 55 25 28 10 13
Oceania 6 2 69 45 19 32 6 21

4. Change in BMI status of women 20-49
years from 1980 to 2008 by region
1980 2008
START The original Excel chart.

5. Original layout - doesn't facilitate comparisons by region very well
Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania
obese
overweight
normal
underweight
0
20
40
60
80
00
Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania
The comparison is across regions and focused
on changes in numbers that sum to 100%.
So, a stacked bar chart is a better choice.

6. By clustering the stacked bars by region,
you can better facilitate comparisons
within regions.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008
Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania
Obese
Overweight
Underweight
Normal
Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status

7. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008
Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania
Obese
Overweight
Underweight
Normal
By minimizing the spaces between the
columns, you make it easy to see the pairs
of regional data.
Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status

8. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008
Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania
Obese
Overweight
Underweight
Normal
Then, reduce the clutter by taking away
the unnecessary tick marks and lines.
Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status

9. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008 1980 2008
Africa LAC Asia Europe Oceania
Obese
Overweight
Underweight
Normal
Consider how much detail your audience needs.
In this case, if the important trend is the overall change in
percent above normal, then combine the two categories.
Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status

10. Reorder categories to be logical.
Starting with underweight at the base and overweight/obese at
the top of the stacked bar.
Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status

11. Add color that adds meaning.
Bright colors call attention to the important categories while gray
lets ‘normal’ fade a bit.
Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status

12. Think about the level of detail required.
Technical folks might want to know that this is based on BMI and the
specific age range defined as “women” while a broader global audience
may not need that level of detail as an axis title.
Percent of women 20-49 years by body mass index (BMI) status

13. The proportion of women who are overweight has
increased in low and middle income countries.
Add a title that tells
the key message
you want your
audience to
takeaway. This is
very important
since the axis title
has been removed.

14. Change in BMI status of women 20-49
years from 1980 to 2008 by region
1980 2008
A reminder of where we started.

15. The proportion of women who are overweight has
increased in low and middle income countries.
END