A few things you can do to reach your audience better with graphs.

Consider a typical graph in PowerPoint.

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Everyone can understand this graph, right?

Nope.

12% of your audience probably can’t even

distinguish between the elements.

Be aware of the color-blind. This is what they

might see when they look at the graph.

9% of men are red/green color-b l ind, another 2-3% are red-blue color-b l ind,

as is a smal l percentage of women. This means that they have d iffi cul ty d ist inguish ing d iff erences between

shades of co lor.

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Not really what you had in mind, huh?

Not a l l co lor-b l ind people have i t to th is extreme, but do you

want to take the chance that the one person you’re try ing to get

through to does?

What to do?

Some experts suggest this.

According to research, patterns are much eas ier to d ist inguish than colors .

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And some suggest this.

Pr imary colors are c learer and eas ier for approximately 12% of your audience to

see.

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Or maybe a combination?

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One thing not to do is this.

I t g ives too much unnecessary in format ion.

Besides, i t ’s ugly and d istract ing.

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If the idea is to communicate, rather than

to confuse, then

the next time you see this on your screen

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please change it.

Or, you could just pass out pillows and blankets in

order to help your audience sleep better.