Meagan Longoria shows us a non-working chart and how to make it work:
First, I added some explanatory text for context to help communicate my message. If you don’t know about the Citizen Work Sessions, this chart might be confusing. The note about the shift in spending to public safety came from the FY 2016 – 2021 Citywide Business Plan. I thought it was important context to note as city council members and government officials have hard decisions to make when it comes to the budget.
This is a fantastic post for people without much background in visualization (like me) who are winging it (like me) and probably creating ugly charts (…like me). And it’s all in Excel, meaning you don’t need to learn new tools to make charts convey useful information.