ABSTRACT
The design of education data reports has a significant impact on whether the reports' users can easily and accurately understand, analyze, and use the data being displayed. The 4.2 Standards represent a synthesis of literature pertaining to designing data reports or other displays of data in effective ways. The format and components of a data display should be those most likely to render understanding of the data. Clear communication is paramount to good report format and component decisions. Constraining the use of lines and outlines is one way in which clutter can be reduced. Some of the main problems with data reports are information overload, report density, and clutter; rather, reports should use white space and variation to make reports appear easy-to-understand. Reports should feature their most important data in prime locations. Calculations, summaries, and averages are important, as covered by Standards 4.2.01 and 4.2.02, yet their culminating nature makes last-column and last-row locations particularly optimal.
