Data - Help or Hinder?

Part 3 of the series

In an era where big data is becoming more and more prevalent, we are increasingly finding that data can either help or hinder the reader to understand what it means and to reach conclusions.

Morrison Low worked with over 80% of the councils in NZ to help provide advice as they wrestled with the ultimate question: “What does the Three Water Reform mean for our council and community?”

Data was key in this conversation. There was so much data coming from the Council RFIs and vast amounts from the WICS analysis. It was a daunting task to make sense of what it all meant in a short time period. A key factor in every discussion was always the future household cost. The government approach of presenting the information was very ‘binary’

Figure 1 – DIA dashboard

There were so many variables involved with the calculation and over a 30-year period nothing can be that certain. The answer will fall within a range and while that was acknowledged, the presentation of it was not so easy to convey (Stu Cross – Know your audience’).

Figure 2 – WICS sensitivity analysis

Data presented in the right way is a very powerful tool to both help simplify technical detail and to articulate what the data is actually saying. Data presented badly or if poorly chosen, does the opposite. While everyone will have a view on what works, we have rules when presenting data:

• What are we trying to draw the reader’s attention to?
• Is the message clear (not everyone is a technical expert)?
• Does it answer their question?????

Morrison Low developed a different approach to conveying the information to councils and if there was one thing that we did in the 8 weeks that really worked it was the graphic below. In this example we have even been able to show how the proposed financial benefits differs across two different councils.

Figure 3 – Comparison of average household cost in 2051 (current dollars)

We think the key was to acknowledge the range in which the answer would fall (Stu Cross - No recommendation is perfect) and colour code the information (Dan Bonifant - Keep it simple).

The adage of “a picture is worth a thousand words” stands true here.?