Anyone can be creative…
I’m sure we’ve all heard it before, anyone can be creative. This much is true, but someone who is truly creative can and will deliver content, or in this case analytic reports, that are sure to turn heads in the boardroom. Luckily, for those who are less in tune with their graphic design side, programs like Google’s Data Studio are making it much easier to present your brand’s latest reports with the help of clean and snappy visuals. Frankly, I do believe that a trained graphic designer would produce a much more visually appealing data report then someone without that knowledge – but, it is possible to create a nicely designed report without necessarily being a creative person.
Themes are your friend…
Within Google’s Data Studio are options for controlling the look and feel of your analytic data and the report as a whole. These cover such things as the typography used, color choices, and of course the imagery and visuals themselves. There are preset themes you can choose from as well as creating your own ‘custom theme’ so that you can give your report a bit of a personal touch wherever needed. Google even allows for a unique option where you can build a theme around the colors located within a specific image used for your report, “You can generate a custom theme based on the colors in an image. This makes it easy to coordinate the text and data colors with an image in your report, such as a logo or product photo” (Google, 2021). As you can see, Google is making it easier for anyone to become a ‘creative’ analyst in any business or field.
Citation: Google. (2021). Themes – Data Studio Help. Https://Support.Google.Com/Datastudio/Answer/9209811?Hl=en&ref_topic=9209919. https://support.google.com/datastudio/answer/9209811?hl=en&ref_topic=9209919