DEV Community: Mary Jonah

When things fell into right places

Mary Jonah — Thu, 28 May 2026 06:59:31 +0000

In the 2025 Annual Inflation Report, there was a happy story in 'bars' that needed to be told.

What I like:

Data labels so one can use it in recreating the chart.
Legend was at the top (was eliminated but this is better than most diagrams leaving them in the default position which is beneath the chart)

What will I change?

Axis titles:
- y-axis title: Include "Inflation" title and % to communicate the values are percentages.
- x-axis title: 2025 moved to be an x-axis title as the data spans the same year no need to include it in each month
Highlight the drastic drop in May - June
- Capture that as the story in the title
- Match the background colour of the title with the line between May and June.
- Include the inflation details for these months for both categories
Include the series titles directly on the lines.
Provide details of story as a description beneath the title.
End with the inflation numbers for both series at the end of the year with minimal emphasis on them.

Before:

After:

Tools: Excel
References:
- FIGURE 2.2: GOODS VS SERVICES INFLATION (% YOY), JAN.-DEC. 2025 - Annual Inflation Report (Page 21)
- Exchange Rate Details - Bank of Ghana
- Jan to Dec monthly gold prices - Stat Muse

Give us money and collecting from our citizens, Q1 - Q3 story of financing Ghana's expenditure in 2025

Mary Jonah — Thu, 28 May 2026 06:51:08 +0000

The initial diagram can be found under the section 2025 Q1-Q3 Budget Balances and Financing Operations in the 2025 Budget Statement and Economic Policy.

Here my presentation is about informing the citizens about meeting financing goals from international and domestic sources.

What I like:

The figures in the diagram, there was no table with the figures, so I was able to recreate it using what I see in the diagram.

What will I change?

Both colors will be replaced with Dark Teal, Accent 1 and Orange to eliminate any bias or assumption associated with the existing colors.
The line and figures associated with the totals do not add extra details; they can be added in the text description.
Add block of text to provide more insights on title.
Replace Outturn with Actual, it is too technical for the audience I seek to communicate with.
Use slope graph and its slope to communicate the rate of change.
Replace the default legend with colour-coded text at the top of the graph.
Move the quarter information to the description instead of repeating in x-axis titles.
- Also bolden the text financing rather than repeating it in legend.
Left-align text all text to follow the default way humans read text from top-left to bottom-right.

Before:

After:

Tools: Excel
References:
- Evergreen Data - Make a Slopegraph in Excel
- Figure 6: Summary of Q1-Q3 2025 Financing Operations - 2026 Budget Statement (Page 24)

Introducing "Four-Eyed Insights 🤓"

Mary Jonah — Wed, 27 May 2026 06:42:58 +0000

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Four-Eyed Insights, a play on the fact that I wear 2 extra 'eyes' in the form of spectacles👓.

This series will be a fun one, here I will be re-doing visuals I find complex so they can be easily understood by most people (my target is not the whole world).

Yes, there will be a before and after section (do not take it personal, everything here is my point of view, and opposing ideas are encouraged so share them in the comments section). I will also share my thought process.