Stories Help Convert Data To Knowledge
A summary of the learnings from the book Storytelling With Data by Cole Knaflic
Welcome to the first weekly edition of Making Data Work! This week I will be covering key takeaways from the book Storytelling With Data by Cole Knaflic.
More Information ≠ More Knowledge
We generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data everyday. Having all the information in the world at our fingertips doesn’t make it easier to communicate, it makes it harder. The ability to tell stories with this ever exploding information is key to driving better decision making. It requires us to make a switch from simply showing data to storytelling with data.
Pay attention to these 6 aspects the next time you’re creating a visual.
Understand The Context
This step distinguishes data visualizations that resonate from those that don’t.
The medium of consumption of data has important implications on design choices. Exploratory analysis needs to be a lot more in depth and all encompassing. However, explanatory, i.e. the ones which are being presented, need to distill the analysis to its most important points.
In order to ensure the context is water tight, you should have 3 different versions of the context
The Big Idea: A single sentence explaining your unique point of view
The 3-minute story: If you only had 3 minutes to tell your audience the story, what would you tell them?
Storyboarding: A high-level structure for a presentation
Choose An Effective Visual
The most effective visuals are often the simplest ones that tell a coherent story
There are only a dozen different charts you would need to communicate your point effectively
Simple text, Scatter plot, Table, Line, Heatmap, Slopegraph, Vertical bar, Horizontal bar, Stacked vertical bar, Stacked horizontal bar, Waterfall, Square area
Keep these red flags in mind as you design your visuals.
Avoid pie charts at all costs. They take up lot of space while communicating very limited information
Avoid area charts as far as possible, since human eyes don’t do a great job of attributing quantitative value to two-dimensional spaces
Ensure logical ordering of your categories
Stay away from 3-D charts
Secondary y-axis is generally not a good idea, since it increases the cognitive load on the audience
Eliminate Clutter
We need to reduce the cognitive load on the audience by eliminating clutter and maximizing the data-to-ink ratio of the visual.
Cognitive Load - Amount of effort required by the audience to get value out of the communication
Clutter - Visual elements that take up space but don’t increase understanding
Clutter usually arises from one of two shortcomings - lack of visual order and non-strategic use of contrast.
Paying attention to alignment and whitespace can go a long way in reducing clutter.
Focus Your Audience’s Attention
We have about 3-8 seconds with our audience before they decide to spend more time or snooze off
Preattentive attributes like size, colour, and position help us grab their attention and create a visual hierarchy of elements that guide them through the information
Think Like A Designer
As the general design adage goes, form (visualization) follows function (what should the audience do with it)
To ensure that audiences can absorb and act on the information shared with them, attention needs to be paid to affordance, accessibility, aesthetics, and acceptance.
Affordance refers to aspects of the design that make the use of the product obvious. A data visualization that rates highly on affordance highlights the important stuff, eliminates distraction, and creates a clear hierarchy of information
Accessible designs are usable by audiences of diverse abilities
Aesthetically pleasing charts are perceived by most people as easier to use
Acceptance refers to the audience’s understanding of the context. If the visualization isn’t presented in that context, it is very likely that none of the above will matter.
Tell A Story
There are two ways to convince an audience - at an intellectual level or through a story. Intellectual arguments are academic at best, since humans aren’t inspired to act by logic alone. On the other hand, stories have the power to ignite action by calling upon the audience’s attention and energy.
Stories have been a medium of communication throughout history. Everyone can learn to become a storyteller by understanding the various elements of a good story.
The setting: When and where does the story take place?
The main character: Who is driving the action?
The imbalance: Why is it necessary, what has changed?
The balance: What do you want to see happen?
The solution: How will you bring about the changes?
However, you decide to tell your story make sure that these two ingredients are always present.
Stories have a clear beginning, middle, and an end
Conflict and tension are integral parts of a story
Next time you’re creating a visual to communicate to an audience, make sure to run through these 6 steps.
Step 1 - Understand the context
Step 2 - Choose an effective visual
Step 3 - Eliminate clutter
Step 4 - Focus your audience’s attention
Step 5 - Think like a designer
Step 6 - Tell a story
That’s all for this week. Next Sunday, I’ll be back with the next edition of Making Data Work. Ahead of that, if you enjoyed this edition, I’d really appreciate if you shared it with a friend, family member or colleague.