STORYTELLING WITH DATA

“The New Visualization Data Guide To Reaching Your

Business Aim In The Fastest Way”

By
James Gates
 © Copyright 2020 byJames Gates

All rights reserved.

This document is geared towards providing exact and reliable information

about the topic and issue covered. The publication is sold with the idea that
the publisher is not required to render accounting, officially permitted or
otherwise qualified services. If advice is necessary, legal or professional, a
practiced individual in the profession should be ordered.
- From a Declaration of Principles which was accepted and approved equally
by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of
Publishers and Associations.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this
document in either electronic means or printed format. Recording of this
publication is strictly prohibited, and any storage of this document is not
allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights
reserved.
The information provided herein is stated to be truthful and consistent, in that
any liability, in terms of inattention or otherwise, by any usage or abuse of
any policies, processes, or directions contained within is the sole and utter
responsibility of the recipient reader. Under no circumstances will any legal
responsibility or blame be held against the publisher for any reparation,
damages, or monetary loss due to the information herein, either directly or
indirectly.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
The information herein is offered for informational purposes solely and is
universal as so. The presentation of the information is without a contract or
any type of guarantee assurance.
The trademarks that are used are without any consent, and the publication of
the trademark is without permission or backing by the trademark owner. All
trademarks and brands within this book are for clarifying purposes only and
are owned by the owners themselves, not affiliated with this document.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS DATA STORYTELLING
Why Data Storytelling Is Essential
THE EVOLUTION OF DATA STORYTELLING
HOW TO TELL A STORY WITH DATA
DATA VISUALIZATION
UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT
CHOOSING AN EFFECTIVE VISUAL
IDENTIFY AND ELIMINATE CLUTTER
WHITE SPACE
TIPS FOR STORYTELLING WITH DATA
CONCEPTS OF DESIGN IN DATA VISUALIZATION
PRINCIPLES OF VISUAL STORYTELLING
THE POWER OF DATA STORYTELLING
How To Master Business Storytelling
CREATE ENGAGING DATA-DRIVEN STORIES
Data-Driven Story Telling Tips
5 Steps To Creating Persuasive Charts And Graphs
CONCLUSION

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it

takes to sit down and listen”
-Winston Churchill
 INTRODUCTION
I consider many less impressive images in my job (and in my life— it's hard
to turn it off once you have a discerning eye for this stuff). Nobody's going to
make a poor graph. Nevertheless, it occurs many times in every organization
in all industries and by every form of an individual. It's in the papers. It
happens where you want people to know better. Why is it?
We learn a lot about language and maths at school. On the vocabulary side,
we know how to bring words into sentences and stories together. We learn to
make sense of numbers with mathematics. But these two sides are rarely
matched: nobody shows us how to say numbers on stories. In addition to the
difficulty, very few people in this region feel naturally adept. This leaves us
poorly prepared for an increasingly demanding, important mission.
Technology has helped us to collect more and more data and a growing need
to make sense of all this data. The ability to interpret data and tell stories
about it is essential for turning it into information for better decision-making.
Despite natural skills or expertise in this area, we often rely on our resources
to understand best practices. In addition to increasing the quantity and access
to data, technical advancements have also made tools to work with data
prevalent. Almost anyone can place any data in a graphical program (e.g.,
Excel) and construct a graph. This is important to remember, so I'm going to
repeat: anyone can bring some details into a graphical program and construct
a graph. It is noteworthy because a graph was traditionally reserved for
scientists or others in other highly technical positions. And frightening,
because our best intentions and efforts (in combination with sometimes
questionable tool defaults) without a clear direction to follow can lead us in a
profoundly poor course: 3D, pointless color, pie charts.
While technology has increased access and expertise in data processing
software, capability gaps remain. You can place data and create a graph in
Excel. For many, the data visualization cycle ends there. This can make the
most compelling story, totally or worse— difficult or impossible to
understand. Defaults in software and best procedures continue to leave our
data and stories that are sadly lacking. Your data contain a narrative. Yet the
instruments don't know what the story is. This is where it takes you — the
researcher or information communicator— to bring this story to life visually
and contextually.
This book is written for anyone who wants information to be conveyed to
others using data. This includes: analysts who share the results of their
research, students who view thesis data, managers who need data-driven
communication, philanthropists who prove their effect, and board members
informed. I believe that everyone should develop their ability to communicate
with data effectively. It is a place for someone to intimidate, but it doesn't
have to be. The ability to tell stories with data is an increasingly valuable skill
in our world of that data and a need to make data-driven decision-making.
Successful data visualization will make a difference in terms of
communicating your study results, raising the money for your non-profit,
introducing it to your board, or simply communicating your argument to your
audience.
My experience has taught me that most people face a similar challenge: they
might understand the need for efficient communication of data, but they feel
as though they lack expertise in this field. Software design professionals are
hard to come by. Part of the problem is that visualization of data is one stage
in the analysis process. Those involved in analytical positions common for
the other steps have quantitative qualifications (finding, gathering,
evaluating, constructing models), but not typically formal training in design
to assist them in the communication of research— the only type of research
the audience has ever seen. More and more, people with no technological
experience in our increasingly data-driven world are asked to put on
analytical hats and to communicate through data. The feelings of discomfort
in this space can not be shocking, as it is not generally taught to interact
effectively with data. Those who excellently have generally understood what
works and not through trial and error. It could be a long and tedious
operation. Through this book, I hope I can help you speed it up.

I've always been drawn to the room where business and mathematics
converge. My educational experience in mathematics and industry, which
allows me to interact with both sides efficiently–as they don't always speak
the same language–and help them understand one another better. I want to be
able to use data analysis to make informed business decisions. Over time, I
have found that one key to success is the ability to interact with data visually.
I first realized the value of my first job outside of college as a skilled person
in this field. I served as a credit risk management consultant (before the
subprime crisis and, thus, before anyone understood what credit risk
management was). My task was to create and test statistical models for the
prediction of crime and loss. It meant making complicated things and
ultimately making it into a simple statement whether we had enough money
for expected losses in savings, in what situations we would be exposed to,
and so on. I quickly learned that my colleagues didn't usually spend time on
the esthetic piece— to get more support from my boss and my boss's boss. To
me, this was the beginning of the visual exchange of data in spending time.
After advancing through several roles in loan risk, fraud, and management,
followed by some time in the world of private equity, I decided that I wanted
to continue my career outside banking and finance.
I stopped to consider the skills that I had that I wanted to use every day: in
essence, it used data to influence business decisions. I landed at the People
Analytics team at Google. Google is so data-driven that it even uses data and
analytics in a field not often seen: human resources. People Analytics is an
analysis team incorporated into Google's HR organization ("People
Operations" in Google). This team's mission is to help ensure that decision-
making by Google employees or potential employees is focused on evidence.
This was a perfect way to develop my leadership skills further and use data
and analytics to better understand and educate decision-making in ways like
targeted jobs, staff engaged and inspiring, team building, and talent retention.
Google People Analytics is cutting-edge and helps to build a direction that
other businesses have started to pursue. It was an amazing experience to be
involved in creating and developing this squad.
 WHAT IS DATA STORYTELLING
The quickest and easiest way to inspire the team to understand and act on
data through the power of stories is through data telling. It builds a data-
driven, open community, facilitates talks about what matters, and frees the
people from doing what they are asked to do.
Information history takes the information literally and instantly turns it into
simple English tales. Through offering information that can be interpreted by
all, data storage allows the team the opportunity to get the story of what
matters for them in seconds of language. There is an issue with how
everybody has been trained to communicate with data–we want everyone to
be able to interpret and explore it. We believe that they can enjoy their time
and learn the skills to do so well, but expect the same in their real work.
Think about it— how do you still communicate with technology? This looks
like Spotify, Alexa, and Netflix for most users. Users like these tools because
they're simple, customized, and with zero work, you get what you want. Yet,
most businesses tend to force people to jump a million hoops to get the story
from their results. The focus on results, though theoretically fantastic, has
become more and more difficult, time-consuming, and much more frustrating
for everyone concerned. Data must begin to come to us. We must give our
workers a way to understand their data without requiring them to learn
computer skills. We need to provide them with information wherever and
whenever they work. Software storytelling helps everyone, regardless of their
level of expertise, to understand and use the software every day in their
careers.
Rather than asking people to learn to interpret tablets or explore dashboards,
data history uses clear, easy-to-understand language and one-click
collaboration to ensure that everyone in the firm understands knowledge. It
makes it easier for you to make the right choices faster, which eventually
leads to happy workers and better business performance.
As data is even more omnipresent, businesses actively pursue talent with
such technology competencies. Over the last two years, the data analysis
study by LinkedIn is one of the highest ability categories for recruiters and
was the only category that has consistently placed in the top 4 across all the
countries they evaluated. Interestingly, much of the current emphasis has
been on data preparation and analysis–not "last miles" to help turn insights
into practice. Most highly qualified people with a high degree in economics,
mathematics, or statistics fail to convey their knowledge effectively to others
— primarily saying their numbers.
The need for additional data storytellers will only grow in the future. With
this move to more analytical and business intelligence self-service capability,
the pool of people who produce insights is growing beyond analysts and data
scientists. This latest set of data resources will enable the exposure and
discovery of data on their own for people across business functions. As a
result, we will see an enormous number of insights created more than ever
before inside companies. Furthermore, if we do not enhance the
communication of these observations, we will also see a lower rate of insight
into value transfer. If an idea is not understood and persuasive, nobody will
take action, and there will be no improvement. Numbers have to tell a
remarkable story. We depend on you for a strong and convincing speech.
Any useful insight is probably best conveyed as a data story. A lot of items
were correlated with the term "data storytelling," data analysis, computer
graphics, dashboards, data presentations, etc. Software storytelling is all too
often interpreted as only effectively visualizing software, but is far more than
only making visually pleasing data charts. Data history is a systematic
approach to data analysis that provides a mix of three main elements: data,
visuals which narration. It is important to understand how these different
elements interact and function together in data history. If narratives are
combined with data, they allow the audience to understand what happens in
the data and why it is important to have a specific perspective. A broad
context and analysis are often needed to understand and insightfully. When
graphics are added to results, they expose the public to facts that without
charts or graphs, they will not see. Without data visualizations, many
fascinating trends and outliers in the data will remain concealed in the rows
and columns of the data tables.
Ultimately, if stories and pictures are combined, a viewer will be interested or
amused. Every year, we spend billions of dollars collectively on films to
immerse ourselves in diverse lives, cultures, and adventures. When you mix
the right graphics and stories with the right data, you have a data table that
can transform and move them.

WHY DATA STORYTELLING IS ESSENTIAL

Telling stories has been an important part of our culture for thousands of
years. Also, in our digital era, history continues to relate to our ancestors as
much as it did to us. Stories play a diverse role in our everyday lives— from
the content, we consume to the experiences we share in dreams.
Modern storytelling also comes under the iconic TED conference series and
its motto,' Ideas Worth Spreading.' Stories made up at least 65 percent of their
content by evaluating the 500 most iconic TED Talk presentations.
Storytelling has become a strong distribution tool for exchanging thoughts
and ideas in a way that is unforgettable, compelling, and engaging all the
time.
Some people can find it unnecessary, time-consuming to construct a story
about the data. We can believe that the observations or evidence are adequate
to stand alone, as long as they are clearly stated. You should conclude that
the observations presented alone will affect correct decisions and motivate
the audience to act. Unfortunately, this view is founded on the flawed
premise that business decisions are based solely on logic and reason.
In reality, neuroscientists have verified choices are based on emotion rather
than rationality. In the area that helped regulate emotions (frontier cortex), I
found patients with brain injury who had difficulties in making simple
decisions while deciding between alternatives. Deciding where to eat or
setting a date transformed these individuals into lengthy cost-benefit
discussions. Interestingly, the loss of moral control significantly affected the
decision-making abilities of these patients. Yes, emotion plays a vital role in
helping our brains explore options and make a fast decision. By integrating
your experiences into a data table, you create a bridge to the influent
emotional side of the brain for your data. Just two areas of the brain linked to
language processing: Broca's area and Wernicke's area were stimulated when
neuroscientists witnessed the impact of specific knowledge on an audience.
So if someone is drawn into a story, they found that more areas of the brain
were activated. Statistics are heard, but tales are thought. This small yet
important disparity pays dividends in a few main ways to data historians:
Memorability: 63% could recall stories from a study, but only 5% could
recall a single Statistique. Although 2.5 statistics were included in the
exercise on average, and only 10 percent contained stories, stories were
appealing to people.
Persuasiveness: Researchers have checked two versions of the Save the
Children charity brochure in another report. The story-based version of the
story was between $2.38 and $1.14 in terms of donations per participant. The
specific African children figures were even less compelling than the tale of
Rokia, a seven-year-old from Mali, Africa.
Engagement: Scientists have often discovered people entering a trance-like
environment where they are less critical and cynical. The viewer needs to see
where the plot leads rather than going through the specifics. We tend to
suspend skepticism to be amused when listening to stories. At the same time,
we usually prefer to suspend beliefs in order not to be discouraged by the
assessment of facts.
Some audacious, surprising observations will face a similar destiny if they do
not successfully form data stories. Detecting and communicating the key
insights is another skill— both are both critical to deriving value from the
data the company collects. Software storytelling is an exciting, modern area
of knowledge in which art and science truly collide. I expect that more data
tellers— from across the company— can arise to ensure that more innovative
ideas endure and take place.

How Data Storytelling Works

Data storytelling doesn't make you pull it out and start from scratch. It doesn't
need you to configure anything for days or months. This is the fastest way to
concentrate everyone in your business on the right issues and to decide
quicker and better than ever before.
This is more of a cultural change to give everyone in your organization
knowledge understanding and action that complements your data discovery
and analysis efforts. This is your customized, simple experience in today's
world. This is a revolutionary way for the workers to be genuinely data-
driven.
What happens when you start using your company's data storytelling? Let's
go every step. Every step. This is how the tale of data benefits you and your
team:

Instantly understand your data with plain-English stories instead of

dashboards.
What if you gave your employees a way to interpret the data that matters to
them immediately instead of asking them to study tablets or to explore
dashboards? In most businesses, it means developing a radically open, data-
driven community, making informed choices, and achieving targets and
reaching them more quickly. If your workers want to understand the
company or decide soon, you can use data storytelling to make this easier
immediately. But it doesn't have to stop there — if they choose, they can
continue a discussion with other team members.
For the will of your workers, you cannot have personal analyst writing
reports. This is why we have created smart natural language technologies that
make data history work for your company, regardless of the time of day. By
offering factual facts that anyone can understand–a story, you can motivate
your people to make decisions quickly.

Learn what you need to know to make better decisions every single day.
The traditional approach to data comprehension takes minutes to days.
Employees wear long smartphones, dig through dashboards, or ask their
operations or analytics teams a million questions and wait hours for answers.
With data storytelling, your team will automatically read a customized story
that tells you what you need to know about your company, tailored to your
needs. The data telling technology is smart–it, of course, articulates every
day, for each employee, the most relevant and fascinating information. And it
also helps them to share this knowledge.

Start the conversation with your team about how to take action.
Stories are the best way to make sure everyone understands the facts. Stories
are how we interact best as humans. It's like reminding us of what counts and
inspiring action. It is how we persuade and inspire. Stories help us to learn
something different — to answer new questions.
Instead of asking employees to find answers, data stories make sure the
employees are aware of the correct information where it is already. Since data
storytelling is simply language stories, it facilitates things like comment and
collaboration, integration with other communication platforms, such as Slack,
and comprehensive email sharing. And since data stories are written, they
work on a mobile device just like they do on a desktop. Once you leave your
office, the business doesn't end. Wherever you are — on a plane or a soccer
game with your child or even having a meal, data telling lets you and your
whole team hold the pulse anywhere and every time.
The Different Between Data Storytelling And Data Visualization
Information history is becoming a common concept in the field of analytics–
looking at the data carefully to find the relevant meanings and to
communicate them as easily as possible. It's sadly a strong term diluted by
those who make it synonymous with data visualization–data visualization
companies who follow it as a slogan for marketing. These experts balance it
with best practices for visualization etc. The presentation of data is far more
than complex methods of visually displaying data. Data reports blend data
with tales.
Stories are powerful things. Across history, we have used them to capture
consciousness, express thoughts, ignite creativity, and revitalize the spirit.
Statistics can be compelling, but stories are a lot more. A well-told tale is an
engaging tale intended to get the viewer interested. Stories affect data alone.
That is not possible. You are unforgettable, frequently passed on, and
replicated, encouraging people to engage and inspiring people to act. At the
surface, storytelling is the opposite of analytics–qualitative rather than
quantitative. But quantities are not the only way to convey knowledge, or
necessarily the best way. Not everybody in the company is a quantum who
thinks in numbers natively. Others think of the popularity of the
representation of data in pictures: "Present to me the type of things, not the
numbers. "The visualization is strong, but the ability to combine graphics and
tell stories with data is even more strong. The secret is narrative. The data is
vague and lacking in meaning. Visualizations (and misinterpretations) are
open to interpretation. Tales eliminate uncertainty, link data to context, and
explain a specific interpretation. Swedish professor Hans Rosling was the
master of data storytelling. On 7 February this year, Rosling died. He left a
legacy of data history and a passion for social and economic justice.
There is a technology boom around the world. From scholars to politics, and
everywhere, the stories of the world are revealed by their data points. And
while visualization is by no means new to data stories, we are now telling
them in more common and effective ways than ever. The charts and graphs
that were produced in Excel five years ago are very different from the
incredible graphics that we are currently creating with best-of-breed software
such as Tableau or JavaScript libraries such as D3.js.
Nonetheless, all these views, from the most fluid to the most static, need
more than data to make the transition from representation of information to
resonation. You need a story— something to demonstrate, or, more aptly, to
visually "say," and when you dig through details, it is not always obvious to
see the story. Exploration, curiosity, and a change of mind are required to
shift from data visualization to a data narrative. They are similar, but they are
not identical. They will open up a whole new world of data communication
once mastered.
Data narration may sound like a vague or overwhelming process. After all,
many of us would describe us more easily as' data people' before we tried our
hat. Nevertheless, all of them are inherently interconnected; we have to know
our data, its context, and the effects of analytics to bring value to an audience
that does not. All this is a story: someone shares something fresh and
unfamiliar in a way that is easily understandable and narrative. The fine
news? There's no way to do that. There are as many quintessential examples
of each validated narrative structure we might use to build a data storyboard,
where a data storyteller has exercised a generous amount of artistic freedom
and done something completely different (this is a perfect example of
Minard's 1869 depiction of Napoleon's March). After all, data stories like any
story need some imagination— and while tools and technology can do a great
deal with our data, imagination contributes exclusively to any story.
Yes, data visualization and data history are not synonymous— there are
many differences between them— but two sides of the same coin. An
accurate data tale uses data visualization as a kind of literary tool — proof
that supports the narrative. So while the information visualizations include
"what" in the story, it's the narrative that responds to "why." Here, it is
important to remember that research visualizations and presentation
visualizations are not precisely the same thing. Instead, they work together to
turn data into something important for their audience. Remember, for
example, the Gigantic Costs chart of Nigel Holmes. Great analytically? No.
No. Visually appealing and memorable?Completely. Any important
visualization is a double visualization. Analytical perfection and accurate
statistical knowledge rendering are needed to encode these data with
meaning, as well as a well-coordinated balancing of graphic design signals
(color, shape, scale, etc.). So, what is the core theory that connects data
visualization and the history of visual data? It's this, I think: data visualization
is as powerful as the insights it shows and how long we remember them.
Effectiveness is a feature of careful planning in this case.

Benefits Of Data Storytelling

There are several forms of communication, but data storytelling is structured
(and scientifically proven) in a distinct way to help marketers achieve their
engagement goals.

Here are just some of the advantages you can gain:

Provides meaning and value to your work

In a world where data surround us but highly vulnerable, data history helps
link parts. It is a great and efficient way of conveying useful ideas and of
providing meaning and significance to knowledge found in an Excel table. To
brands, this is significant.
People want and seek useful, relevant information that extends their
awareness, allows them to find solutions, and allows them to communicate
better in the world. You and your company will provide real service to your
target audience when you offer such content. Your company also benefits
from these insights from your results.
The brain interprets all information as data, but the highest value information
is not only knowledge but also insight. This perspective is important and the
most relevant in decision-making. Data storytelling helps us to uncover data
and to convey insight through captivating and interesting stories.

It’s good for pr

You need creative and original story ideas to differentiate yourself from the
competition. The best way to get these stories is by collecting data. It is
especially useful for stories focused on internal data. You can tell a story that
no one else can speak about your business, consumers and more, if you have
confidential data you have access to only, then insights like this will help
shed light on a previously unknown trend, provide a fresh and fascinating
viewpoint, or give people or business a useful perspective.
There are compelling stories as well as many publishers who are hungry for
great and useful storytelling. Data storytelling in this world where you can
find a lot of recycled material, allows you to stand out from the crowd. An
outstanding item published in a high-profile publication will bring you and
your company to a whole new community of potential customers.

Builds Credibility
Let's face it; more material is just garbage out there today. In a world full of
assumptions, people want hard, challenging facts that hold them right. When
you can provide accurate details in your narrative, the more people are
inclined to trust your brand and your message. In other words, it leads to
establishing your reputation.

It Makes People Remember Your Message

By integrating narration and imagery, you effectively aim for and validate the
knowledge on both sides of a person's brain. The narrative leads you through
the data, and the data supports the story. This gives you the best emotional as
well as intellectual experience.
In this case, data visualization is especially useful because it increases:
Understanding–our minds are wired more quickly than words to process
visuals. The desire to "see" data makes it much easier for people to
understand it. If you also introduce language-based contexts, data comes to
life.
Retention–information stored visually can be quickly remembered/recalled.
Visualization of appeal data is visually appealing, which makes it more
appealing to the viewer.

It encourages dedication
In addition to the intrinsic stimulus provided by data visualization, data
history often promotes participation. People view and are encouraged to
participate in the story. There are two forms of data storytelling: narrative and
exploratory. Both types encourage participation but allow viewers to follow
different approaches.
Explorative: audiences are encouraged to explore data and to draw their
conclusions. They are encouraged to concentrate on data-related stories.

Story: The spectator is led by a story that leads to an inevitable conclusion.

While you should do something with explorative storytelling, people need to
synthesize and interpret data actively in all forms of data storytelling.
It Is Versatile
You can convert your insights from data stories into several different formats,
such as:
✓ Case studies
✓ Interactive infographics
✓ Motion graphics
✓ Microcontent
✓ Images
✓ White papers
✓ White papers
✓ Case studies
✓ Articles
✓ Reports
✓ Brochures

You may also repurpose or find some way to enhance certain forms of
material for a new status or data visualization.
Storytelling with data is crucial for every business ' marketing performance.
The development of reliable, usable content and data-based content not only
complements your other marketing initiative but also enhances your entire
marketing strategy. When you build brand awareness and good relationships,
you create a strong base for the reputation of your site and consequently
boost all other marketing efforts with which you work.
 THE EVOLUTION OF DATA STORYTELLING
Data storytelling is a top priority today for technology explorers of all kinds.
Those include market users who pursue insightful insights, analysts who
share findings with non-technical users and even vendors who say their
platform is best able to tell data stories. However, the concept and methods
used to construct stories significantly varied. In both complexity and
automation, they have often evolved. Also, with the development of better
data analytics tools, data history has evolved. At the start, people collected
their data manually and reported analysis. Then came the age of immersive,
annotated storyboards, and contextual perspectives. And today, with the
increase in digital narrative perspectives and studies, we are progressing
again.
Here is a look at how our capacity for data storytelling has evolved over the
years.

Traditional Reporting: Where's The Story?

With data, people have always told stories. Throughout World War II, human
"computers" deployed in the United States would measure temperature and
air density figures. They compile the data manually into tables and then
publish and submit the results for use in combat areas. This knowledge
helped soldiers understand how their artillery influenced those situations.
Shortly after, the analog to the digital transition began, leading to the birth of
the mainframe. The data became more accessible, and improvement in
computer power allowed us to understand it better. Fast forward to a time
when IT-authorized reporting systems are heavily stacked at the start of this
century. The subsequent reports told employees about their drivers.
The goal has not changed over recent decades: to find answers to the
concerns of the people who need to be educated or who have to make
decisions: What is in danger and why? Why does my teamwork? How do we
increase profits and decrease costs? But finding these responses took too
many times. Hundreds of people were equated with "real machines." Massive
data infrastructure required substantial investment. And conventional
reporting systems needed specialist skills to work. It made the authors report
to the majority of workers who asked relevant questions. And the developers,
buried in many demands and equipped with inflexible resources, were not
able to satisfy those requests promptly. Once these questions were answered,
the responses were given in a data table, a cube, a chart, or a static dashboard.
None told a story alone, so the audience asked, "What do I see, exactly, and
what are my acts here?"The media put a great deal of pressure on us to
interpret the data.
As a consequence, the interpretation of the report by each user resulted in
inconsistent results. And the story stayed concealed inside the data because
the end-user refused the manual research required to grasp it. The question
was raised by the abysmal stagnant rate of adoption of conventional reporting
systems: Is there no improved means of disseminating and processing
information? Where is the story? What is the story?

Data visualization & discovery: the rise of data storytelling

Thanks to the advent of immersive data exploration and innovative
visualizations, things have changed significantly in the last decade. Such
methods meet the requirements of companies seeking to monitor their data
and to increase access to customer content. All users are encouraged to ask
and answer their questions, irrespective of their skill, and limit their trust in
IT. Through the omnipresence of the cloud, these workers can now easily
begin without significant investment. Power users also benefit greatly from
self-service systems. You can now combine many data sets for rigorous
analysis. They can use predictive analytics to forecast future results. And they
can generate vivid visualizations to show facts that are concealed alone while
presenting the data or the report table. The visualization itself has become a
way of telling a vibrant data narrative. Static dashboards and canned past
reports have not reached the data-story mark. The story was either too
straightforward (and sometimes deceptive since measurements and
proportions were misrepresented) or too complicated (and can not be
understood by the everyday viewer). And irrespective of the plot, it became
easily outdated because it could not be updated in real-time. Through
interactive visualizations, both users will take part in the exploration process
and quickly find trends in the data using the intuitive interface. The best
thing? The tale of data now includes an actual narrative, well. Everybody can
share experiences by making storyboards that provide additional background
for experiences in the diagrams.
Users may create convincing and immersive data stories, for instance. Users
can write annotations in a sequential layout to accompany similar
visualizations. The use of methods like story points to convey ideas is light
years beyond the time of static reports ruling the globe. This technique offers
a deeper context and brings ideas into life through an illustrating narrative.
However, someone always needs to manually analyze the data and find the
insights to create a coherent narrative. What if artificial intelligence is used to
enable the end-user to discover new ideas and to tell a more detailed and
cohesive story?

Natural language generation: automated data storytelling

The following chapter in the story now unfolds: we live in the age of digital
data storytelling. The generation of natural language (NLG) is a technology
that transforms data into narratives. And the method of data creation and
analysis is revolutionized by the next generation of natural-language insights
into charts and diagrams. Tableau worked together with Narrative Science to
introduce NLG to Tableau users through the Narratives for Tableau product
extension. This produces insightful observations that are backed by advanced
analytics and recognizes results that are most relevant and significant in table
views. The observations are then rendered in descriptive language that is easy
to understand and which does not differ from what an analyst might write.
The ability to simplify data telling increases time-to-insight for those who are
interested in data exploration. Such data-driven stories identify and distribute
associations, patterns, and anomalies within the data. Novice users can grasp
their visualizations better when professional users can dig deeper. The stories
can also be embedded in a web page and published next to the show. They
also provide a simple mechanism for reporting findings to other people—
without manual graph annotations. In particular, federal organizations enjoy
the opportunity to hook up a screen reader to clarify their views because this
capacity satisfies 508 compliance criteria under the American Disabilities
Act.
Organizations such as Deloitte, Credit Suisse, and Franklin Templeton use
the Advanced NLG Quill framework in Narrative Science to turn their data
into smart stories. For example, Credit Suisse uses Quill for its investment
research platform, HOLT, to compare and evaluate about 20,000 businesses.
Quill integrates hundreds of variables, including asset growth and risk, from
these businesses.
Quill analyzes these variables and then produces stories that objectively
explain the success of a business. Such stories accompany HOLT's
visualizations to enable investors of all skills to make better investment
decisions.
The ability to activate and communicate knowledge through language
automatically has several advantages. It helps people to communicate fluently
and naturally with their data. It also eliminates data misinterpretation and
guarantees accuracy in the exchange of data. And finally, people can act
quickly on their main results and make decisions. This is the next step in the
transition from traditional reporting to the narration. The integration of NLG
with automated pattern recognition and self-service data preparation will help
to improve the user experience of smart data discovery systems of the next
generation and increase the value of advanced analytics to a broader spectrum
of enterprise users and citizen data scientists. More people will be encouraged
to explore their data, uncover insights, and optimize their work as automated
data history increases.

HOW TO TELL A STORY WITH DATA

Excellent visualization communicates complex concepts with precision,
accuracy, and performance. I want to add that a good visualization tells a tale
by graphically depicting statistical details as well. As I discussed earlier,
visualization is a complex method of persuasion in its educational or
confirmative function. Few modes of communication are as compelling as a
fascinating narrative. For this reason, the visualization must tell the viewer a
story. Storytelling gives the audience insight into the results. (For a fine
instance, how much do you think baseball has been affected by steroids?)
One of the most critical aspects of dealing with data is how you express what
data tells you. Even if you follow all our advice on the everyday Data
Powered here, it might be worse than not using data if you express your
thoughts poorly or deceive the audience.
Results have guided many of the worst business decisions in history! When
the rise of Pepsi challenged the supremacy of Coke in the soft drink market,
Coke approached the problem with data. They invented New Coke and found
Pepsi hands to beat in taste tests around the world. Armed with convincing
evidence, the company bets on New Coke's future.
Sadly, part of New Coke's story was missing. New Coke was very smooth,
and so a taste check could easily be obtained in which the consumer took a
single drink but was disagreeable in a cup or glass. Also, the testers failed to
assess the customers ' emotional connection to the old flavor of Coke with
which they grew up as teenagers. Despite this background for test results, the
decision-makers ignored the fact that consumers did not like New Coke. The
organization had to return quickly to its original plan after a disastrous
launch.
And how does a graphic designer tell a visual story? The research will
consider the story supported by the evidence. Modern media does so all the
time, and journalists have become very good at reporting stories with
infographic visualization. Here are several reporting techniques to tell a
positive story that relates to data visualization.
Find the persuasive lie. In addition to presenting the truth and creating the
ties between them, don't be boring. You fight for the time and attention of the
audience, so make sure the story is compelling. Finding the narrative
structure lets you determine if you have a story to tell. If you do not, this
visualization would maybe help exploratory data analysis (EDA) instead of
communicating information. For the designer of an exploratory visualization,
it is always necessary to activate the imagination of the viewers to stimulate
the analysis and interaction with data–think games.
Structure in phases of your narrative. Most narratives adopt a common
hierarchical structure. The arch, which became a backbone to a typical tale, is
known as "Freytag's Pyramid," a structure developed by German novelist
Gustav Freytag based on his nineteenth-century study of dramas. Freytag
discovered through his research that most of the stories have plot points,
which can be represented in seven stages.

The Seven stages of ‘Freytag’s Pyramid’

✓ Exposition
✓ Inciting Incident
✓ Complication
✓ Climax
✓ Reversal
✓ Resolution
✓ Denouement
While some phases may be more relevant than others when telling a story
with data, it lets viewers understand how to construct a presentation of that
data when the order to be able to recognize the plot elements that better
resonate with an audience. For example, it is a crucial strategy for an
audience to provide some context details in the identification of results to
understand how the data falls into a wider project framework. The structure
of a presentation in your work (Climax) is also more effective than the
sharing of most significant pieces of information at first with a particularly
important or perhaps incredible discovery. Such strategies rely on our innate
desire as human beings to participate in historical knowledge, but it is also
vital that we do so. If, for example, you know that the team was already
briefed about the history of your results, choose to spend your time exploring
what your results mean for the future (Denouement). Likewise, if you know
the audience that you present to appreciate details that are quick and up-to-
date, focus your energy to build a streamlined arc that still effectively
outlines data, but does so quickly. Any aspects of the traditional storytelling
structure you select, the use of these elements would be of benefit to your
presentation.
Hold a routine. While some very well known stories have been told by
retrospectives or timelines hopping between past, present, and future, the
most often popular stories are those that are told in a definite beginning,
middle, and end order. This is because research indicates that our minds
prefer linear history, and data analysts will work in a similarly linear way to
clarify their results. It may be tempting to start a presentation of the data
analysis by explaining your findings, especially given the time spent working
through unstructured information to draw these conclusions and but plunging
into a list of facts and figures without the right background information that
alienates those who do not have the context necessary to see its importance.
Alternatively, take some time to lay the groundwork for your "plot" by
analyzing the issue with this data analysis that the company tried to solve.
Mind the listeners why you're all here, what they're going to hear and why.
Then build your presentation into a solid "middle" segment. This should
include a detailed description, using descriptions, descriptors, and samples to
illustrate what your results were and how it applies to the original issue.
Finally, you can clarify what these results mean for the future. Where data
analysts respect raw data the most, these findings and the interpretation of
what the data means for the future of an enterprise in these cases are often
most useful to viewers.
Talk to the crowd. Some effective technique for turning cold, hard data into
something your audience will believe in is to think about how such data apply
to your specific audience. To do so, it is crucial that you know who your
audience is. When you discuss the buying patterns for thousands of years, for
example, the data needs to be presented in a slightly different way if your
audience is 20 years of age or 30 then you would if it were made up of older
generations. Similarly, if you report on college graduate jobs, you will report
the data to a university quite differently than you do to a skilled recruitment
company. Having the time to communicate with your audience in this way
will make your presentation impressive.
How does the public know about the subject? Was this intended for decision-
makers, general stakeholders, or others?
The diagram must be presented at the information level currently accessible
to the public, right and incorrect:
✓ Novice: first exposure to the subject
✓ Generalist: Knowledge of the issue, but finding an overview of the
topic and important topics
✓ Managing: an in-depth, actionable understanding of intricacies
and interrelationships with access to information
✓ Expert: more exploration and discovery and less telling stories
with significant specifics
✓ Manager: has time to get to know the meaning
✓ Executive: has time to conclusions

Goal and provide balance. Visualization should be bias-free. And if it argues,

it should be focused on the facts, not what you want to claim. The Lie Factor
is the same as the effect shown on the graph, divided by the size of the impact
in the data. Tufts found several charts which mislead viewers about the
underlying data, and developed a formula to calculate a misleading graph
called "Lie Factor." Often it's accidentally-a number three times larger than
another, when depicted in 3D, is considered nine times larger. There is an
easy way to facilitate objectivity: marking to eliminate confusion, graphical
measurements conform to data measurements, the use of common units, and
the avoidance of data manipulation in design elements. Balance may derive
from alternative (multiple clustering; trust intervals rather than lines; shifting
timelines; alternative color palettes and assignments; variable scaling) data in
the same show. Objectivity and consistency are not insignificant measures
and are often unintendedly violated. Detractors and decision-makers would
inevitably snuff out contradictions, causing the author, no matter how good
the story, to lose confidence and reputation.
Do not interrupt. Good data stories provide ample details, but not so many
details that the viewer wants to understand the point. Data stories should
discuss a specific objective and rely solely on facts and results that support
this objective. Data storytellers do not confuse their stories with tests that do
not explicitly answer the study goal. Don't confuse your audience–keep your
tale straightforward, easy, and impressive.
One critique of unsuccessful data stories is a lack of pace. There is so much
time to clarify what has been studied, which seems fair because so much time
has been spent behind the scenes. Yet the effort and the clarification must be
weighed differently. The bulk of data science is adopting the iceberg rule:
roughly 10 percent of the study is raised, and the other 90 percent endorse it.
Complex charts and graphs are not helpful and do not have meaning. Figure
out the key points and use data to back up them, instead of unloading more
data to the user.
Don't encrypt. Don't encrypt. Don't be selective with the data or exclusion
because you trust that you provide the best interpretation for your audience to
what the data says. Such selectivity consists of using individual values, when
data is constant, how you treat missing values, outer and out of range,
arbitrary time periods, fixed quantities, amounts, periods, and intervals.
Viewers would inevitably detect this and lose faith in the visualization (and
any other you might produce).
Edit, Edit, Edit, Edit. Be vigilant also to try to clarify the data and not only
decorate it. Don't slip into "it looks good," if the best way to describe the data
is not. As journalists and authors know, you probably do something good
when you spend more time editing and refining your visualization than
making it.
Presenting Data Effectively
Many who deal with data typically can evaluate and interpret them, but often
analytical individuals have difficulties with communicating their results with
others insightfully and engagingly. However, the need for high-level
presentation skills is critical in the contemporary working environment; 70%
of workers agree that success in their profession depends on these skills, and
data analysts are no exception.
One of the main skills you need to learn while learning data analysis is the
distillation and presentation of the data. It is one of the most valuable skills
because if you can not [communicate data efficiently], the data you study is
not useful to anyone. Analysts sculpt data to make it easier for wider
audiences to consume using a method called data visualization. This practice
most often focuses on the creation of graphs and other graphical elements
that illustrate results and visually highlight patterns, outlines, and other
conclusions to turn statistic and factual details into a compelling tale.
To create these artistic representations of data, data analysts have industrial
equipment and software programs such as Tableau at their fingertips. These
technologies help to address the imaginative gap for analysts. The devices are
much more sophisticated [now. They develop creative ways to display data
information creatively, and this is achieved automatically so that the analyst
does not have to be an artist, [they have] software to produce compelling
visualizations for them.
 DATA VISUALIZATION
To make knowledge easier for the human brain to comprehend and to draw
conclusions from, data visualization is the process of converting knowledge
into visual representations, such as a map or diagram. The key goal of data
visualization is to promote the detection of patterns, trends, and outliers in
broad data sets. The term is also used interchangeably, including information
graphics, visualization of information, and statistical graphics.
Data visualization is one of the steps in the data science process that states
that it must be visualized for inference after data collection, analysis, and
modeling. Data visualization is also an aspect in the full DPA field to define,
locate, modify, format, and supply data in the most effective manner possible.
As many of the most important data sets contain vast quantities of valuable
information, data display has become an indispensable tool for decision-
makers. To take advantage of all this information, many companies realize
the importance of data visualizations by simply and easily interpreting
essential details, making it easier for decision-makers to grasp complex
concepts, to identify new trends and to obtain data-driven insights to make
informed decisions. It is worth investing time in tools for data visualization.
To make informed decisions–whether in industry, technology, science, or in
another area–broad data sets need to be understood. Clear visualizations
promote the understanding of complex data and hence the practice.
For almost every profession, data visualization is necessary. Teachers may
use it to show student test results, computer scientists to discuss
advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) or managers to exchange
knowledge with stakeholders. It also plays a significant role in large-scale
projects. Since companies collected large data collections in the early years of
the significant data movement, they needed a way to get an overview of their
data fast and easily. Tools for visualization have become a natural match. Of
similar purposes, visualization is central to advanced analytics. When a data
scientist writes up-to-date predictive analysis or ML algorithms, it's necessary
to visualize the outputs to track the results and ensure that models function as
expected. This is because complex algorithm visualizations are typically
simpler than numerical outputs.
Data visualization provides a simple and efficient means of uniformly
communicating information through visual information. Training will also
allow businesses to identify factors that affect consumer behavior; identify
areas that need to be enhanced or more carefully; memorize stakeholders '
data; understand where and where to position particular items, and forecast
sales volumes.
Key advantages of data visualization include:
✓ the capacity for rapid knowledge processing,
✓ stronger perspectives and quicker decisions;
✓ a greater understanding of the next steps to be taken to strengthen
the organization;
✓ a better ability to hold the attention of the public through
knowledge that can be understood;
✓ a simple exchange of information that enhances the potential to
share opinions with those involved

The growing popularity of big data and data analysis projects has made
visualization more important than ever. Companies use machine learning
increasingly to capture vast quantities of data that can be difficult and slow to
process, interpret, and describe. Visualization provides a way to speed up this
and offer company owners and stakeholders with knowledge in a way they
can understand.
Large-data visualization also stretches beyond conventional visualization
methods such as pie charts, histograms, and corporate graphs. This uses more
detailed graphics, including heat maps and fever charts, instead. Big data
visualization requires powerful computer systems to capture, process, and
transform raw data into graphical images, which humans can use to gain
insights quickly.
Although big data visualization can be beneficial, organizations can have
some drawbacks. The following are:
An analysis expert must be employed to take advantage of big data analysis
software. An expert will be able to define the best data sets and viewing types
to ensure that companies maximize data use.
Large-scale data visualization projects often need IT support and
management, since big data visualization requires powerful computer
hardware, reliable storage systems, and even a transition to the cloud.
Big data visualization perspectives are just as accurate as the information is
visualized. Therefore, people and processes are important for the quality of
organizational data, metadata, and data sources to be regulated and managed.

Best Data Visualizations

Codex Atlanticus: Codex Atlanticus is the first data in our series. The Visual
Agency, an Italian data visualization company, has created a beautiful digital
library for the journals and notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. This is his most
comprehensive multimedia collection to date.
But it's not true— it's all set up in a way that shocks both fans and artists in
data visualization.
The Codex Atlanticus received the 2019 Gold Kantar Knowledge as a
beautiful award for art and entertainment. This digital library is a rich
resource for education and study for history and Leonardo Da Vinci lovers.
This library offers a great example of how history can be digitized beautifully
for data visualization enthusiasts, and it is no surprise that this is one of our
best visualization lists.
Where wild things glisten: visualizing nature knowledge typically leads to an
ideal solution. An excellent example is this illustration of how and where
bioluminescence is present on the southeastern coast of Australia.
Where the wild things grow is a rendering of the tableau created by Jonni
Walker for National Geographic. The bioluminescence is seen as brilliant
forms over a satellite image of the city. The legend and the details around the
map are arranged and readable.
The Atlas of Moons: The Atlas of Moons is another wonderful data
visualization released by National Geographic in 2019. It is a moving digital
simulation that takes you across space. All the details are about the planets in
our solar system, starting with our earth.
Not only is the visualization stunning, but it is also informative and useful.
Every moon is navigable because its orbits and individual details are. It is one
of the best space data visualizations.

A view of despair: Not many people with bad details and data will build
beautiful things. It is particularly impactful if the data artist has a personal
story and reason for visualizing it. A vision of Desperation is Sonja Kuijpers '
beautiful depiction. This tells the story of all the people in the Netherlands
who lived in 2017. Every natural symbol shows how life and the scale of the
age were lost.
Often, the best views of data are those that tell an intimate, narrative story.
Drowning in plastic: humans are reliant on plastic bottle drinking water. This
has become an enormous waste epidemic. This view shows the piles of
plastic bottles about cityscapes and prominent landmarks.
Plastic Drowning is a visualization by Reuters Graphics that makes a major
attempt to illustrate how we flood the world with plastic.
Starbucks data wall experience: Not every cafe in Starbucks has the luxury of
saying that it is home to an award-winning view of data. The first Starbucks
Reserve Roastery in Milan hired Accurately, a group of professional data
show artists.
This data view is an immersive wall of augmented reality that displays
Starbucks ' history in a network of multiple data layers. The wall was
produced in 2018 but won a gold cantar for the particular category in 2019.
On the Accurate website, you can see the wall in practice, but it's much easier
to see it in person.
What to dress for space: Astronauts use different costumes on their journeys
in 50 years of space exploration and space travel. This view displays
extensive 3D visualizations of five space suits, from the first mercury-
covered suits to the one-piece SpaceX suit.
The research included an insightful conversation between a reporter in the
space industry and a design critic. You can read the thoughts as each match is
tested. This perspective is better pursued with a certain degree of maturity
and curiosity.

The many different types of cricket stadiums in England: Google Maps and
cricket buffs came together for this view of cricket stadium shapes in
England. The analysis is focused not on the roundness of all stadiums, but a
selection of uneven shapes.
Every stadium is first viewed with a Google Maps satellite image and then
graphics with field length and width data and a detailed representation of the
structure. The various types of cricket stadiums in England are a view of the
BBC Sports version.
Symbolic: The visualization and design of data is the kind of research that
takes a long time to complete. This usually takes a lot of effort, as well. This
is valid for several examples in this list, but Symbolikon is one especially
memorable one.
MichelaGraziani's visualization of Symbolikon data is a broad array of
artistic symbols from different cultures and periods in history. In more than
28 categories, it has more than 700 symbols and continues to expand.
The expanding symbol was scanned into three styles: PNG, JPG, and SVG.
The range is for sale to designers to do what they want.
Space Junk: the BBC commissioned data artist Federica Fragapane to create a
data analysis on Space Junk. Data sets are divided into various categories:
earth reach, space junk type, and the objects ' size and mass. The most
noteworthy thing about the best data visualizations of Federica Fragapane is
their attention to detail and colorization of the details. This is a perfect
example in particular of her style and how it develops.
Space Springs: As we saw over the years of this roundabout, space is a
popular source of inspiration for many data artists. An outstanding example
of this is the Oberhauser Leaps Office in Space 2020 calendar.
Visualization has been developed by the Oberhauser design agency to display
data about unusual and unforgettable space activities in 2020 and some
historical events. The show is available as a screen or wallpaper or even as a
poster.

When a traveler is on a winter night, in 1979, the Italian author Italo Calvino
wrote a book on the philosophical reading of a novel. It was a cult book for
writers, readers, and conceptual artists alike for a long time. In 2019, Hanna
Piotrowska, a data visualization artist, used the book as a data visualization
project. The result is an original text magnificently printed edition plus a twin
book with a data visualization set. The data sets include terms, sentences, and
arcs of history. The maps are beautiful and are a joy to look at.
LGBT: Unprotected by law: Graphic designer Gabrielle Merite has taken it
upon herself to construct a diagram of information about how the LGBT
community is unprotected by particular legislation in the US.
Each circle represents a state, and the charts display various items from
which security is required. This infographic should be shared to show how
vulnerable the LGBT community is in many countries of the world.
Software grammar: Software is not necessarily dull to be studied. For
example, data grammar is a delight. It wasn't discovered by major
publications and didn't yet win any prizes, so it isn't worth this list.
Data Grammar is a lovely glossary of data visualization maps. The colors are
inspiring, and the style is completed by the use of black and white
photographs with conceptual labeling.
Georgia Lupi data fashion; Georgia Lupi is renowned for its data artistic
view. Her data designs are also very detailed and artistically interesting. Not
unexpectedly, its data art makes it our roundups still. We have co-lab with
Other Stories in this year's set. The main concept behind this trendy view was
to honor three women scientists. Georgia's sketches used data from the
extraordinary projects of each woman to produce reusable graphics that were
printed in handmade cloth. The garments are sold in a customized bag that
describes the data and inspiration.
Beautiful news every day: David McCandless, the founder of the Kantar
Knowledge Awards, has this year a wonderful new project. Over a year,
David and his team have compiled and visualized more than 300 datasets
over various categories. Beautiful News Daily publishes and will post a new
visualization every day. Info is a lovely team that has long been an important
name in the field of data, and it is no wonder that Beautiful News Daily is a
great project to watch as it expands.
Global commodity: visualizations of spinning globes are typically very fun to
show. But they're just often full of data in various colors. This is the case with
this visualization of global commodities data.
Over the past ten years, the statistics have been for imports and exports
around the world. The show is adaptive according to product types, years,
and locations.
Building hopes: The visualization of data in Building Hopes is an AR
visualization that explores people's expectations for life in general. The
software is on the web, so installing the app onto a mobile device is the safest
way.
When you open the app, you are asked to walk around your immediate world
and choose how hopeful you are. Each hope consists of colorful stone and is
arranged into a revolving sculpture.
You can now explore your data and how it compares to the Google Trends in
your area after the sculpture is finished. Then you can also find other data
sculptures created in the same area by people.
Market cafe mag: This knowledge visualization was also included in our set
last year, as it is an annual affair. Market Cafe Mag is the only' zine' for data
visualization and has just been given a Gold Kantar Information Prize. The
topic this year, is called Data Visual Activism.
Common Data Visualization Use Cases
Common use cases for data visualization include:
Sales and commercialization. The marketing firm Magna's report predicts
that by 2020, half of the global advertising dollars will be invested online. As
a result, marketing departments need to pay careful attention to their web
traffic sources and how their web assets generate profits. Data analysis allows
the time analysis of traffic patterns through marketing activities.

Politics. A typical application of political data visualization is a regional map

showing the party for which each State or district has voted.
Healthcare. Health practitioners also use choropleth maps to illustrate critical
health information. A choropleth map shows separated geographical areas or
areas that about a numerical attribute, is given a specific color. Choropleth
maps allow practitioners to see how a variable varies across different regions,
for example, the death rate of heart disease.
Scientists. Scientific visualization, also referred to as SciVis, allows
researchers and scientists to gain more information than ever before in
experimental results.
Finance. When deciding on the purchase or selling of an asset, financial
professionals must track the performance of their investment decisions.
Candlestick diagrams are used as a trading device and help finance experts
evaluate market fluctuations over time, offering knowledge of great value,
including stocks, futures, currencies, inventories, bonds, and commodities.
Data analysts and finance experts can track patterns by evaluating how
markets have changed over time.
Logistics. Shipping companies may use software to imagine the best global
shipping routes.
Scientists and computer scientists. Data scientists ' visualizations are typically
for themselves or to show the knowledge to a chosen audience. The digital
images are created using virtual libraries of selected programming languages
and software. Data scientists and researchers also use open source
programming languages such as Python or proprietary data analysis software.
Such data scientists and researchers imagine the data to allow them to
interpret data sets and to recognize patterns and trends that might otherwise
have gone unnoticed.

The Science Of Data Visualization

The science of data visualization is a knowledge of how people obtain and
process information. Daniel Kahn and Amos Tversky worked together to
study two separate forms of information gathering and processing.
System 1 focuses on quick, automatic, and unconscious thought processing.
This approach is also used in daily life and helps to achieve:
Easy mathematical problems such as 1+ 1;
Recognizing where the sound comes from;
Cycling;
Deciding the difference between colors
Reading text on a sign
System 2 concentrates on sluggish, rational, calculative, and the uncommon
processing of thought. When: This form is used
Recitation of phone numbers;
A solution to complex mathematical problems such as 132x 154;
Recognition of the difference in meaning between different symbols
And comprehension of complex social issues.

Data Visualization Tools And Vendors

In several ways, data analysis techniques may be used. The most common
usage today is as a reporting method for business intelligence (BI). Users can
set up visualization tools for interactive dashboards to monitor organizational
success through key performance indicators (KPIs) and view results visually.
The images produced can include interactive capabilities, allow users to
manipulate and analyze the data in greater detail—indicators designed to alert
users to changed data or add predefined conditions. Most organizations use
tools for data analysis to monitor their initiatives. For instance, the program
can be used by a marketing department to track the success of an email
campaign, follow measures such as open rate, rate of click, and conversion.
As data display suppliers extend the capabilities of these devices, they are
more and more used as front ends for sophisticated big data environments. In
this environment, data visualization software helps data engineers and
scientists monitor data sources and analyze simple data sets before and after
advanced analyses.
Microsoft, IBM, SAP, and SAS are the biggest names on the market for Big
Data Devices. Other providers provide advanced Big Data Visualization
software; Tableau, Qlik, and Tibco are familiar names in this industry.
Although Microsoft Excel is still a popular data visualization tool, more
sophisticated capacities have been developed. Examples are:
✓ SAP Visual Analytics
✓ SAP Lumira
✓ SAS
✓ TibcoSpotfire
✓ Zoho Analytics
✓ D3.js Jupyter
 ✓ MicroStrategy
✓ Google Charts
✓ Qlik Sense and QlikView
✓ Microsoft Power
✓ BI Oracle
✓ Visual Analyzer

Make Data Visualization Inclusive

Color is commonly used to reflect and differentiate details. According to a
new study by Salesforce, it's also a significant factor in consumer decisions.
They analyzed how users react to various color combinations used in
graphics, believing that palettes with subtle color differences will have high
preferences because they will be esthetically appealing.
However, they found that subtle palettes made the diagrams harder to
interpret and gain insights while attractive. This defeats the intent of making
a data display visualization. When charts with identical colors— and less
contrast — are hard to read for an average person, they are much harder for
people who have no perfect vision— and they constitute a large proportion of
the population. According to WHO, nearly 253 million people are visually
impaired. Fortunately, tools exist to test how people with these impairments
can view an image, such as the color blindness test in Photoshop and
Illustrator. Additional issues like the use of large enough font sizes and a
good contrast between form and background are also helpful.
If problems occur with the color palette in the simulation software,
techniques may improve the readability of the graph:
Using colors in high contrast.
Complement the use of pattern or texture, color to convey various kinds of
details.
Using the text or mark feature icons.
The choice of font will affect the readability of the text, boost or detract from
its intended meaning. This helps us to stop showing fonts and sticking to
standard serif or without serif types.
Ensure that the display of data has a consistent font size for the media. "16
pixels will usually be the minimum size for body copy in modern web
design," according to Smashing Magazine.
 UNDERSTANDING CONTEXT
Context is the interrelated circumstances under which something happens or
takes place. It may sound complex, but it is very clear when broken down:
meaning brings things into perspective. This is why context is incredibly
necessary for your data visualization attempts to succeed. Think about it like
this: you wouldn't like to go to a meeting halfway and know what it is about.
You'd like to pick up a book, go to a random page and see the plot.
Similarly, you cannot grasp the full ramifications of your data without first
understanding the context.
The sense of data storytelling needs. The circumstances concerning each
metric need to be understood. These conditions (usually in the form of linked
data sets or events) illuminate information that would otherwise only be a
number row on a table. Data visualization transforms knowledge into
information that is practical and, eventually, decisions that have a positive
effect on your organization or industry.
In short, the condition that generated the data is the context of your data set.
Let's presume you're in the field of education. If you draw registration data
from many colleges, each campus is its data environment. If one university
raises support for scholarships, while other colleges do not, student
enrollment and retention may be increased. When comparing this particular
school with others, it is important to take these environmental variables into
account to understand the data and their impacts better. Creating background
labels will provide the user with feedback on your dashboard or data
visualization.

How Temporal Context Impacts Data

Temporary context (time) also affects the importance of your results. In
certain respects, the temporal context is similar to the environment; it can
alter the way you interpret those metrics.
In some instances, periods are predictable because a pattern is formed. For
example, in the housing sector, prices tend to increase in the summer
months–June and July in particular. If you're in the real estate business, it's
important to realize when the market is peaking and when it starts to decline.
Therefore, it may not be wise to equate the winter housing market with the
summer housing market. Instead, by analyzing profits and expenses year by
year, you can give the data the correct meaning. Compare June's revenues
from last June, not January, instead of making conclusions based on how
January sales compared to June. By simply understanding temporal patterns,
you have provided the right meaning to your results.
However, time and meaning are not necessarily related to market trends. In
some instances, unusual events can affect how you interpret your knowledge.
Let us claim that the website of your company is experiencing a significant
traffic spike. That's perfect! That's perfect! Yet it's tapering off. What
happened? What happened? Remember particular incidents that correspond
with the data before making conclusions about the efficacy of the platform.
Have you just redesigned the website? Run a calming traffic program from a
particular channel? Do you have a mention in a common publication? Each
of these events may influence the number of visitors to your site. This is why
annotations are so important for the efficient analysis of data.

Data Visualization and Context

Data visualization enables users to display data from various viewpoints in a
way that the visualization designer considers. Therefore, context formation is
the responsibility of the individual who visualizes the data. There are several
ways of context formation (labeling, chart choice, color, etc.). After all, a line
diagram and a diagram may keep the same details but express different ideas.
And the trick is to understand what you need to convey and then to find the
right visual elements to show it.
Ask yourself, what is the message, and what is the essential information my
audience needs to understand? When you need viewers to understand why
website traffic unexpectedly increases, for example, consider a monthly chart
and region map. You offer your data meaning and - most importantly-help
your audience see the meaning by highlighting different angles of the same
details.
 THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT
It may sound counterintuitive, but data visualization does not start right.
Instead, before you begin the process of visualizing or transmitting data, the
meaning of communication needs to be understood with attention and time.
In this chapter, we will concentrate on understanding important context
components and explore techniques to help you achieve success when it
comes to visual communication with data.

Exploratory Vs. Explanatory Analysis

There is a significant distinction to make between exploratory and
informative analytics before we get into the details of the context.
Exploratory research is something you do to grasp the data and find out what
is uniquely or important to highlight to others. It's like searching for pearls in
oysters when we do an exploratory study.
One hundred oysters (test 100 different theories or see details in 100 different
ways) will have to be opened to maybe find two Perles. Once we come to
convey our research to our audience, we want to be really in the explicatory
room, which means you have a particular story you want to tell, possibly
about these two perls.
Too many people fail and feel that it is all right to present exploratory
research (only present data, all 100 oysters) when they should provide
descriptive details (take time to translate the data into knowledge that the
audience will consume: both Perles). It is a comprehensible error. Since
doing a thorough review, it may be enticing to show your viewers all of the
work you have done and the solidity of the research. Fight the desire. Fight.
You are making all the oysters available again to your audience! Focus on
Perls, the details the audience must remember.

We focus here on explanatory research and communication.

Who, what, and how

When it comes to understanding research, a few items need to be understood
and very straightforward before you imagine any data or build material. First,
to whom do you talk? It is important that you know well who your audience
is and how they view you. This will help you find common ground for
hearing your message. Second, what do you want to say or do to your
audience? How you want your audience to behave and how you will
communicate with them, and the overall tone for your interactions should be
clear to you.
You are only able to go ahead with the third after you can answer these first
two questions in detail: How can you use the data to help us make your
point?
Let's look in more depth at the sense of who, what, and how.

Who
Your audience
The more informed you will be with your audience, the more you will be able
to communicate. Do not have a general audience, such as "internal and
external stakeholders" or "anyone interested"–by attempting to communicate
at one time with so many different people with different interests, and you
can interact with anyone as easily as you might if your target market was
reduced. This also means producing different messages for various audiences.
One way to limit the audience is to define the decision-maker. The more
information you have on your audience, the more you can understand how
you can communicate with them and fulfill your needs.
You
It is also important to think about your interaction with your audience and
how you want to view it. Would you meet each other for the first time in this
conversation, or have you an existing relationship? Would you already have
faith as an expert, or do you need to search for credibility? These are critical
criteria for deciding how the correspondence can be organized and whether
and when data can be used and for influencing the order and flow of the
entire story you want to tell.

What
Action
What do you need to ask or do for your audience? This is where you think
about how to make what you share important for your audience and why they
should care about what you say. You will still want to ask or do something
for your audience. If you can't express this concisely, you can examine
whether you first have to talk. For many, this can be an uncomfortable spot.
Sometimes this frustration is motivated by the presumption that the viewer
knows better than the interviewer and can thus determine whether and how
the information presented is to be acted upon. This theory is false. If you
analyze and communicate data, you probably know it best— you are an
expert on the subject. This helps you to view the data and enable people to
understand and to act. In general, those who work with data have to be more
comfortable in making clear conclusions and recommendations based on their
studies. If you have not done it regularly, this will feel beyond your comfort
zone.
Start doing it now— with time, and it will become easier. And you know that
even if you stress or prescribe the wrong thing, it gives you the right kind of
talk about practice. If it is not right to directly suggest an intervention,
promote discussion of it. This can be a perfect way to get the conversation
started because it gives the audience response to something rather than a
blank slate. When you present data, it is easy for your audience to say, "Oh,
that's interesting." However, when you call for action, the audience must
determine whether or not to comply. It offers the audience a more positive
answer that can lead to a more constructive conversation — one that could
never have been begun had you first suggested the intervention.
Mechanism
When are you going to interact with your audience? How you interact with
the audience is influenced by a variety of factors, including how much
influence you have over the information that the audience receives and how it
needs to be. We may think of the process for communication on a spectrum,
with a live presentation on the left and a written document or email on the
right. Take into account the level of control over the processing of
information and the amount of detail required on both sides of the continuum.
You (the presenter) are an incomplete charge on the left with a live show.
You decide who and what the viewer sees. You may respond to visual
information to speed up, slow down, or go into more or less detail on a
specific point. The communication (presentation or slide deck) should not
include all the information because you, the subject matter expert, have to
answer any questions that occur during the presentation, and you will be
prepared and willing to do so regardless of how the detail is given.
On the right-hand side of the continuum, you (the document writer or email)
have less power over a written text or email. In this scenario, the listener is in
charge of how the material is processed. Usually, the degree of detail required
here is higher because you cannot see and respond to the questions of your
audience. The paper must answer some of the possible concerns explicitly. In
an ideal world, the working product for both sides of this series will be
entirely different — minimal slides for a live show (as you can describe it in
more depth when needed), and more detailed documents when the audience
can absorb on its own. It is often the same product that is produced to try to
meet both these needs, due to time and other constraints. This leads to the
slide meant, a single document designed to address these two needs. This
raises some obstacles due to the varied requirements to be met, but we will
look at approaches to resolve and solve these problems later in the book.
At this point at the beginning of the communication process, it is necessary to
define the primary means of communication that you will use: live
presentations, written documents, or something else. When you start creating
content, consideration of how much influence you have over how your
audience absorbs information, and the degree of detail you need is becoming
very critical.
Tone
What sound would you like to set your communication? Another essential
factor is the tone you want to communicate to your audience. Do you
celebrate success? Do you attempt to light a fire to lead action? Is the subject
bright or serious? The tone you want for your contact will influence our
design choices in future chapters. For now, consider and define the general
tone you want to set when setting the data visualization route.

How
Finally, and only when we have a good understanding of who our target is
and what we need to know or do, will we be able to access the data and ask:
What is the data available which will help me make my point? Data are proof
of the story that you are going to construct and tell. We will talk much more
about the visual presentation of this knowledge in the following chapters.

Consulting For Context: Questions To Ask

Sometimes you establish contact or distribution at someone else's request: a
client, a stakeholder, or your supervisor. It means that you may not have the
entire picture and that you may need to read The 3-minute story & Big Idea
29 to grasp the situation in full. Often there is more background in the mind
of this applicant that you may presume is understood or you do not want to
say loudly. These are a few questions that you can use to tease out this detail.
If you are on the contact requesting side and ask your support team to create a
connection, think about answering these questions in advance:
✓ Which is important or necessary contextual information?
 ✓ Who's the public or the decision-maker? What do we think? What
do we think about them?
✓ What are the preconditions that our audience can accept or resist
our message?
✓ Which data are available to support our case? Was this knowledge
familiar to our audience, or is it new?
✓ Where are the risks? What are the factors that could undermine
our case and need to tackle them proactively?
✓ What would be a good outcome?
✓ What would you do if you had just a limited amount of time or a
single sentence to tell your listeners what they need to know?

I consider, in particular, that these last two questions will contribute to

informative discussions. It is important to plan the communication well and
know what the desired result is before you start planning it.
If you put a major restriction on the message, you can reduce the overall
communication to the single most relevant message (a short time, or a single
sentence). To that end, I suggest to learn and employ a few concepts: the3-
minute story and the Big Idea.

The 3 ‐ minute story & Big Idea

The hope is that you can boil' so ‐ what' down to a single sentence and,
essentially, a single, straightforward explanation behind each of these
definitions. You need to know your things— what the most important parts
are and what is unnecessary in the most distant version. While it sounds
simple, conciseness is often more difficult than verbosity. Mathematician and
philosopher Blaise Pascal have recognized this in his native French, with a
statement that roughly translates to "I'd write a short letter, but I didn't have
time" (a feeling often attributed to Mark Twain).
3 ‐ minute story
The 3-minute story is just that: what would you do if you had only three
minutes to tell your audience what they need to know? It is an ideal way to
ensure that you are straightforward and can relate the tale. To be able to do
this distances you from your slides or graphics dependency for a presentation.
It is useful if your boss asks you what you do or if you are on a lift with one
of your partners and want to give her a brief peek when the half-hour on the
list is reduced to ten or five minutes.
If you are sure what you want to convey exactly, you can make it fit for the
time slot, even if it's not the one you're ready for.

Big Idea
The Big Idea comes down to the same thing: a single sentence. Nancy Duarte
explores this idea in her book Resonate (2010). She says that the Big Idea has
three parts:
It must articulate your unique point of view;
It must convey what’s at stake; and
It must be a complete sentence.
Consider an illustrative three-minute story and a Major Idea, using the
previously implemented summer learning curriculum on the example of
science.
Story of 3 minutes: A group of us in the science department brainstormed
how to fix the current dilemma we have with incoming fourth graders. It
seems like when children get to their first class in science, they have this
mindset that it is going to be complicated, and they won't like it. It takes a
good deal of time to get over that at the beginning of the school year. And we
wondered, what if we were to try to introduce children earlier to science?
Can we affect their perception? Last summer, we piloted a learning
curriculum to do precisely that. We invited primary school students and
finished with a wide group of graduates. We aimed to introduce them to
science earlier in the hope of shaping positive perceptions. To check whether
we succeeded, we tested the students before and after the program. We found
that the largest student group, 40 percent, felt "Good" with the program. At
the same time, most of these shifted to positive attitudes after the program,
with approximately 70 percent of the students showing an interest in science.
We assume that this demonstrates the program's popularity and that we
should not only continue to deliver it but that we will also extend our scope
with it.
Large Idea: The pilot summer learning program has effectively changed the
expectations of students in science; we suggest that you continue to deliver
this curriculum because of this success.
When you have clearly and concisely outlined your plot, it is much easier to
build material for your correspondence. Now let's shift gears and think about
a different content creation strategy: storyboarding.

Storyboarding
Storyboarding is probably the most important thing you can do to ensure that
the correspondence is right. The storyboard creates a coordination
framework. The content summarizes what you plan to make. This can be
changed as you move through the specifics, but you can make the system
effective early. When you can (as makes sense), get your customer or
stakeholder's acceptance at this point. It helps to ensure that what you are
doing suits your needs. The most significant piece of advice I have about
storyboarding is this: don't continue with presentation tools. It's too quick to
go in a diaphragm mode without worrying about how the pieces fit together
and end up with an enormous deck that does nothing effectively.
Furthermore, when we start producing content through our device, something
occurs that makes us bind to it. This connection may be such that even
though we realize what we created doesn't necessarily appear on the mark or
should be modified or removed, we often avoid this because of research we
have already done to get it to where it is.
A whiteboard, post-it notes, or plain paper can be used. It is much easier to
line up an idea on a sheet of paper or recycle a post-it note without having the
same sense of loss as when you cut something with your machine that you
have spent hours making. I prefer to use post-it notes on my storyboard, so
you can quickly rearrange (and add and remove) the pieces to explore various
flows.
When we test our communication in science for the summer learning
program.
Through the explanatory analysis, iterations are minimized by being able to
express specifically with whom or what you want to communicate before you
begin creating content and to ensure that the communication that you create
serves the intended intent. Comprehending and using techniques such as the
3-minute script, the big idea, and storyboarding helps you to say your script
and easily and to define the perfect flow.
Although the communication may sound like it is a phase that slows you
down before you develop it, in reality, it allows you to have a good
understanding of what you want to do before you start to create content that
saves you time on the move.
 CHOOSING AN EFFECTIVE VISUAL
There are many different graphs and other types of visual representations, but
a few fulfil the bulk of your needs. As I look back at the at 150 visuals I
created last year for seminars and consultation projects, just a dozen different
kinds of visuals were used. These are the visuals on which we should focus.

Simple text
If you have only one or two to communicate, quick text can be an excellent
way of communicating. Think by using just the number— making it as
popular as possible— and a few words to make the point clear. In addition to
being potentially deceptive, adding one or even a few numbers into a table or
graph causes the numbers to lose their oomph. When you have a number or
two you want to communicate, try using the numbers yourself.
The fact that certain numbers are available does not imply you need a graph!
For a large total of two numbers, a lot of text and space are used. The graph
does not help much in the analysis of numbers (and by placing data labels
outside the bars the sense of relative height can even get skewed to such a
degree that 20 is less than half the 41 does not match visually).
A single sentence will suffice in this case: 20% of children had a
conventional home mother in 2012, compared with 41% in 1970.
One consideration in this particular case, as a side note, is if you want to
display a completely different metric. You may reframe, for example, from
the numerical change:' The number of children with a typical mother-at-home
stays decreased more than 50% between 1970 and 2012.' I caution you,
however, when you reduce from several figures to one, think of the
background you may lose. In this instance, I find that the actual size (20%
and 41%) of the numbers is useful to view and understand the shift.
If you have only one or two numbers, you want to communicate: use them
directly.
When you have more data to display, a table or a graph is usually the way to
go. One thing to remember is that people deal with these two kinds of visuals
differently. Let's analyze each in-depth and investigate those different
varieties and use cases.

Tables
Tables communicate with our oral system, and we read them. I usually keep
my index finger off when I have a table in front of me: I read through rows
and columns, or I compare my values. Tables are perfect for that— to
connect to a diverse audience whose members each try their special interest.
When you need to communicate multiple measurement units, a table is
generally often simpler than a graph.
One aspect that needs to be remembered in a table is that you want the design
to fade into the background so that the data is key. Don't let strong borders or
shading compete. Alternatively, think about using light borders or only white
space to break table components. Borders should be used to boost the table's
readability. Talk of moving them into the background, making them grey or
completely rid of them. The details will stand out, not the frontiers.

Next, let's concentrate on a special table case: the heat map

.
Heatmap
One way to combine the information that you should use in a table by using
the visual indicators is with a heat map. A heat map is a way of visualizing
data in tabular formats, where coloured cells that relay the relative size of the
numbers are used instead of (or in addition to) the numbers. You left the data
to read. I'm looking through rows and columns to see which numbers are
higher or lower and stack the groups shown in the table mentally.
To minimize mental processing, we can use color saturation to provide visual
information that helps our eyes and brains locate the possible points of
interest more quickly. The grayer, the higher the number in the second
iteration of the table on the right called "Heatmap." The method of gathering
spectrum tails— the lowest (11 percent) and the highest (58 percent) — is,
therefore, simpler and quicker than in the original table where we have no
visual hints to help us focus our attention.
Graphic applications (such as Excel) typically have a conditional formatting
function built into which you can apply formatting. Make sure that you also
use this to have a legend to help the reader understand the details (for this
reason, the color color LOW ‐ HIGH subtitle on the heatmap matches the
conditional formatting color).
First, let's turn our conversation to the visuals that we tend to think about first
when interacting with data: graphs.

Graphs
Although tables interact with our oral system, graphs interact with our visual
system that processes information faster. This means that a well-designed
graph usually transmits information faster than a well-designed table. As I
said at the beginning of this chapter, there are various graph forms. The good
news is that a handful will meet much of your daily needs.
The graph forms I use mostly fall into four categories: points, lines, bars, and
regions. We will look at these more closely and explore the subtypes that I
currently use with different use cases and examples.

Points
Scatterplot
Scatterplots will help you demonstrate the relationship between two objects
as they permit you to simultaneously encode data on a horizontal-axis and
vertical y-axis to see whether and what relationship occurs. These appear to
be seen more commonly in the field of science (and can often be seen by
people who are not familiar with them as difficult to understand). While rare,
scatterplots are also used in the business world.
For example, if we want to concentrate primarily on situations where costs
per miles are above average, a slightly changed dispersion designed to attract
our attention more quickly. For example, let's assume we are operating a bus
fleet and want to understand the relationship between miles driven and cost
per mile.

Lines
Line graphs are used most frequently for continuous data monitoring. Since
the points are physically linked along the line, it requires the connection of
points that cannot make sense for categorical data (a collection of data which
is sorted or divided into categories). Sometimes in a certain unit of time, our
continuous knowledge is days, months, quarters, or years.
There are two types of charts in the line graph group that I often use: the
regular line graph and the slope graph.

Line graph
The line chart will represent a single series of data, two series, or multiple
series. Note that the data collected must be at regular intervals in the
horizontal X-axis of a line graph. I have recently seen a graph in which the x-
axis units have been decades after 1900 (1910, 1920, 1930, etc.) and have
advanced into annual after 2010 (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014). The difference
between the decade points and the annual points was the same. This is an
erroneous way of displaying the results. Be consistent with your schedule.

Slopegraph
Pitches can be helpful when you have two spans of time or points of
reference, and you want to display relative increases and decreases or
discrepancies between the two data points in different categories quickly.
The best way to illustrate the importance of slope graphs and how to use
them is with a simple example. Imagine the study and exchange of data from
a recent input survey by employees. Slopegraphs provide a significant
number of details to demonstrate the relative change in survey categories
from 2014 to 2015. In addition to the absolute values (the points), the lines
that link these points allow you to increase or decrease visually (via the path
or direction) without having to clarify what they are doing or precisely the
"change rate"–instead, it is intuitive.

Whether a slopegrapher works in your specific situation depends on the data

themselves when several of the lines overlap, a slope graph can not operate.
However, in some situations, one sequence may still be stressed successfully.
For instance, we can draw attention to Lines 49 in a single category, which
decreased from the previous example over time. The focus is drawn
immediately to the decrease in "Career Growth," while the remaining data is
retained for context without any competition for focus. When we discuss
precautionary attributes, we will talk about the technique behind this.
Although the lines work well to view data over time, the bars are typically
my style of graph for the aggregation of categorical data, where information
is clustered.

Bars
Bar charts are often avoided because they are popular. It is an error.
Alternatively, bar charts can be leveraged because they are popular, and they
are less of the audience's learning curve. Rather than using their brainpower
to try to understand how to read the diagram, the audience can figure out
what detail is needed. Bar charts are easy to read for our eyes. Our eyes
measure the endpoints of the bars so that we can easily see which category is
the biggest and smallest, as well as the slight difference between categories.
Remember that it is crucial that bar charts also have a baseline at zero (where
the x ‐ axis crosses the y ‐ axis at zero) since our eyes compare the relative
endpoints of bars, others over, it gives a false visual comparison.
The Basics Of Visual
Good authors make deliberate choices. You understand your intent and your
audience. Every decision on the web, from the arrangement of an experiment
to the selection of a word with the correct connotations, is made for its intent
and its audience.
The same is true in visual contact. You choose the following as a presenter:
When you view photos or videos for the greatest effect, the photos
Will make the best result
When presenting information through a table, map, or other graphs
How much text is included with slides or information graphics
Your goal is to use visual media to help and enhance your presentation. At
the same time, you must ensure that these media will not interrupt or affect
the audience. The thoughts should be the priority, not the visuals. As you
build the visual side of your presentation, you adopt a method similar to what
you write. You must brainstorm ideas, create an organizational plan, write
drafts, and then refine and edit your work. The following parts offer
guidelines for making the right decisions in the process.

What Makes Visual Aids Effective?

Think about what doesn't work to help you get a sense of what visual media
does. Seek to recall openings when you have encountered the following
visual media failures:
✓ Websites filled with several images, sentences, almost unreadable
colors
✓ Assemblage directions with images or diagrams which cannot be
followed
✓ Obviously (and misleadingly) altered by photo editing software
✓ Distracting typos or other errors from the signs, advertisements or
headlines
Tables, charts, or graphs with small, dense text or missing labels The
question, however, is that the media maker didn't think about the intent and
audience carefully enough. The aim of images, colors, and flashing text is to
attract attention to a website. The overuse of these elements defeats the goal,
as the audience may get confused or overwhelmed. Tables, charts, and graphs
are meant to simplify complicated material, but they may confuse the viewer
without simple labels or readable texts.
In comparison, efficient visual elements are chosen or produced for the
purpose and the audience. While photography shots for a magazine article
could lead to hundreds of images, publishers choose the few that work best.
Web designers and video game developers have their goods reviewed before
being published to make sure customers know how to use them.
Understanding the role of different visual aids can help you use them
intentionally.

Types Of Visual Aids

Visual aids are classified into two major categories — images and graphics.
Photographs, drawings and clip art and video clips are included. Tables,
maps, bar graphs, and line maps are used in information graphics.
This visual help serves two purposes: to make the presentation more
emotional and to organize details more clearly. In this sense, read how
different forms of visual aids accomplish these aims.

Photographs
A compelling image can more effectively catch the attention of the audience
than words can. Consider using photos at the beginning or the end of your
presentation to illustrate your key ideas or to accompany an important item in
your presentation. Note that less is always enough, as in other types of
graphics. Two or three photos that are well-chosen are more successful than a
dozen mediocre ones.
Ask yourself the following questions when you pick photographs:
What is the intention of this picture? Would the listener be surprised? Is it
going to trigger a strong emotional response? Will this help a key point?
Is this picture more productive if shown only with a subtitle, or does it need
additional text?
Will the public understand what's going on in the photo? Is the meaning
instantly apparent, or does the photograph need any context?
Would it be more productive to edit the image? Try using image editing tools
for taking images, adjusting luminosity, or making other cosmetic
improvements. (No, indeed, overboard. A slightly distorted, but authentic
picture is better than an altered one.)
A student may use a photograph to demonstrate the sense of helplessness felt
in the middle of tragedy, showing terror, tiredness, or failure in the subject.

Illustrations
The same intention as the images is used for illustrations such as editorial or
political cartoons. Because an illustration does not catch the image in a
moment, it may have less effect. However, diagrams can also be very useful
depending on your subject and the impact you want to achieve. Using the
same photo selection criteria to help you pick illustrations.

Video Footage
Video footage can create a sense of immediacy even more than photographs,
particularly when your video includes sound. Showing a short video clip will
make the viewers feel as if they're present at a big event, communicate or
understand a process better. Have the following questions once again to make
sure you use the footage well:
✓ What is the intention of the video? (Never depend only on video
clips to fill the time.)
✓ How much footage will your intent be shown?
✓ What should be clarified before or after the video is shown to
ensure the audience understands its importance?
✓ Would you need to edit the video to stay on schedule or
concentrate on the most important parts?

Tables
Knowledge graphics, such as tables, charts, and graphs, do not give the same
response as pictures. Such graphics may nevertheless have a strong impact.
Its main objective is the organizing and simplification of knowledge.
Tables are useful when you have to identify and categorize details. Tables are
especially good when you present qualitative data, which are not purely
numerical. For a presentation on the subprime mortgage crisis, a quality data
table was created. This offers knowledge about individuals who have held
prominent positions both in the public and in one of the investment banking
firms involved in the sub-prime mortgage business.

Pie Charts
Pie diagrams are useful for showing the percentage of numerical information.
You may, for example, use a pie chart to reflect the outcomes of presidential
elections by displaying the number of electors that voted for the Democrat,
the Republican, and other political party candidates.

Bar Graphs
Bar graphs work well when you want to show numerical data similarities, and
differences. Horizontal or vertical bars allow viewers to compare data from
various categories, periods, etc. The bar diagram allows viewers, for
example, to compare data on the five countries which have won the most
Olympic medals ever since the beginning of modern games in 1924: Norway,
the United States, the former Soviet Union, Germany, and Austria. Bar charts
may also display trends or patterns effectively in data.

Creating Original Visual Aids

You should use first visual aids in your presentation to make it easier to
display interest, present complicated details or data, or appeal to the emotions
of your audience. You may want to make visual aids by hand, for example,
by installing pictures on a display board. Nonetheless, you would most
definitely use computer-generated graphics.
When you know how to use some office software, computer-generated visual
aids are simple to make. These are also more flexible. You can print and
display big hard copies or insert them in a handbook for your audience. Or
you can easily embed the graphics in your slides if you work with
presentation tools.
No matter how you proceed, take into account the following guidelines:
Develop purposeful, visual aids. Review carefully how you can develop your
message and select a type suitable for your content.
Strive for quality. You may not need a professional photographer or designer,
but take time to ensure that you have a safe, attractive, and understand visual
aid. Fixed bug, too.

Using Software To Create Visual Aids

You can easily construct simple graphics using standard office software. The
following instructions explain how to work with applications for word
processing and presentation.

Working with photographs

Most personal computers come with some simple tools for image editing, and
many people do prefer to purchase more sophisticated programs. Photographs
may be submitted from a digital camera (or, in some cases, a mobile phone)
or printed images are scanned and submitted. The photos can then be edited
and added to your presentation. Make sure all your photos are saved for easy
access in one tab.
Creating tables
To build a table in a word processing document, please consult the support
feature, or an online tutorial of your software program. You can edit and
make any more changes once you have built the list. Be sure that the table
does not have more than six or seven rows or columns, so the text or
readability would not be affected. Aligning with precision will popular the
crowding of your table. The column and row titles will also indicate their
content.
Creating graphs
Standard office applications can also be used to construct Pie diagrams and
bar and line diagrams. While you can build these graphics in a text, you need
to work with your application for word processing and your application for
the spreadsheet. The graph will illustrate the data visually by means of colors,
titles, and marks. The use of color allows the audience to differentiate details,
but avoid hard on the eyes, such as lime green or hot pink. The title will
clearly show what is explained in the graph. Ultimately, stop using the word
and other terms acronyms.

Creating graphics in an electronic presentation

You can opt to generate it as word processing documents if you intend to
only work with hard copy graphics during your presentation. However, if you
use software for presentation, you must select one of the following options:
✓ Use the presentation tools to build your graphics.
✓ Build and import your graphics in another program.
Basic software for office presentations helps you to create information
graphics in a word processing program in the same way. Keep the formatting
palette, a menu option, open when using the program so you can personalize
the image. The formatting menu provides options to insert other graphics,
including photographs and photos. You can insert images from an existing
image bank, or you can add photos or videos from your desktop files. Make
the use of multimedia the message that your presentation seeks to
communicate, the intent, and your audience.

Creating visual aids by hand

Most frequently, it is more effective to use computer-generated graphics than
to create them by hand. The use of office software helps to make the graphics
look flawless while also teaching you skills useful in several occupations.
Nevertheless, in some situations, it can make sense to use hand-created visual
aids–for example, if a 3-D model is shown to be accurate. When you are
following this path, ensure that your visual aids are clean, readable, and
competent. Flip charts are cost-effective and simply visual aids for face-to-
face presentations. Either before and during the presentation, the flip chart
may be planned. Each sheet of paper should contain a theme, concept, or
sketch and should be written in large letters where the members of the
audience are far from the speaker.

Writing captions
Any media that you use should include a title or other informational text. A
caption is a summary or interpretation of a visual picture in one to two words.
Make sure your subtitles are simple, precise, and correct. Use full phrases
when you write them. Captions should always be used for images and, in
some situations, may be useful to illustrate information graphs that visually
reflect qualitative data. Infographics do not, however, need a title if the title
and labels are plain enough. For other visual media like video recordings, it is
necessary to include explanatory texts before or after the images. The crucial
thing is to ensure that you always provide some media clarification.
 IDENTIFY AND ELIMINATE CLUTTER
Photograph a blank or a blank page: each item you add to that page or screen
will take on your audience's cognitive load–in other words, it will take your
brain to process it.
So we want to look carefully at the visual elements we include in our
communications. In general, find something that does not add insightful
value— or adds insufficient information to make up for your presence— and
deletes it. This chapter focuses on recognizing and removing these clutter.

Cognitive load
You've previously felt the pressure of the cognitive load. Perhaps you were in
a conference room when the person who led the conference went through his
prepared slides and stopped for one that seemed incredibly busy and
complicated. Yikes, did you say "hard" clearly, or was it just in your head?
Or, maybe, you read through a journal or a newspaper, and you just picked up
the story for long enough to say, "it looks fascinating, but I have no idea what
I'm going to get out of it "— and you turned the page instead of spending
more time decrypting it.
In all cases, the unnecessary or alien cognitive strain is what you have
encountered.
We have cognitive load whenever we receive information. Cognitive load can
be seen as the mental energy required to know new knowledge. If we ask a
machine to do its job, we depend on the processing power of the machine. If
we ask our audience to do their job, we use their mental processing capacity.
It's emotional pressure. The brains of people have a certain amount of this
intellectual processing capacity. As content designers, we want to be
informed on how we exploit the intellectual power of our audience. The
examples above point to international cognitive load: processing that requires
mental energy, but does not enable the audience to understand knowledge.
What matters most when it comes to our visual communications is our
public's presumed cognitive load: how difficult it is to assume they would
have to struggle to get the details out of your correspondence. It is a decision
they possibly do without giving it much (if any) conscious thought, and yet it
can differentiate between transmitting or not the message.
Try reducing the perceived cognitive burden for your audience in general (to
the degree that it is fair and still possible to get the information across).
Clutter
One culprit who can lead to unnecessary or international cognitive stress is
what I refer to as uncertainty. Such visual elements take space but do not
improve comprehension. We will discuss exactly what items can be
considered clutter soon, but I want to talk about why clutter is a bad thing in
the meantime.
There is a simple explanation of why we should aspire to reduce confusion:
because it makes our graphics more complicated than required.
The presence of clutter in our visual communication may maybe give our
audience a less-than-ideal — or worse— unpleasant user experience (this'
hard' point I alluded to earlier in this chapter). Clutter can render it more
complex than it is. If our graphics sound confusing, our audience is at risk of
deciding that they don't want to spend time to understand what we present,
because we have lost our communication skills. It's not a positive thing.

Gestalt principles of visual perception

Remember the Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception when you try to
classify the elements of our visuals are signal (the information we want to
communicate), and which could be noise (clutter). At the beginning of the
1900s, the Gestalt School of Psychology started to understand how people
interpret the order in the world around them. What they came up with are still
accepted concepts of visual perception, which describe how people
communicate and establish order through visual stimuli.
Six concepts will be explored here: proximity, similitude, enclosure, closure,
continuity, and relation.

Nearness: we prefer to find objects which are physically close together

because of their relative proximity to each other as belonging to a group. In
table design, we can exploit this, simply by differentiating the distance
between the lines, the eyes are drawn either down the columns in the first
case or the second case across the rows.
Similarity: Objects with similar color, form, size, or orientation are known as
related or part of a group. For example, add the blue circles on the left or the
gray squares on the right. This can be used in tables to attract the attention of
our viewers in the direction we want them to concentrate on, and the color
similarity is symbolic of how our eyes read through rows (as opposed to
down columns). This removes the need for other elements such as borders to
allow our attention to be focused.
Enclosure: We think of objects that belong to a group and are physically
enclosed together. There is not a very strong enclosure required to do this:
light background shading is often sufficient to use the enclosure concept to
differentiate visually within our results.
Closure: The closure idea means that we want things that are easy and fit in
the buildings in our heads already. As a result, people prefer to see a variety
of elements as a single, identifiable entity if they can — when pieces of an
entire element are missing, our eyes fill the void. Of example, elements are
typically viewed as a loop first and then as individual objects. Standard
setting, such as chart borders and background coloring, is popular in Graphic
Anwendungen (of example, Excel). The theory of closure tells us that they
are unnecessary— we can delete them, and our graph is still a unifying force.
Bonus: our data stand out more when we take away these unnecessary
elements.
Continuity: The concept of continuity is similar to closure: our eyes search
for the most seamless path when looking at objects, and they instinctively
establish continuity when it does not exist. For example, when I take objects
(1) and separate them, most people would expect to see what is next (2),
whereas it can be as simple as that (3).
In applying this theory, I have absolutely removed the vertical Y-axis line
from the graph. The bars are aligned at the same point due to the white space
(the smoothest way) between the left and right labels. Like we have seen with
the closure theory in practice, the elimination of redundant elements makes
our data more distinctive.
Link: The final concept of Gestalt is a relation. We prefer to think of things
that are linked physically as part of a group. Usually, the connective property
has a higher associative value than equivalent color, size, or type. The lines
linked to your eyes are likely to match the shapes (instead of the same color,
size, or shape): this is the related concept in practice. The connective property
is not usually stronger than the enclosure, but, by thickness and obscurity of
lines, you can manipulate this relationship to establish the desired visual
hierarchy.
One way to use the connecting principle often is via line graphs to help our
eyes see the order in the details. The concepts of Gestalt help us understand
how people see what needless elements we can use to define and to promote
the handling of our visual contact. We haven't even finished with them.
Yet let's first concentrate on a few other kinds of visual disorder.
Lack Of Visual Order
If architecture is sensitive, it gets lost, and the audience won't even consider
it. Yet if it isn't, the audience will feel the pressure. Find an illustration to
understand the visual order— and its lack — can affect our visual
interactions.
Looking at the details, you might think, "it looks pretty good." I must admit it
isn't bad. The graph is clearly defined on the positive side, the graph is well
ordered and labeled, and the main points are expressed and visually related to
the position in the graph. But I will disagree with any praise when it comes to
the overall design of the page and positioning of objects. To me, the overall
visual feel unorganized and unpleasant to look at, as if the various
components were put haphazardly without taking the overall structure into
account. We can greatly enhance this visual by making relatively minor
adjustments. The material remains the same; only elements have been
modified for positioning and formatting.
The second version seems much better compared to the first visual. It's in
order. The overall design and configuration of components have been taken
into consideration intentionally. In particular, the latter version has been
designed for alignment and white space. Let's take a close look at each of
these.

Alignment
The one move from center-aligned to left-justified was the main influence in
the previous example before and after. Every block of text on the page is
centrally aligned in the original edition. This does not produce clean lines,
either on the right or on the left, but can also produce a thoughtful layout. For
this purpose, I prefer to avoid center-aligned email. The decision as to
whether to explain the text to the left or the right should be based on the other
elements on the document. The aim is generally to create clear lines of
elements and white space (both horizontally and vertically).
In any other visual indicator, the viewer usually starts at the top left of the
page or screen and shifts the eyes across the page or screen as you enter
details in the form of "z" (or several "z" shapes according to the layout).
Therefore, with regard to tables and graphs, I prefer to explain the text at the
upper-left-most (title, axis numbers, the legend). In other words, the listener
enters the specifics of how to read the table or graph before entering the data
itself. Let's spend a little time on diagonal elements as part of our discussion
of alignment. For the previous example, the original version had diagonal
lines connecting the collection lines to the data and x-axis markings
diagonally; the former was eliminated, and the former changed to horizontal
orientation during the update. Diagonal elements like lines and text can
usually be avoided. These feel sloppy and are difficult to read when it comes
to text than their horizontal counterparts. With regards to text orientation, one
study found that reading rotated text in either direction was 52 percent slower
on average than reading usually orientated text (the text rotated in both
directions was about 90 degrees on average 205 percent slower). Diagonal
elements on the website are better avoided.
 WHITE SPACE
I have never understood this phenomenon very well, but people seem to hate
white space on a website for some reason. I use a "blank room" to refer to the
page's white room. If your pages are blue, for instance, it's "blue space "—
I'm not sure why they're blue, but color use is a topic that we'll have later.
Perhaps previously, you heard this feedback: "There's still some space on this
page left, so add anything there," or worse, "there's still space left on that
page, so let's add more info." No! Never add data for the sake of adding data
— only add data for a thoughtful and precise sake!
With a white room, we need to be more relaxed.
White space is as relevant in visual communication as pauses in public.
Perhaps you sat in a lecture that had no pauses. It feels something like that:
there's a speaker up there and perhaps because of your nerves or because
you're trying to get through more information than you should in the time
allowed, they're talking a mile a minute and you wonder how they can even
breathe, you want to ask a question, but the speaker has already gone to the
next issue and doesn't pause long in the end. This is an uncomfortable
experience for the listener, close to the frustration you could have felt reading
the preceding sentence.
Space can be used strategically to draw attention to the non-white portions of
the website. Here are some basic guidelines for protecting white space.
Margins of text and visuals will remain free. Resist the urge to stretch visuals
to fill up the space available, then scale the visuals properly to its content.
Consider how you can creatively use white space beyond these rules, as
shown by a dramatic split earlier. Think about making it the only thing on the
page if there is one thing that is really important. This could, in some cases,
be a single sentence or even a single number.

Non ‐ strategic use of contrast

Clear contrast can be a warning to our audience to help them understand
where to concentrate. This concept will be further discussed in later chapters.
On the other hand, the lack of clear contrast may be a source of visual clutter.
When we talk about the critical value of contrast, there's a similarity I always
borrow from Colin Ware (Info Visualization: Perception for Design
[Information Visualization for Design], 2004), that said it is easy to see a
hawk in a sky full of pigeons. It highlights the importance of the strategic use
of contrast in graphic design: the more things we differentiate, the less they
stand out. To clarify it another way, if we want our audience to learn or see
something exciting (the hawk), we can make one thing that's different from
the rest.
See an example to explain this idea further.
Imagine working for a US retailer and trying to understand how your
consumers feel in contrast with their rivals regarding various aspects of your
shopping experience. You have investigated to gather this information and
now seek to grasp what it means. To sum up each category of interest, you
built a weighted performance index (the higher the index, the better the
results, and vice-versa). The weighted efficiency index for your company and
five rivals across categories. Study it for a moment and remember your
process of thought when you take the details.
What would that word be if you had to explain it in one single phrase? Words
like busy, frustrating, and maybe tiring come to mind. Everything is
happening in this graph. So many things fight for our attention that it is
difficult to know where to look.
Let's look at what we're looking at. As I said, the graphical data is a weighted
output index. You don't need to think about how this is measured, but rather
understand that this is a summary metric of results that we would like to
compare across various categories (selected, easy, serviced, and priced in all
horizontal-axis) for "our business" (displayed by the blue-diamond) with
multiple better performances and a lower index means lower.
Taking this detail into account is a slow process with a lot of back and forth
between the legend below and the details in the diagram to understand what
is being transmitted. While we're cautious and want information about the
picture, it is almost difficult because other data points often blur our company
(the blue diamond), so we cannot even see the most significant link to make!
That is where the lack of contrast (and certain other design issues) makes the
information far more difficult to understand than it needs to be.
I made a variety of changes. First, I decided to show the information on a
horizontal bar map. In doing so, I revamped all the numbers to a better level
— in the original scatter map, some negative values complicated the task of
visualization. This shift works here because we are more interested than
absolute values in relative differences. With this remake, the divisions used to
run down the vertical y-axis along the horizontal axis. For each category, the
bar length indicates the overview metric between "Our Business" (blue) and
the different competitors (gray). The long bars reflect improved results. In
this case, the decision not to display the real-axis scale was intentional,
allowing the viewer to concentrate on relative differences instead of the
specifics of the individual numbers.
With this style, two things can be easily seen:
We may make our eyes scan through the blue bars to have a general
understanding of how "our company" works in different categories. In
essence, we achieve high value for money and comfort and lower
relationships, perhaps because, in these fields, service and selection are
difficult.
In one category, the blue bar with the gray bars can be compared to the rivals
to see how our company is doing: winning compared to the quality rivalry,
losing service, and preference.

Competitors are classified by the order in which they appear (competitor A

often appears directly over the blue bar, competitor B after that, etc.), as
illustrated in theory on the left. If it were necessary to be able to recognize
each competitor quickly, this design would not enable this immediately. So if
this is a priority relation of the second or third order and is not the most
important issue, this method will work properly. In the redesign, I also
arranged the categories for the "Business" weighted performance index
decreasing, which provides the construct for the audience to use the details. I
introduced a summary metric (relative rank) so that we can easily know how
"Our Business" ranks about the competition in each category.
Note here how the effective use of contrast (and other careful design choices)
make the process of getting the details that we are after much quicker,
simpler, and more comfortable than the original graph.
 TIPS FOR STORYTELLING WITH DATA
Although certain businesses gather so much information that they don't even
know what they gather, some businesses try to make sense of the
information. Knowledge flows from every corner of the world when a
modern company is set up. If you gather a lot of information, you need to
find out how to use data to tell stories if you want to reach home to use the
data better. Many people do not document the words data and analytics with
the words fun, and stories. The good news is that data telling does not have to
be dull or unengaging. While data that looks like just a set of numbers, all
you have to do is turn it into a story. You will convince people to see things
differently if the data has a beginning, middle, and a finish. Instead of being
pounded with details, people will be interested in your story.

Tell them first what happened. Then get them to understand why your
personal information is important to what happened. Finally, they need to
learn how the data can be made workable. When you understand your
position in this story, you are more likely to be interested in what happens
with your results. Using data visualization, you can pull us more creatively
into the plot. You may present trends, draw conclusions, or explain
hypotheses that change the way your organization makes decisions. It is
helpful to tell a story with data as both sides need to make decisions without
knowing a lot of data. It's hard to try to find time to talk to someone for an
hour. Give them a photo to clarify quickly what you're talking about. Your
clients may want to see information about your goods and services to
promote conversations. Don't keep it secret if you have good data about your
goods. You still need to show it to others in a simple and effective format.
With data visualization, you can comment on your product. Instead of trying
to focus on the leads and customer satisfaction with phones, make the job
simpler. Instead of trying to plan or wade through a swamp of information,
visualization will allow you to know what your clients want and need.
Effective narration relies heavily on visuals. As humans, we have a hard-
wired visual knowledge preference. The eyes contain 70 percent of the
sensory receptors of the human body. Books with related pictures earn 94
percent more cumulative views on average than books without pictures.
Your business relies almost certainly on data visualization to explain the
experience of your customers and illustrate the effect of your brand. So, for
good storytelling with data, we researched these top tips from storytelling and
data visualization experts.

Understand your data

While it sounds obvious, knowing the data you are dealing with is the first
step to successful data visualization. Which means, remember the context
behind the data itself before you search at what stories could hide in the
numbers. Questions about the essence of your data (with Search Engine
Journal credit) include:
✓ Who collected the data?
✓ Why was this information collected?
✓ Who does it represent?
✓ What audience is this data intended for?
✓ Which is the best way to provide the audience with the
information?
Knowing the details and expressing it in the visuals enhances credibility. The
more your story will relate to your life, understanding what your audience
cares about.

Find the compelling story angle

There is a good reason why business storytelling is important. Stories not
only motivate life in the language processing areas of the brain, says
neuroscience. Stories trigger "every other region of our brain we can use
while witnessing story events." From 27,000 years ago of cave paintings, we
used images to turn important encounters into stories and back to memories
that have been created for audiences.
Do not be dull, in the Harvard Business Review, if you want your story to be
interesting. See if the story has a hook, momentum, or an interesting intent.
He informs the graphic designer that he thinks the narrative structure would
help you determine if you really have a story to tell. Your knowledge
explains the truth. But the facts are not compelling or interesting without
meaning. Understanding what story your data conveys will have an effect on
the perception of your audience.
Telling a story helps to synchronize listeners with a narrative. Your story—
taking a specific story from your company— lets you decide how to lay out
the facts and how to arrange the visuals. You want to help audiences
appreciate the significance of their own experience.
Keep your audience in mind
You create a visualization of the data if you want to share it with someone;
keep that in mind throughout the design process. Using visual indicators
(size, color, page positioning) to switch the audience's attention and to send
signals on how to focus on them. Simple testing: show your images to a
friend with minimal backgrounds and let them tell you how the material is
interpreted (which picks up, what findings they make)that's a good
representative for your audience, and if they don't pay attention to the right
stuff, check the design.

Simplify the design to convey information

Simplicity is a significant element in visual data affecting audiences. An
absence of clutter is among the top four items she's looking for. Decide if you
want the reader to take a look. Simplifying the graphics ' visual design makes
them simple, accurate, and effective. The aim is to explain the plot, not to
concentrate on the design.

Aim for simplicity

A complicated graphic will shut off an audience, as it means that the details
given will possibly take time. Do not get the details from your audience-as
the designer, and you will take the job to make the message clear. Remove
something that has no insightful value–every step of the reduction is
something that stands out. Don't be afraid of white space. Preserve margins
(if that is not feasible and the nonessential has already been removed, you
should consider splitting the message into more than one section in order not
to be overshadowed). Better than complicated is easy.

Include the right metrics inspire the needed action

Businesses need the stories of their consumers; companies have a better
picture of the lives of their consumers. They build dashboards to automate
consumer data visualization. Employees depend on them to track patterns and
improve their output based on real figures. Data visuals drive the design
action required. My advice is first to place the viewer's needs: a well-
designed dashboard drives the action by showing only the metrics for a single
audience.
The dashboard architecture should only display the main user success
indicators (KPIs). Her examples illustrate how the metrics chosen for a sales
dashboard and dashboard vary completely, even though their visual styles are
identical. The main question is, "Will this trigger action be taken?"If the
primary metric does not mean anything on its own, a supporting metric may
be required, such as the shift in percent from last time. Develop graphics that
provides the measurements to be taken by your users.

Follow good design principles

Know and adopt the applicable design concepts. The purpose is to draw
attention to and communicate essential information. Careful design
techniques allow the graphics to interact on their own.
Bill Shandler, the data visualization instructor, offers these basic principles to
interact with the data:
Elements coordinate: "The eye likes to arrange items," remarks Shandler. Get
the edges of the diagrams matched. Look at labels of text. If, for example,
you align it or place it near the end of a bar and align it consistently.
Using as few gridlines and tick marks as possible and using white space.
Tone them gray when using axis lines and tick marks, suggests Shandler.
Place space around diagrams to help readers concentrate on details.

Using colors sparingly and with their accompanying meanings: Do not seek
to create your colors. Make your map or graphics program free of default
colors. If you work with a company, the design team of the organization will
help you develop a good color scheme for easy reading and clarifying its
purpose.
Less is more when it comes to dashboards; the more colors, the less
successful they are—using common associations such as red for risk, green
for desired results. Use no more than 3-4 colors and ensure that the color
level is strategic on the dashboard.
Use only the words needed: use only the words to understand your results.
Don't sign it, recommends Shandler. Nonetheless, failure to define the axis or
to sever the axes is two of the most common data visualization errors to
avoid.
Although the labels should be used sparingly, they should not compromise on
design. Nonetheless, there will still be a prominent headline. This allows
readers to understand the message.
 CONCEPTS OF DESIGN IN DATA
VISUALIZATION
In communicating the sophisticated insights hidden within data, the task of
data visualization is vital. This is more and more relevant as the audience is
also growing for data visualization with data size. Practitioners of all kinds
now use data visualization. The simple consumption is now a hot topic for
the same cause. Data scientists and analysts will discover the main findings
from even complicated visualizations, but the same may not be achieved by a
top business leader or an ordinary citizen. And this is what makes effective
data analysis time-consuming. Effectively transmitting data is an art. Many
data scientists, however, are lagging in developing and esthetic aspects of
data visualization.
The Reddit r / dataisbeautifulsubredditis a fantastic place to find curated data
views across the site. Here are some of the main design principles to create
beautiful and efficient data views for all.

Balance the design

A balanced design is the one with the visual elements of form, color, negative
space, and texture spread evenly throughout the plot. This means that the
concept will not automatically be an exact copy of the other. By offsetting
large graphs and charts with smaller ones, you can achieve an asymmetric
balance.
The architecture consists of three different types of balances:
Symmetrical – Each side of the visual is the same as the other.
Asymmetrical – Both sides are different but still have a similar visual weight.
Radial – Elements are placed around a central object which acts as an anchor.
You will need to decide which kind of balance is the best way to imagine the
data and apply it.

Emphasize the key areas

Through carefully selecting the scale, color, contrast, and negative space, user
focus will be drawn to the right data points. The purpose of the visualization
is to ensure that the essential data is not missed and emphasized. When a user
first gets to the top-left corner of a story, the relevant data points should be
put there.
Illustrating movement
The movement focuses on the focus of the consumer in the same direction as
concentration. Your visual elements will mimic movement in an "F" pattern,
as interpreted by people. Across the top right to the top right and down the
page slowly. You can also display movement across the page with
complementary colors that can capture the viewer's look and drive it across
the page. This idea applies to static visualizations more effectively. The
dimension of motion will already be covered if your simulation tool can
animate and interactive designs.

Smart use of patterns

Repeated elements of design form a pattern. When it comes to displaying
your data, patterns provide a great way to show a similar type of information
distributed across the document. If the details on the page are too many to
emphasize, it is the way to create a pattern using similar colors, styles of
charts, and components. Patterns often simplify the communication of an
anomaly as any disturbance in the pattern inevitably attracts the attention and
interest of the audience. The use of patterns for visualizing data is one of the
simplest and most powerful design concepts.

Proportion
When you draw the image of a bird on a tree, the tree is considerably larger
than the bird. Because of the results, the proportion is the size of each item on
the list. Proportions may indicate the weight of different data sets and the
relationship between their values in data visualization. When you have to
emphasize that a particular data point is significant, you have to make it
bigger than the rest. Also, you will ensure that the chart represents as
accurately as possible the interrelation of different numbers. For example, if a
section of a pie diagram is marked 36%, 36% of the area in the diagram will
be used.

Proper rhythm
Rhythm is a very abstract architecture term closely related to the movement.
It is said that a design has a balanced rhythm when the design elements
generate a fun eye movement. If design elements such as shapes, colors, or
proportions build a "shack," you might want to rearrange them so that you
can move the eye smoothly over the data.
Variety
Variety is an important factor that keeps viewers engaged and involved in
your data. This is all about finding ways to imagine the data with various
unique design features to avoid repetition. The result is a data visualization
that is not only enticing, but also allows the user to retain the displayed
information longer.

Theme
A single theme means that each aspect of the design is consistent, and a
pattern follows. It will happen if you have taken care of the design principles
listed above. You may include a theme for your organization or based on the
visualization niche. It allows for a stronger interaction with the user and
enhances the visual interface.
Data Visualization Design Process
It is no secret right now that data visualization is hot. And it should be... from
the public sector to private corporations, data, and how we use it, is
refurbishing our planet. Perhaps none of the data is more common than the
visualization of data, where designers work hardly anywhere else. Does all
this pose the inevitable question, is data visualization a fad that will otherwise
dress up unattractive information? And does it emphasize our deeper need for
people to simplify, coordinate, and make knowledge easier to access so that
we can increase our understanding of the world around us?
Put the latter camp to me. Data visualization and data design cover the aging
quest to reconcile form and function effectively. Form (in this case, how we
design our information) makes it more visible and meaningful for those who
would not otherwise find it. And this improves comprehension in turn. Role
(in this case, how these data can be used) requires that we render practical
and usable knowledge we design. That is the essence of the design— it is
both practical and formal. And it is important to balance our design choices
between these two priorities to successfully design data visualizations that
deliver appropriate, meaningful, and useful experiences with dense
information.
At Constructive, we were lucky to collaborate with some very great
organizations with ambitious data— from assessing global environmental
performance and researching the effect of climate change on economic
performance to monitoring the global TB response. Based on these and other
observations, I want to unmystify what can be an awkward exercise by
sharing those lessons we've learned over the years, as we continue our
continuous search to enhance our customer data design process.

Start by asking one fundamental question

Each challenge in data visualization is different. Some are simple geometric
abstractions, such as pie charts, diagrams, and zone maps, which help explain
phänomens from a larger collection of data. Specific visualizations, like
narrative infographics, are less of a strictly analytical analysis of the results,
using an illustrative approach to facilitate a more nuanced method or
program. In the case, beginning with a simple question is helpful: "Why does
this knowledge matter to the audience?"And it's about reaching the viewer
where they are, eventually. As communicators and planners, we will take on
the uncertainty of the figures, method, or environment and transmit it to the
audience.
The construction processes in the design of data are embedded in the
conceptual approach to any medium or material that consists of four stages,
like other design processes: analysis, strategy, discovery, and execution. In
data design, the goal is not only to be able but to dig into and to be sensitive
to the numbers. To take their ambiguity into account so that we can
collaborate with our consumers on innovative ways of presenting them so
that they can use their data for understanding, branding, and finally inspiring
audiences to take action.
Having started with this basic question and used it to contextualize and
educate our thoughts and decisions, this is how we refine our design process
to create efficient data interactions and experiences.

Design research
Successful design research allows us to ask the right questions, like all
science. Start with a step back from the data itself and discuss the project
with stakeholders to decide wider work objectives. What details are we trying
to convey? How is it possible to achieve wider organizational objectives?
Who are our audiences and their level of competence in our field? What are
their data literacy and visual literacy levels?
When you have answers to these high-level strategic questions, you can
expand your work to find answers to data-specific questions: Is our data now
easily understood in a way? Which are the highest rates to remove and rise?
What kind of visualizations would we use to express our ideas? Why are the
data organized, and how flexible can we use them? The purpose of this
research is to dig in — understand our organizational priorities, and our
audience consumes all that is possible and then seeks approaches that match
the needs of the Company and the public.

Design strategy
We are now able to concentrate on creating a design plan that supports our
work. Firstly: Defining the objective of the work based on our research, and
what factors would contribute to the design and execution of a meaningful
experience? Where is our target going to be? Do they have time to dive
deeply into our data, or is it a high-level dive? Create a content strategy: how
can our knowledge be structured or edited to make it more available to our
audience? Could we simplify concepts and ideas without jeopardizing data
integrity? Finally, build a production strategy: can we use techniques to
construct a more appealing presentation? How does the nature of our
company impact the product? And how do we want the viewers to
communicate with data when it is an immersive visualization? And don't
ignore the application strategy: what technologies are used for data
generation or storage? What are the best digital resources for delivering
them? The goal is to focus holistically on multiple strategies that influence
how our data are viewed and what it means for the consumer as well as our
company, taking them into account and finding the right combination to
balance them effectively.

Design exploration
So we have a clear idea of what the issues and solutions are, why they are
relevant, and how they can be used. We know what concept methods are
most likely to succeed. Finally, it's time to begin to iterate concepts that make
our ideas concrete! Positive, we prefer rapid prototyping to get as many ideas
out quickly because the costs of going the wrong way can be huge,
particularly if you design and create data. For us, this means beginning with
pencil sketches to get our ideas out quickly so that they can be addressed. In
projects with more complex data visualizations or data resources, we
typically create a more comprehensive and interactive architecture and
wireframes. When our structure, hierarchy, and functionality is in place, we
are ready to look and feel and add visual style by selecting the correct color,
fonts, iconography, and so on. The aim is to work from the outside in; start
with a simple, higher-level concept, work together to create the structural
elements.
Design execution
As they suggest, even the best plan is worthless without proper
implementation. Therefore, it is crucial that you have the right team in place
to manage the project— particularly for interactive visualization that needs
collaboration with external data systems and complex creation. Data design is
carried out according to the same methodology as other design works: design,
refinement, and development. In the design of data visualizations, it is
extremely important to emphasize content accuracy and reading accuracy,
mainly because data design can involve the communication of complex data
in tight spaces or with several competing elements. Flexibility can also be
planned to expand our work to other areas of our communication and brand
so that we look forward and understand how visualizations can be exported
or modified to be used in other media. So be sure that you're checking your
job! If we work in print, replicate it as close as possible to the final format.
And if it's interactive, make sure you invest extra time in the QA process if
the data is interactive.

This is our approach to data visualization, and we have continuously found

that this results in the best outcomes for our customers and ourselves.
Naturally, there is a range of software applications that guarantee simple
visualization of data from Excel to Google Map, Tableau, and beyond. And
these are usually excellent devices. But if I want to leave you with one of
them, it's that: fantastic knowledge visualizations don't make themselves.
Short cuts usually change the performance only shortly. When it is your
highest priority to produce data visualizations with effects, whether you are
doing your work yourself or cooperate with someone, you should then
contribute to a process of strategic design.
 PRINCIPLES OF VISUAL STORYTELLING
In the digital marketing era, the visual narrative has gradually emerged as a
key trend in the web and graphics sector. Scientifically speaking, the human
brain's visual cortex is the largest. An average person can hold 10% of what
they learn after 72 hours of testing. If the same information is applied to the
data, however, it can retain up to 65%. In reality, visuals are much more
useful than simple texts when it comes to evoking emotions. Visuals
encourage the public to take action and are, therefore, fantastic marketing
instruments. For a minute, I mean, think about it. What do you prefer? What
do you prefer? You can hear a radio commercial or a TV commercial to see
the product or service they are pitching?? Naturally, the latter will have more
confidence than the former. Want real-life examples of visual storytelling?
This idea is further reinforced by the visual design of Snapchat, Instagram,
Vine, and Pinterest. Even the video and colorful Twitter and Facebook posts
are more' loved' and exchanged than posts with plain texts.
Visual storytelling contributes to the practical understanding of complex data
by making more impact as a result.
Visual data provide a more convincing narration, which leads the audience to
take action.
This definition integrates excellent writing, vibrant visuals that build a whole
atmosphere.
Never ask your readers too much. They prefer scrolling and viewing data
requiring several clicks, and extended exploration will complicate their
interaction.
Don't give me a link button. Do not get me to push my mouse as well if you
insist that I have to make more than one button. There are some fantastic
visual storytelling tools here you must learn as a designer. I want all my
clicks in the same place.

Instead of telling, show them what you got

In reality, this is the very first lesson for any journalism, filmmaking, and
creative writing class. Don't say what you are trying to say to your audience
instead, Clearly, encourage your imagination to speak! Make use of concise
texts, vibrant pictures, or exciting designs.
Never tell your customers how it works when you can explain how they can
use a product.
Make sure your 1st impressions are impactful
1st perceptions play a key role in marketing in the case of visual storytelling.
The brain is made so that a simple impact can be made. Our psyches were
instinctive, based on our deep-rooted beliefs, convictions, and awareness. It
doesn't take long for the viewer to produce a wrong idea in the digital
marketing world. If they don't first understand architecture or are bored, they
will inevitably spend their time there. It takes only a moment for them to find
a commodity as unworthy. What should be the case is the unbelievable
concept with the ability to attract the viewer at first glance. The message will
touch your emotions right. Know, an angry young man's image gets less
publicity than a puppy's image.

Animate your story, because we all love them!

Recall childhood's best part? Yes, fun tales in the form of storybook pictures
and animated cartoons. Every day we read or watch them with undivided
attention and slowly became enthusiastic followers of the characters we
loved. Digital marketing, other than images, often needs to include videos,
and it does not mention the full-length 30-minute stories via video. Only gifs
will do the job correctly. More and more digital marketers are growing their
visual storytelling techniques with the power of animation and versatility by
integrating special apps and online supports. During a time when the brain
bored with its content, animated impacts will catch and hold the viewer's
attention for a long time.

There is a beginning, middle and an end to every story

In the beginning, the middle and the end make the narrative arc together.
Unless your storytelling strategies are not focused on this theme; otherwise,
your marketing goals will undoubtedly fail miserably. A template remains
flat if the elements mentioned above are not correctly infused. It was the first
time Aristoteles mentioned it a thousand years ago, and when it was
identified as the timeline of a character from A to B., You may think that a
static picture can be centered on the same guideline. For this purpose, when
selecting pictures to construct a visual background and graphics, it is
important to remember every aspect to reflect the corresponding moods of the
audience. Every story must be closed down, or the viewers would be left
confused about the primary purpose of the show.

Show them some conflict, address their issue and your job is half done!
Without resolving those concerns of the audience, a writer can't succeed in
his or her storytelling goals. The methods of visual storytelling only work if
the viewer can connect to the concept depicted. Every design must have a
solution that makes it appealing for the consumer and then reacts to the call
to action of the design.

Include some human elements in your designs

People are social creatures. You can no longer engage the concept through
the application of the' people ' element in your product or service. By
stressing the people behind it, you say business by immediately creating a
sense of confidence in the minds of the audience. Encourage the sense of
trust in your brand when telling your audience stories. Whatever the medium,
even a stock photo with the human face will speak for your brand.

Teach, preach and tell your audience what they don’t know
Does the company you or your customer deal with something new for
ordinary people? Then it's a high profit you should take. Build your product
with the best elements to express the brand's past correctly. Weave the story
with your viewers ' challenges and then introduce your product. To conclude,
offer a realistic conclusion to your tale by telling them how your product will
benefit them and how to take action.

Include some eye-candies for your people

Have you ever heard about gifographics? They are infographics filled with
animated elements that transmit the brand message to the readers. And
writers, of course, love to look at their appeal. Every visual ideas for
storytelling must have the "wow" factor, so that the imagination of the
audience is inspired.

Never lose the focus on your message

Messaging is as critical as concepts. Even if you produce the most stunning
picture ever, your branding doesn't matter if it isn't done correctly and also
appropriate. Publics still search for something new. Still! Still! When the
initial concept does not have texts, however, the tactic to get their attention is
lacking. It's not going to work. Don't push it too far. Do not stretch it too far.
Only keep it on the stage.

Seek the help of professionals who know how to weave a story

Perhaps the best item you can add to your marketing campaigns is a
professional touch. Visual storytelling poses problems that include intuitive
knowledge and expertise. You should never think of doing this as a DIY
project. Certified professionals know what works best for businesses. They
investigate the target audience of a business and prepare the digital assets and
visual tales. Be it static photographs or advertisement videos, a qualified
agency knows everything.

Data Storytelling Concepts

Storytelling transcends sectors and often focuses on business books,
conferences, sales, and much more. Storytelling is a routine challenge for
digital marketers, particularly about data and analysis. We are always in a
position in an organization to clarify to our customer's complicated patterns
and data points.
We must be good data storytellers to demonstrate clearly and concisely why
our customers continue to invest continuously in our services. Most of what
we do is technological and backstage, requiring experience with technology
and a long period of attention. Given the environment in which humans have
less attention than goldfish, this is becoming more difficult.
✓ An impartial jury at Two Octobers, all considering, gathered to
answer the following questions:
✓ Are we using data to tell customers stories?
✓ Where will we strengthen our information history?
✓ Where do we learn and test these concepts in our company?
✓ How do we use storytelling to boost customer communication?
We started by researching to learn more about data storytelling. We learned
about human nature and psychology. For example, the use of color indicates
that patterns are more successful than callouts or size. Typically people
search rather than read, and in F trends, they do.
We discussed how precautionary processing, subconscious, and preconceived
ways in which the brain processes and handles information could prevent us
from effectively telling data visualization stories.
Finally, we explored how the data history of various kinds of audiences can
vary. Is the receiver of our data a top boss, or do you want to dig into the
weeds? Instead, we searched the Internet to find examples of good and poor
storytelling and sat down to think about why they worked or did not succeed.
A few of our favorites are here: Crazy Egg does a fantastic job by grouping
possible data storytelling visuals (how meta!) by reference, contrast,
distribution, or composition.

The Commandments of Data Storytelling

Start by asking: Set up your plot. What does the audience learn?
End with an insight: if we can't benefit from the results, the story is not worth
telling.
Say a fascinating story: people remember stories, not facts. Bring them on
your journey. Bring them.
Explain with visuals, say with words: with visuals, people better understand
measurements, trends, and patterns. Use words to connect the data to your
speech.
Be truthful and credible: we want customers to be honest.
Don't the negative sugarcoat? And don't deceive broken results.
Be clear and concise: delete all that is not in your narrative. Download the
other pieces again.
Know your audiences and appeal to them: What is their desires and
objectives?
Would you like the specifics or just the high-level summary?
Provide context: Equate time or business averages with metrics. Without
sense, numbers are meaningless.

Examples Of Storytelling With Data

Tell a fascinating story. This example clearly illustrates an organization with
numerous sites how its advertising overlaps through its different sites. It is
critical because the targeting of multiple search locations can lead to the
cannibalization of data and self-concurrence. This can contribute to higher
costs and damage the ability to manage through the campaign.
We used the above map as a visual aid to display the distribution of the
problem and to define precisely which areas needed to be addressed. This has
been considered more successful and simpler in describing our rationale for
applying the techniques at the bottom of the diaphragm.
Specify meaning. This type of customer report information could easily have
been spread in a laundry list of bullets but is instead viewed as a tidy, clean
timeline. Our agency sends customers monthly reports, and the significant,
impactful changes made to an account can be easily forgotten when viewed
amid many other metrics, patterns, minor changes, etc. This model eliminates
noise and promotes awareness of the effects of different programs at various
points of the year on the client and promotional campaigns. That kind of
meaning, made possible by a linear example and a brief text, reveals how the
story progresses.
End with a glance. This particular example was used in a presentation
demonstrating how important it is to monitor visits in stores. Several clients
and many business owners, in general, have trouble mixing online and offline
data to create a summary of their customers. To find out how consumers
discover the brand, how they stay involved, and what will ultimately drive
them to take action can be invaluable information.
The slide uses some impressive figures to look at how consumers use their
cell phones before they purchase and how Google ads behave during the
appraisal process. It is an experience that business owners should take into
account when deciding whether they can use online and offline marketing
strategies and the relevant metrics for each.

Narrate With Words Tell With Visuals. This slide shows the success of
various geo-targets in a paid searching account. It is visually impressive, and
it shows progress in users with flags representing each nation and medals. In
addition to being esthetically pleasing, it helps the rankings with different
sales and ROAS estimates. In general, this diaphragm tells a tale in a way
you can't use a bulleted list.
Provide context. We have enjoyed this example of a data story, because it
includes a variety of commands, especially "provide context." Paid search
metrics differ widely between accounts based on various factors like geo-
targeting, site quality, and more.
This infographic offers a great overview by displaying the Two Octobers
agency-wide indicators relative to search industry averages over the past two
years. By providing a benchmark for each metric, you can better measure the
performance of automotive customers from Two Octobers.
Basic Requirements For All Data Storytelling Projects
The following basic requirements are important to offer storytelling
capabilities to any BI Storytelling project. Let's discuss what they are and
how Microsoft Power BI stands for this form of project: fluid transition: The
analytical tools used for data exploration and visualization generation are
different from storytelling tools. It takes time and energy to transfer
visualizations from one source to another to create a BI story, and it also
restricts the possibility of adding metadata or annotations created during the
study. To ensure that creators can export it, the research and metadata
relevant to the environment of storytelling must be fluidly and incorporated.
Microsoft Power BI gives us a special environment that simplifies flow and
reduces time and effort.
Integration: To tell stories, BI designers need resources that incorporate all
modern materials for their history: BI papers, interactive images, how the
narrative structure is illustrated, how the features are outlined, how the
narrative is portrayed in sequence, as well as textual or audio descriptions.
For example, the Microsoft Power BI is incorporated into PowerPoint, so that
audio or video can be inserted into the web or mobile application.

Visual storytelling aids: Storytellers may use resources to draw attention to

particular visualization details, such as highlights, colors, annotations, and
zooms. Microsoft Power BI allows us to configure everything from statistics,
history, color topics, text sources, etc. Interactive visualizations: Group story
presentation is still not interactive when reading outside the organization. A
storytelling method should be fully interactive, although the interaction of
readers with the data is minimal. All these features are integrated into the
Microsoft Power BI, from monitoring protection by rank to monitoring the
pages displayed in each user sharing chart.
Correct BI Story Templates: BI stories have a particular structure, which
other stories, including PowerPoint presentations, do not generally share.
Reuse: Although BI reports and data vary from analysis to analysis, BI stories
still appear to be the same in their underlying structure. It is also crucial that
the same structure of the stories generated in the tool can be easily reused for
stories of data creation and similar stories in the future. Microsoft Power BI
helps us to build models for potential projects that we can reuse.

Reproduction must be optional: readers must passively interpret the whole

story so that they can get an outline and explore it at their speed. Driven
reproduction allows them to follow directions of study that are not easy to
identify and to consider the aspects that the creator sees as most important.
 THE POWER OF DATA STORYTELLING
In the field of data analysis, data storytelling is a popular term. Storytelling
means a close look at the details so that key messages can be identified and
conveyed most efficiently. This is a powerful concept that is sometimes
detracted from those who place it synonymous with data visualization–data
viz suppliers who embrace it as a marketing slogan, experts who balance it
with best practices in visualization, etc.
The visualization of data is an essential component of research. In The Other
Side of Data Visualization, you can read some of my thoughts about
visualization, where I speak about visualization as' the pictures ' language
with visual parallels to reading and writing. Data history goes far beyond
visual data presentation. Information stories accompany narrative visuals.
They mix picture language and word language.
Stories are mighty things. Throughout history, we have used them to catch
focus, to express thoughts, to spark creativity, and to awaken the spirit. Data
can be compelling, but it's a lot more stories. A well-told story is an inspiring
story designed to engage the viewer. Stories affect data alone; that is not
possible. They change the way we communicate with data, from a dry list of
"facts" to something fun, stimulating, thought-provoking, and inspiring. Four
good reasons for the art of telling stories are:
Stories are unforgettable. Many viewers keep the story's message longer and
remember more than keeping figures and statistics.
Stories are transmitted and recorded. People like to tell a good story, and
stories usually have greater scope and social effects than numbers.
Stories encourage personal interest and contribution. A well-told tale "sees"
the viewer somewhere in the story that carries with it a higher degree of
participation, communication, debate, and overall involvement.
Stories inspire people to act. When stories are intimate, they are also
encouraging. Stories are more likely than figures and percentages to
contribute to practice. Storytelling does so more than just putting facts on a
pretty face.
At the surface, storytelling appears to be the opposite of analysis–qualitative
rather than quantitative. Nevertheless, quantities are not the only way or the
best way to convey knowledge. Not everyone in the business is a quantum
who thinks in numbers natively. Some people think of pictures, hence the
popularity of data visualization: "Look at the shape of things, not the
quantities. "Visualization is powerful, but the ability to connect graphics and
tell a story with data is even more powerful.
The secret is narration. Data is fuzzy and short-sighted. Visualizations (and
misunderstandings) are open to interpretation. The narrative eliminates
uncertainty, connects data to context, and explains a specific interpretation.
See Split Country: Dunkins vs. Starbucks for a fascinating example of a
mixed visualization and narrative. Make sure the page scrolls to get the full
effect. See this graph to experiment with the analysis of visual data. Write a
short story (one or two paragraphs) to explain what the chart tells you. Share
the diagram with colleagues and invite them to write a post. You're likely to
notice some perception variations. If you want to express your thoughts, send
me an e-mail, and I'll be happy to share and comment.
Finally, think of the "data-driven" hysteria today. Is the holy grail of analytics
powered by data? How about story-driven or narrative-driven? Please express
your views and comments. I would like to hear your views on visualization,
storytelling, and data communication.
Leveraging The Power Of Storytelling
Today, companies rely less on paid ads in conventional mass media to attract
audiences and turn towards social media marketing. However, to thrive, we
need to approach these digital media differently.

The story people want to tell with brand ads that pay for it in advertisement
advertisers disturb. In social media marketers, however, the content they want
to see must be produced. Brands will attract the consumer by telling a good
brand story. But what's a good story about?
To examine the impact of the narrative, people once chose to watch
advertisements for the ads themselves. We wanted to know which
advertisements were most successful, which drew attention to buzz and votes
and ended at the top of the polls. We have coded the ads on Freytag's
Pyramid, a theory that divides the story into five parts: introduction
(exposure), increased action, climax, downward action, and resolution
(outcome). This formula was used by Shakespeare to attract a mass audience
to his five acts.
What we found was the most common ads say the whole story (all five acts)
and less than one story (less than five acts) were the ads at the bottom of the
consumer rating polls. With all five parts, a dramatic arc or story is formed–
the formula is fascinating. This is the same story style that can be used in
social media.
The development of regular, timely, quality content depends on social media.
Brand executives with a series of annual advertising campaigns of 3 to 6 ads
sometimes wonder what to share on their social networks daily or weekly.
Setting up a larger brand history can provide you with the content you need.
Then every social post or response can be a mini-chapter, explaining and
advancing the entire story.

Introduction. Also known as Exposure, it offers context information, setting,

previous events, character, etc. Brands are bought by people for products and
services, but also history. Share the past, people, and mission or vision of
your business with your social media content?
Action to rise. This is a series of incidents or events connected with one of
the most interesting points–the highest point. Beware of flat posts that mostly
contain the same details in different ways over and over. In a much broader
viewpoint, think about making posts on social media that build on each other
towards a significant move, revelation, or change that fans and followers will
look forward to, check-in, and see.
Climax. It is the turning point that shifts the fate of the main character. There
are two ways of thinking about this marketing operation. Next, describe the
social media effort's main character. Are your posts based on telling the
company story or on telling the story of your client? You want to bring the
company or consumer in social media to a turning point in discovering or
solving an obstacle by building on the company, product, or service
strengths.
Falling action. The effects of the turning point are seen in greater detail
during the dropping action. Such findings are reflected in social media. When
an obstacle has been solved, what are the brand or the consumer's results?
When an opportunity has been taken, describe the many advantages and
results which lead to a final victory.

Agreement. Here all the events lead to a drama or plot ending sequence.
Conflicts on characters that cause stress and anxiety are resolved. Content in
social media will reflect the winning company or consumer. Take a look at
the overall goal of the brand and its customers.

Brands And The Power Of Storytelling

In 2013, a Google India ad was so strong that its vibrations were felt across
Pakistan's border as well. The' reunion commercial,' which told the story of
two friends separated by a score and brought together by Google, became
bigger than their name, as they struck a chord with the Radcliff Line on both
sides. This strong example of telling stories shows us how this art can be
useful for brands.
Both in industry and technology, businesses are conscious of the influence
that a narrative has to shape markets and places of work. Maximizing human
interest allows people to set and accomplish worthwhile targets. People
genuinely want real values to become a better version of who they are. There
is a growing trend for marketers to use powerful accounts to focus
extensively on our social and behavioral characteristics. Most brands have
propagated values through equality, inequality, and social justice stories.

Power Of Narratives
The influence of narratives is neurologically dependent. Researchers from
Spain found that a lot of different brain centers are illuminated when people
are confronted with vibrant and captivating tales. For example, if a battle
scene is graphically depicted in a book, the brain activity, and vision centers
are lit up (even if you can't fight). If an aroma is represented in evocative
detail, the smell center illuminates. In other words, when viewed as a pure
fact, you have a more intense and immersive experience compared to a small
blip of the brain.
Socially speaking, stories have the power to set and reinforce behavioral
standards that are in line with what you want. When a narrative character in a
story follows a balanced diet or frequently exercises, it gives the impression
that this is what people do and should be embraced by the listener or
audience. This works because you endorse not only a commodity but also a
better quality of life, a quality that resonates with the consumer.
For example, the lives, struggles, and joys of young children are carefully
chronicled. It caught the imagination of the public so much that thousands of
children from all over the country wrote to the NGO behind the show, the
Soul City Institute, asking to take part. Very quickly, the Ngo was able to
develop more than 8,500 Buddyz clubs for the physical and mental well-
being of children, with nearly 1,5 lakh students. The ability of story-based
ads and the media to create a major shift in societal norms, attitudes, and
principles is much more powerful than conventional advertisement and
marketing. There is a vast amount of evidence. Digital technologies and
social media have allowed brands to optimize their influence at negligible
costs.

Content Marketing Storytelling

The influence of narratives is neurologically dependent. Researchers from
Spain found that a lot of different brain centers are illuminated when people
are confronted with vibrant and captivating tales. For example, if a battle
scene is graphically depicted in a book, the brain activity, and vision centers
are lit up (even if you can't fight). If an aroma is represented in evocative
detail, the smell center illuminates. In other words, when viewed as a pure
fact, you have a more intense and immersive experience compared to a small
blip of the brain.
Socially speaking, stories have the power to set and reinforce behavioral
standards that are in line with what you want. When a narrative character in a
story follows a balanced diet or frequently exercises, it gives the impression
that this is what people do and should be embraced by the listener or
audience. This works because you endorse not only a commodity but also a
better quality of life, a quality that resonates with the consumer.
For example, the lives, struggles, and joys of young children are closely
chronicled. It caught the imagination of the public so much that thousands of
children from all over the country wrote to the NGO behind the show, the
Soul City Institute, asking to take part. Very quickly, the Ngo was able to
develop more than 8,500 Buddyz clubs for the physical and mental well-
being of children, with nearly 1,5 lakh students. The ability of story-based
ads and the media to create a major shift in societal norms, attitudes, and
principles is much more powerful than conventional advertisement and
marketing. There is a vast amount of evidence. Digital technologies and
social media have allowed brands to optimize their influence at negligible
costs. Much as To Kill A Mockingbird has brought on the national civil
rights talks, solid accounts have the power to change our society and live for
the better.

Content Marketing As Part Of An Integrated Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is just part of the overall integrated marketing plan of the
organization. Content marketing approach does include not only the message,
but also the context and what advertising and marketing activities are
involved, including:
✓ Social Media Marketing Strategy
 ✓ Visual Content Marketing
✓ Guest Blogging Strategy
✓ Long-form Stories
✓ Brand Storytelling
✓ Mobile Marketing
✓ Branded Content
✓ Quality Blog Content and Blog Posts
✓ Inbound Marketing including landing pages and email marketing
✓ Repurposing Content
✓ Long-Term Content Strategy

While content marketing strategies are just part of your overall business
strategy, they are often ignored as essential business functions. It is extremely
important to consider how particular marketing activities are incorporated,
but 70% of the marketers lack an incorporated marketing plan as part of their
digital marketing efforts.
Content marketing strategies continue with a clear view of the target
audience. Making sure all corporate communications share current and future
content that evokes an emotional bond through an exciting story is important
to create a consistent consumer experience through brand-based storytelling.
In tandem with an integrated marketing plan, these messages are compatible,
as well as potential buyers within the target demographic of the company
connect organically through best interactive marketing practices like search
engines and landings.

Elements Of Storytelling
Corporate storytelling is nothing but personal story sharing. Our society has
used stories to convey facts and teach valuable lessons. Stories draw and
catch the listener's interest. The strength of business storytelling narratives
generates advancement in all aspects of the organization. The stories are the
best of all conversations. A survey by Forrester Research found that 88
percent of managers and decision-makers do not force sales presentations
long in conversation.
The elements of a successful organizational narration approach include:
✓ The protagonist
✓ The challenge
✓ The solution
✓ The outcome
The actor is better represented as the potential customers or target market of
the product—your future customer positions the most powerful storytelling as
the hero of the compelling past of your company. Storytelling success stories
provide a convenient place to begin your marketing campaign for content.
Content ideas can also be created through visual marketing storytelling such
as testimonial videos, podcast interviews, or infographics.

A long story then explains the difficulty faced by your potential customers as
part of your content creation process. As it relates to the journey the customer
makes, this is the suffering the target market wants to solve during the phases
of exploration and research. If your piece is branded content, the blog post or
any visual storytelling will provide your content marketing strategy with a
solution. You may want to make use of a sales tool at the end of the buyer's
path, which places your direct offer as a solution. When branded content is
seen as a part of a larger digital marketing strategy, the solution is not a sales
tool on a landing page but instead leads to the easier middle-of - the-tunnel
bid, such as a branded ebook or a long-form content offer. The product
reflects the success of the performer, the future client, overcomes, and
succeeds. This can be presented to your target audience as a testimonial using
visual storytelling tools or a compelling story that helps to connect the story
to your potential customers. Not every component of this content
development process will cover all of your content marketing efforts. Long
storytelling focuses on the whole arc of tales, but the long-term content plan
will concentrate pieces on each stage of the journey of the protagonists.

Keep Your Story Authentic

Corporate storytelling does not sound polished or even readily defined as an
advertisement. The shared stories have to be based on experience. Potential
consumers expect more than functionality and benefits; they must understand
why the product or service has made a tangible and important difference.
Business marketing campaigns frequently neglect the value of telling the
experiences of their consumers and concentrate instead on features and data.
When we pursue our Hero, your client, the target audience will respond to the
human dimension conveyed by your brand personality in your content
marketing campaign. Impactful storytelling focuses on real people to build an
engaging narrative and emotional connection between your company and
your future customer. If your marketing strategy uses storytelling and tells
the story of your family, the outcome would be a unique positioning. The
distinctive features and advantages of your products and services are,
however, well-implemented storytelling strategies will differentiate your
positioning from the rivals and deliver a unique selling point. Loyal
customers respond to your past and proven brand values that build a buyer
group. Consider communicating the past and values of your family candidly
through blog posts, visual stories, long-form stories, and your social media
marketing strategy. Digital audiences exchange more immediate news, while
more structured publications like a press release or an annual report set the
tone for the brand values overall. When telling stories infuses a human
dimension, storytelling awakens empathy, and increases awareness of the
brand. An emotional connection with the customer of your brand results in
more interaction and conversion through your marketing, including high rates
of engagement on your email list and call for action on your landing page.
Simply saying "purchase this widget because it has more features and
advantages on the market and is the best price" does not elicit an emotional
response. However, sharing your family's mission background and why you
are in business doesn't encourage a selling call, but solidarity with the issue
your company solves for others. The company does not use promotional
tactics to persuade you to purchase the goods or services; rather, it connects
real people with your brand, share experience and leaves the choice to the
customer by sharing great stories. The consumers feel empowered not to
decide to feel guilty or manipulated by a sales pitch.

HOW TO MASTER BUSINESS STORYTELLING

Consider narration as the core of the marketing strategy for content. Using
the organization's current stories to create content ideas. A leading a
marketing strategy instead of features and advantages allows potential
consumers to recognize the nature of your company culture by having a
meaningful dialogue with your family business. Enable your customers to see
themselves as your hero with your brand.

The Psychological Superpowers Of Storytelling

And why this story love affair? Trust it or not, the brain is programmed to
process information by storytelling –in other words, to identify and assign
meaning to patterns of information. This is how you learn to connect facial
expressions with a certain individual or music note with a certain song.
Stories, too, are patterns that we can understand–and use them to make sense
of the world around us. We see ourselves in them, and we personalize the
stories we hear.

Emotion
In reality, when we hear a story, the personal connection we feel is not just
theoretical; it has fascinating neuroscience. Just look at what happens if your
brain hears facts versus a story. If I have sensible information (like the
characteristics and advantages of something I'm trying to sell you, for
example), two areas of the brain are activated: one that takes the information,
and one that processes it.
And that's it. And that's it. The subconscious works like an employer on a
mental register, acknowledge the evidence and cleanses them. But if I were to
tell you a story rather than just presenting data, many more sections of your
brain become involved. Interestingly, these are the same sections of the brain
that become active as we live our daily lives. So if I say something like "her
voice was like slim" or "he had leathery hands," when I tell you a story, your
brain areas will shine when you touch slats or leather.
Yeah, you read correctly: your brain can't tell the difference between hearing
and witnessing a story. We are deeply emotionally attached because of that
personal connection.

Action
And this feeling does more than just pull our heart–it can have a huge effect
on human actions. neuroeconomist Paul Zak revealed this in several
experiments that associated storytelling with generosity.
In the experiment, Zak asked two groups to give stranger money. Until
speaking, however, he showed a brief video for one party about a terminally
ill boy named Ben. He found that the group exposed to the video story had
more oxytocin levels in their brains–a neurochemical that made them more
likely to donate money (no matter how unrelated the donation and video
were).
Yes, Zak was able to predict who would do the most (thereby contributing
money) to people with a present emotional charge–and those who heard the
story were 80 percent more generous than those who didn't.

Value
Alright, maybe stories that evoke an emotional reaction or inspire action are
not entirely shocking. After all, we are sentimental people, as evidenced by
the fact that we are always teary at the puppy love advertisement in
Budweiser.
But what if I told you that, apart from emotion and action, stories can change
our perceived value?
This is the conclusion of the Significant Objects Project–an experiment in
literature and anthropology this addresses the question: Can a big story
impact the subjective meaning of an object? The team purchased meaningless
drinks from thrift shops and challenged some imaginative authors to concoct
their stories. We then posted on eBay the objects (including their stories) to
see if the fabricated tale changed the value of each object. The trinkets
initially bought for $128.74, were sold for a massive amount of $3,612.51–a
mark-up of 2.700 percent.
In other words, we are not only more likely to buy a Budweiser after looking
at the puppy ad, but we're also expected to pay more for it.

Memory
Pop Quiz: What's the Teddy Bear History? Owing to an influence you recall
(or at least, I hope you do)–who is best known for his research on human
memory. He read a collection of random words to patients in a single
experiment and asked them to recite them. None will do that. However, when
he allowed patients to look at the words of a novel-say, thinking that they
were walking down one street and passing by-their retention rates greatly
improved. This became known as the story memorization technique–used in
everything from Alzheimer's to university students preparing for exams.
 CREATE ENGAGING DATA-DRIVEN STORIES
The interest in data-driven stories is that. A new generation of journalists
discovers and tell data-driven stories that make access to large databases and
data analysis tools simple to use. SEO and content marketers are often
attracted to data-driven stories by proof that analysis and data-based posts
create more connections.
In this chapter, we explore the five main stories for storytelling with data, i.e.:
Trends. For example, how the ownership of smartphones increases or
decreases.
Tables of rank or league. Politicians, for example, get the most attention from
social media or which places have the highest crime rates.
Comparisons. How one organization performs in contrast to another, for
example.
Surprising or counterintuitive material. Data that contradicts or confirms
something that people think is true or just shocking.
Relationships. Correlations, for example, theoretically to cause and forecast.
Journalism drived the data "in order to examine and process large data sets to
construct a news tale," which is one of uncovering knowledge from the study
of large data sets to expose stories that can be buried in data. This allows
journalism-driven data to uncover hidden stories or bring new insights into
stories.
Data-driven journalism typically follows a method to collect data, interpret
data, analyze and view, and eventually say the story. Diagram visualizations
and images are also a central part of the storytelling. For example, The
Financial Times runs a column called "Chart telling a story," with the
assumption that you can find a single chart telling a story.
Narratives focused on core evidence,

Trends
Developments, as they rise or fall, form the central story of other
developments guided by data stories. The Financial Times is a prime example
of a platform that uses trend data to tell stories. Below are two recent
developments to tell stories about low global levels of interest and the
pressure of an aging population.
At interest rates, long-term bond yield patterns do not inspire those who want
higher rates. The chart explains a 30-year long-term change and how the
prices continue to drop as central banks try to increase the economy. What
happens when interest rates exceed zero is a fascinating problem. We now
have negative interest rates in Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. Possibly
everybody knows that the population is rising old. The accompanying FT
chart gives a summary of the possible economic effects of these reforms by
illustrating the number of people over 65 years as a proportion of the
workforce. Trend reports usually concentrate on how something rises or falls
over time. Yet even a flattening pattern can be a huge story. One story was
how Twitter does not increase its active users. The map and headline below
tell this story very clearly.
If you see a pattern, the next obvious question is, why does it rise or fall or
flatten on Twitter? The phenomenon is, therefore, not the entire story; it
contributes to more research areas.

Comparisons
Comparisons are a common data-driven narrative. For example, in
contrasting its success with Facebook, we may take a different approach to
Twitter's failure to increase its active users. This was a report taken from a
variety of publications.

Rank order or league tables

Another common concept suitable for data is rank order or league tables.
Below is an overview by Forbes of the most popular brands worldwide. We
have included several examples of content marketing from our BuzzSumo
information below. Pages with the most content marketing book shares
within 12 months and February 2016.

Relationships
Data relationships are a complicated environment, particularly if you want to
see if a factor has a particular effect on other factors or can predict another
factor. However, with the advancement in machine learning, it's an
environment where we can see many more stories powered by data. The
association between two data sets is a straightforward approach to
investigating relationships. It is important to note that association is not the
same as the cause, but areas for further study should be emphasized.
For example, we did a research piece with Moz in which we explored the
relationship between social shares and links. We used the Pearson correlation
coefficient and a calculation of the linear association between two variables
in a data set of 1 m posts. The results vary from 1 (total positivity) to 0
(where no association exists) to −1 (total negative). For our study, the overall
correlations were also zero; for example, the correlation between overall
behavior and the related domain links was just 0.021.
Our work suggests that for different reasons, people share and connect to
content. The results also indicate that analysis and results posts reach fairly
high connection rates, which is a major reason to write stories powered by
data.
The film Moneyball was one of the most famous examples of exploring data
relationships. In analyzing baseball data, it was found that certain surprising
variables are closely linked to the winning percentage of a team. One was
OPS (on-base plus slowdown). It sums up the percentage of the team on the
basis, the amount of time that a player gets on the base, and the total number
of bases when they come to the plate. The data showed an incredibly strong
association between the OPS and the win percentage. The OPS are the most
strongly correlated factor with winning rather than home running and beating
averages. Teams, therefore, started to search for players with the highest OPS
ratings.
You can further explore relationships by building predictive linear regression
models. I like the wine quality model, which uses variables like average
summer temperatures and precipitation rates.
There is a wider variety of methods to apply advanced techniques such as
machine learning. Machine learning uses machine learning algorithms and
predictions. Essentially, you create a model of data input example that
enables the algorithms to predict data. This is a growing area in which we see
far more development. Machine learning is something we research and want
to implement at BuzzSumo.
If you can discover unexpected relationships, you can begin to predict based
on the results. This can create a whole other interesting collection of content.
Nate Silver's research in predicting sports and election outcomes at
fivethirtyeight.com makes reading convincing. It is the product of his in-
depth study of a wide variety of available election results data.

Surprising or counter intuitive data

Many of the best stories from data analysis arise when data reveal unexpected
or even contra-intuitive knowledge. I liked the study that showed that five
glasses of champagne a day could help prevent the disease of Alzheimer's. I
wanted to look for unexpected US data as an example of this book. The data I
found most interesting personally was on incarceration. This analysis poses
the question of why the rates of incarceration rose so quickly after 1980. You
may need to do your research, but I have read papers that could be
responsible for the reform of jails and a new sentencing strategy for drug
crimes.

Data Driven Stories Are Hard Work

There is a misconception that using data is a quick and easy way of creating
stories. The Guardian reports that data powered stories contain 80%
suddenness, 10% brilliant idea, and 10% production. This reflects our own
experience.
The method includes processing a lot of data without knowing whether you
can find useful insights into a story. It takes a lot of time to compile, analyze,
and clean data, perform different analytical processes, investigate potential
consequences, and test hypotheses with additional datasets. We reviewed data
sets of millions of papers at BuzzSumo in search of insights, and we can
spend days and weeks without finding something useful or important. These
weeks aren't our brightest.

The Best Data Driven Stories Are Original

In our view, one of the great strengths of stories based on data is that they can
tell original tales. You can reveal patterns, similarities, or counter-intuitive
surprises, which make people look at a problem again. Original work does
not automatically mean that you need original knowledge. The data sets that
Peter Brand had access to were commonly available in the popular
Moneyball story; the study and analysis were unique. Today, thousands of
databases and a broader variety of tools are widely available to help analyze
the results. Tableau, R, Google Fusion Tables, and IBM Watson are included.
If you have access to an initial or special data set, it is obviously beneficial.
Our core business at BuzzSumo crawlers and collects very large data sets, but
most businesses do have access to unique data. For example, most businesses
have data that are important for their success and industry. It can include
sales info, business analysis, or just an overview of problems from your
support desk. Statistics that you may think are popular that contain
information that will benefit your audience.
DATA-DRIVEN STORY TELLING TIPS
Below are a few tips on writing stories based on my experience; it would be
awesome to have your ideas and reviews.

Start with a story idea

When you begin with the idea for a story, you can check for data that
supports your ideas or otherwise discourages your ideas. Focus on an
entertaining story for your audience.
For us, "why' how-to' posts get 50 percent more shares" would be a great
story. The evidence does not support this title, but it provides a clear
reference to the details we need and the story we want to say. There is a
danger of partiality in working in this way, and you need to consider whether
your data support your findings critically.

Check your facts

If you make a mistake or have incorrect details, you will be called up soon
when you publish. Data posts are also scrutinized on the internet to verify and
double-check your data and to help your story.

Focus on one or two key statistics from your research

You will have a wealth of knowledge, but highlight the main facts you can
recall. One indication of our own experience was "50% of the contents
receive eight shares or less."

Use visuals and tables

Inherently, data-driven stories are perfect for charts and graphs. Try to add
your story to a main graphic or picture you want to share and remember.
Trends and line charts in particular function as illustrated above.
In addition to maps, using tables to highlight data and to callouts to display
key data, so that they separate themselves from the remaining text. Numbers
can all too easily be lost in a text line.

Make it human
It is helpful if you can get the data down to the human level, and people can
respond to it in a way. Maybe it's a story that applies to you, a client, or a
colleague. Boring issues, which are not of concern for most people, are useful
for modeling human actions based on data sets. Their innovation was
focusing on issues of concern to men.
Make it insightful and helpful
In terms of your case, if you had your facts, would anyone have taken a
different decision? What else can they do that will boost their efficiency
based on your analysis? When you can, you have a powerful story, and your
observations will help people to decide better. You foresee their future–no
one can resist reading it.

5 STEPS TO CREATING PERSUASIVE CHARTS AND GRAPHS

The Illusion of Human Perception, The first step in producing accurate,
compelling data visualizations, consists in understanding the workings of
human perception.
The method of perceiving an object is more complicated than a digital video
camera conceptual model in which our eyes serve as a lens, our optic nerves
as cables and our brains as processors and disks, as opposed to what you
learned during high school.
In his book The Functional Art, Alberto Cairo investigates deeper the
mechanisms of human perception and discusses the essential role that illusion
plays in the way we see the world.
For example, when you look at the screen before you, it seems like you can
see it from an angle of 180 degrees, but in reality, you can only see the stuff
in a narrow two-degree field directly ahead of you with full accuracy.
So how are we not seeing a storm of things?
Thanks to fast eye movements known as saccades, our eyes quickly screen to
compose images from the accumulated information to create a convincing
illusion that our eyes behave like a 180-degree lens.
What we think we see looks like the picture on the left, but what our eyes do
is to give "tiny snapshots" of different points, like those at the right.

What has this to do with the design of information? It is helpful to learn that
our eyes do not concentrate on random scenes or pictures, but instead
prioritize. Firstly, they detect basic functions and concentrate on items like
moving objects, shiny patches, and odd shapes.

Preattentive Attributes
Such essential characteristics are also called precautionary features: before
we even learn them, our brain already recognizes such characteristics.
For starters, the first thing our brains sense when our eyes look at a scene
such as that above is the difference between background and foreground. You
can detect where the passage starts and finishes, where the trees start and
finish, etc. The higher the contrast between the items, the better the brain can
tell the difference.
Since our brains are built in this way, the first two images below but not the
last one show the bear quickly: Because the brain can distinguish color and
shape variations better than shape, the best data visualizations use hue
variations intentionally to draw attention to those important pieces of details.
To order to save time, the brain has learned to group related objects together
and recognize different objects quickly.
You can see that your brain has already recognized a trend in each of them
and found the contrasting dimension without thinking about it.
This ability to identify functions precautionarily is without question one of
the most critical resources that information designers may use to build
efficient and convincing data visualizations.
Now that we have looked into some science under human interpretation, let's
immerse ourselves in the actual process of telling stories with data:

Step 1: Resist The Urge to Immediately Choose a Chart

To most people, it seems almost easy to construct charts and graphs. You
pick the rows and columns you want to display, then click on one of Excel
and voila!–Your map is done.
But if you only want to present information and tell stories with data, the
process is a little more complicated.
Harvard Business Review's book Good Charts recommends that you resist
the temptation to pick a chart automatically by asking yourself these two
questions: are the knowledge data-based or conceptual?
Is the purpose of making or exploring a declarative statement?
Once you answer, in one of the four quadrants below, you can plot your
response to get a better picture of how you should visualize the image.
You probably need to streamline a concept using diagrams and other
examples if you have plotted your answer in the top-left quadrant. Metaphors,
such as mountains and pyramids, as well as cultural structures, such as
hierarchies and symbols such as arrows and icons, are also used in these
visualizations.
If you have drawn your answer in the lower left quadrant, then your goal will
be to explore a subject through conceptual pictures. It is most commonly used
for whiteboard sessions, where you want to organize a business process or
model a system without using concrete details, let's say.
The third group at the bottom right, on the other hand, need a more complex
representation than the others. In this case, you will most likely deal with
several large sets of data and work together with a data scientist to handle and
present the data in an interactive view to identifying patterns and trends.
Finally, common visualizations such as bar charts, line charts, and scatter
plots are included in the top right quadrant. The goal is to confirm or provide
meaning, so a simple narrative is to be established and a clear point to be
made through efficient design decisions.

Step 2: Consult For Context Before You Start

Another frequently ignored move is to allow your visualization time to think
about the meaning.
Do you know, for starters, who your audience is? The more you know the
expectations and concerns of your audience, the more likely you will be able
to address a topic in a way that suits them.
It's also important to ask yourself: what would you like to know or do with
your audience? Would you want them to make a certain choice? And start a
debate on a topic?
In which environment is this going to be used, too? Is it part of a live
presentation that gives you more power over how knowledge is presented? Or
a written document that dictates how quickly and how deeply the reader gets
into the information?
In answering the last question, all these answers are important: how can you
use your data to make this point? This leads us to the next thing.

Step 3: Define The Focus of The Graphic and The Story You Want To
Tell
If it's by writing, information visualization, or graphic design, the secret to
successful communication is to insert the message.
Cole NussbaumerKnaflic addresses in Storytelling With Data the need to
restart the message in a "so what" comment. That's easier than it sounds so
that you can articulate your story in three minutes or less to a friend or
colleague who isn't familiar with the details. So take this a step further and
condense it into a single word.
Step 4: Use Physical Markers, Pencils and Paper to Storyboard Your
Idea
Grab a few colored markers and paper and start drawing up your ideas before
you feel compelled to open PowerPoint or another desktop program.
For example, if you have expressed the need for "compare" or "contrast"
details, a comparison diagram is probably appropriate. And if you have to
show' part of a whole,' you would need a diagram.
One good strategy to ensure that you have the best visual medium is to seek
two different approaches to figuring out which communicates the one main
concept more effectively.
Every sketch will create more ideas so you can start prototyping until you
develop yourself with the same concept, so think about colors and actual
figures.

Step 5: Refine Your Chart ByDecluttering

Now you are in the final, yet still important phases of the visualization
process. Here's where you can use your knowledge of precautionary features
to build the visual hierarchy, which includes arranging items in a certain
order on a page.
When it comes to diagrams and graphs, color is also a useful tool to draw
attention to certain detail, as is the space occupied by and element.
 CONCLUSION
Data science education is well into its formative stages; it is developing into
an independent discipline and creating practitioners with distinct and
complementary skills relevant to the computer, information, and statistical
sciences practitioners. However, irrespective of their possible disciplinary
status, evidence indicates solid growth in data science education that will
shape future undergraduate students indelibly. Also, guided by the growing
interest of students and demand from the industry, data science education is
possibly a cornerstone of the undergraduate experience. The number of
students with major, minor, technical qualifications, or even courses in data
science will be rising as the importance of data skills is much greater. The
introduction of the general data science education requirement for all
undergraduates would allow future generations of students to understand the
basic data science that they must become responsible citizens. Another source
of talent is provided by continuing training such as data science boot camps,
career accelerators, summer schools, and incubators. This is the emerging
watershed of the data science education, which feeds many rivers of
generalists and social experts, enabling citizens to analyze, interpret, and
draw meaning from data with their fundamental skills.
Today, the country is in the formative phase of education in data science,
where educational institutions are designing their programs, each using
different approaches in terms of scope, breadth, and curriculum (e.g.,
business, information technology, engineering, math, social science or
statistics). It is too early to conclude consensus on any of the best practices in
education and data science. This is not, however, too early to consider
alternative types of these activities. It is also not too early to make
recommendations to help build a strategic vision and practice for the data
science education community. The conclusions and suggestions covered in
the four previous chapters of this study are summarized below.
A remarkable period in data processing history has been the advent of Big
Data, inexpensive materials equipment, and modern knowledge management
and analysis tools. The convergence of those patterns ensures that we have
the opportunity to examine unexpected data sets for the first time in history
rapidly and cost-effectively. They are neither abstract nor trivial. This is a
major leap forward and a real opportunity to make huge gains in efficiency,
production, income, and profitability. This is the era of big data, and these are
truly exciting times when professionals both in industry and technology are
working together and delivering on this pledge.

Do Not Go Yet; One Last Thing To Do

If you enjoyed this book or found it useful, I’d be very grateful if you’d post
a short review on Amazon. Your support really does make a difference, and I
read all the reviews personally so I can get your feedback and make this book
even better.
Thanks again for your support!