Module 1.
1 - Fundamentals of Data Storytelling
- Principles of Good Data Storytelling
● Narrative
● Visuals
- Purpose is to reduce time to insights
- Increase accuracy of insights
- Improve engagement
● Data
- Best practices
● Remove clutter
● Use color purposefully & sparingly
● Add the right visual elements to communicate insights
● Use a ‘storytelling chart title’ instead of just naming the chart as is
- Example 1: Bad Example vs Good Example
● Months are horizontal -> Not good, audience need to tilt head
● Usage of bar chart does not really highlight the intended message
● Title is merely descriptive, does not tell the story
● Decimal points on y-axis is redundant and adds unnecessary clutter
- Types of Data
● Numerical
(1) Discrete
- Whole number
- E.g. Number of children, number of pencils
(2) Continuous
- Data that can take decimal points
- E.g. Height, Weight
● Categorical
(1) Nominal
- E.g. Gender, blood type, country
(2) Ordinal
- Categorical data that is ordered
- E.g. Ranks in a company
- Bar Chart / Histograms
● Histogram v Bar Chart
- Histogram is a subset of bar chart
- Histogram is used to show a range of numeric values & show data summary
- Bar chart is used to display categorical data & show comparisons between categories
Histogram
- Histogram gives you a sense
of the distribution of the data
- Histogram also has a
summary effect cause you’re
effectively reducing number of
data points when you bin it
- General idea is that you want
to control the histogram’s bin
size to show the
story/trend/pattern you might
want to highlight
Bar Chart
- Best Practices
● No vertical/slanted texts on the axis labels
● Font-size on chart texts should be sized reasonably
● Sort/order the bars if possible
● Try to label directly on the bar chart instead using a legend
● Remove/lighten unnecessary grids/borders
● Use ‘Others’ to consolidate categories if there are too many
Other Forms of Bar Chart - Column Chart (Two types)
- Note the advantages/disadvantages between these two column bar charts
● Clustered - You can do a category to category comparison across months
● Stacked - You can see the proportion between categories within a month
- Line Chart
● Useful for examination of data over a period of time; usually you put time on the x-axis
● You can see the peaks/dips of the data over a time period -> Some questions:
- What is happening?
- Why is this happening?
- Is this seasonal?
● Best Practices
(1) Don’t use line chart for comparison over categorical data; use it to illustrate trends
(2) Avoid spaghetti graph -> Too many lines on a single chart
- One of the ways to avoid spaghetti graphs is to
use ‘contrast’; highlight what is important and dim
those that are not so important
(3) Avoid using legend; directly label the lines
(4) Remove grid lines and y-axis if possible
- Pie Chart
● Pie Chart is bad -> Hard to tell relative size of bars
- Instructor: Where possible, PLEASE DO NOT USE A PIE CHART
● Best Practices
(1) Do not use a 3D pie chart
(2) Do not use legend; direct label the slices
(3) Start at 12 o’clock, then go clockwise direction
(4) Avoid too many segments
(5) Use shades of same color to represent proportion
● Alternatives to Pie Chart
- Use a bar to indicate proportion
- Combo Charts: Dual Axis Chart
- Waterfall Chart
● Good to show changes from a starting point to ending point
● Color used well to illustrate increase/decrease
- Scatter Plot
Bubble Plots - Additional dimension to Scatter Plot
- Symmetry Charts
- Suggestions on how to Select a Chart
Module 1.2 - Principles of Data Visualization
- Pre-attentive Attributes
● Refers to things that your brain subconsciously process first when you look at something visually; I.e. Things that you
see and process first visually
● Make use of this concept to allow your audience to quickly communicate information visually
- Human brain will tend to see generalize patterns in things
and gloss over odd stuff/details
- Use contrast/dimming/colors to bring out the data story
- See right for textual highlights
- Usage of colors
● In general, avoid using colors to beautify a chart
● Using colors with established conventions/connotations
- E.g. Red = Bad, Green = Good
● Using colors to create visual hierarchies
- Visual Variables
● Depending on the type of variable that you have, there is hierarchy in how accurate it can be visually depending on
the shape/dimension
- Gestalt Principles
● Spatial arrangement can affect perception
● Idea - You wanna subtract useless things as far as possible. Beauty is simplicity. Less things to process
● Color of foreground/background can direct the audience to different messages/stories
● Closure
● Continuity
● Symmetry
● Similarity
- Graphical Integrity
● Truncated axis can make a trend appear more/less steep
● Chart on the right make the increase seem steeper than it really is because y-axis scale starts at 94m
● If you really need to truncate the axis, you can declare or make it obvious to the audience
- Juxtaposition between (A) Just
showing data (B) Storytelling with Data
● Concept of annotating the chart with relevant information to tell a story
Module 2.1 - Tableau Workshop
Module 3.1 - Data Storytelling Narratives
- Narrative Structure Framework:
(1) SPSN
● Storytelling dimension to this -> Compare this to Minto pyramid
● Example:
(2) Minto Pyramid
● Generally used by consultants
● Generally preferred by audience who are more ‘objective’
● Try to keep number of points to at most 3; ‘Human minds have limited capacity’
●
● Example
(3) GQM - Goal Question Metric
● Goal: Defined for specific purpose, w focus on deriving meaningful outcomes for business
- E.g. Improve model performance
● Question: Set of questions used to assess goal achievements
● Metric: Set of metrics used to measure the question in a measurable manner
● Usually used when you wanna cover different levels of organization
- Like goal usually is at the organizational level
- Questions are cascaded down to department level
- Metrics at cascaded to day to day/working level
- Narrative Best Practices
● Always know your audience
- Think about if they prefer storytelling or if he prefers to go point by point
● Clear central message
- When you craft the narrative, you need to have an idea what is the point you’re driving at
- Lecturer: Don’t get lost in the nitty gritty/technical details. Business people will ask so what?
● Setting
- Good well established setting creates intended mood + provide the backdrop & environment for your narrative
● Clear Structure
- Structure should be clear and logical
● Narrow Scope
- Narrow the scope. Don’t include every minor detail. Try to focus only on the important points so that the central
message doesn’t get diluted
- Presentation Style Considerations
● Resources
● Know your Audience
- Lecturer: Sometimes I do presentations, I will check the audience’s linkedin profile. If the audience has an
engineering background, I will use engineering analogies/terms. If audience is not there voluntarily, you may have to
cater for more activities to keep the audience engaged
● Considerations as a Speaker
- Data Storytelling & Verbal Communication
● Institutional Talk
- Audience in institution tend to orient to specific goals that are related to their institutional identities
- Their perception of their own ability to contribute is shaped by their institutional identity
● Figurative Language/Metaphors
- Usage of metaphors/idiomatic language to capture audience’s attention
- Helps audience understand something novel through relation w something that is well-understood
- Reflective of audience’s constructed reality as systems/goals/values we have reflect the metaphors we use daily +
unconsciously deploy
● Pacing
- Vary your speed to emphasize/provide clarity to different parts of your message
- Lecturer: Also consider how long your audience needs to digest your info when determining pacing
- Data Storytelling & Non-verbal Communication
● Body Posture - Best Practices
● Facial Expressions
- Lecturer: Show the appropriate facial expressions for the topic you are presenting
● Hand Gesture
- Lecturer: Avoid using too much hand gesture and be mindful of the context you are using it in
- Data storytelling - Presentation Style
● Lecturer: Choose your presentation style based on what you intend to achieve
- Data Storytelling - Infographics
● Best Practices
