Crafting a Compelling Data Story

Webinar Takeaways

What is data storytelling? Some answers from around the web:

“The concept of building a compelling narrative based on complex data and analytics that help tell your story and influence and inform a particular audience.” 

“The ability to effectively communicate insights from a dataset using narrative.”

“The process of using data to create a narrative that helps audiences understand complex information and make decisions. It’s a combination of data analysis, visualization, and storytelling techniques to convey insights and trends in a way that’s engaging and meaningful.” 

A data story:

• focuses on narrative.
• is conveyed as meaningful and relevant to the topic at hand.
• contains a visual element.  
• focuses on a purpose (e.g. influencing and informing a particular audience).
• describes elements of data.

Why tell data stories?

We tell data stories to …

• inform a decision.
• persuade an audience.
• simplify a complex topic.
• educate about an important topic.
• and more!

Where to start? The data! 

• Start gathering data: ask a colleague, do a general search, ask ChatGPT.
  • Could be microdata or aggregated data.
• Assess the data quality and fit.
  • How relevant is it to your question?
  • How recent is it?
  • Who is or isn’t represented? Are there any data gaps?
• Clean and analyze as needed.
• Take notes and look for insights and takeaways as you go..

Narrative

• Using your available data, draft 3–5 points or insights.
  • Note: the data supports the point; it’s not the point itself.
• Arrange the points in a logical structure, starting with context.
• Tailor the key points to your audience and purpose (think about language, familiarity with topic, etc)
• Determine needed context for your intended audience to understand the story.

Tips:

• Begin at the end: where do you want the audience to be at the end of the presentation? What is your “so what?”
• Focus on use to make sure your data story achieves its purpose and is truly a usable story.

Visuals

• Main points have corresponding visual elements
• Lots of nuance in choosing visuals
• Ask: how well does your visual convey the data?
• Visuals can be
  • Static and interactive
  • Basic graphs
  • Not-so-basic graphs
  • Infographics
  • Tables

How do you choose?

• What do you want to show? A fun tool is The Data Visualisation Catalogue. It can help you decide what kind of visual you want to use, e.g. do you want to make comparisons? Show proportions? Relationships? Hierarchy?
• Choose a visualization option that truly helps you show the point you’re trying to make.
• Create a storyboard: good planning tool. Can get feedback from others before going on to generate the visual.

Bring it all together!

• Minnesota Compass provides lots of cool data and has examples of data stories.
• End with considerations and actionable steps.

Presenting Your Data Story

What’s the most effective format?

• PowerPoint presentations
• Fact sheets
• One-pagers
• News articles
• Interactive pieces (e.g. ARC GIS)
• Even podcasts!