Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

Book description

Don't simply show your data—tell a story with it!

Storytelling with Data teaches you the fundamentals of data visualization and how to communicate effectively with data. You'll discover the power of storytelling and the way to make data a pivotal point in your story. The lessons in this illuminative text are grounded in theory, but made accessible through numerous real-world examples—ready for immediate application to your next graph or presentation.

Storytelling is not an inherent skill, especially when it comes to data visualization, and the tools at our disposal don't make it any easier. This book demonstrates how to go beyond conventional tools to reach the root of your data, and how to use your data to create an engaging, informative, compelling story. Specifically, you'll learn how to:

  • Understand the importance of context and audience

  • Determine the appropriate type of graph for your situation

  • Recognize and eliminate the clutter clouding your information

  • Direct your audience's attention to the most important parts of your data

  • Think like a designer and utilize concepts of design in data visualization

  • Leverage the power of storytelling to help your message resonate with your audience

  • Together, the lessons in this book will help you turn your data into high impact visual stories that stick with your audience. Rid your world of ineffective graphs, one exploding 3D pie chart at a time. There is a story in your data—Storytelling with Data will give you the skills and power to tell it!

    Table of contents

    1. Foreword
      1. Note
    2. Acknowledgments
    3. About the Author
    4. Introduction
      1. Bad graphs are everywhere
      2. We aren’t naturally good at storytelling with data
      3. Who this book is written for
      4. How I learned to tell stories with data
      5. How you’ll learn to tell stories with data: 6 lessons
      6. Illustrative examples span many industries
      7. Lessons are not tool specific
      8. How this book is organized
    5. Chapter 1 the importance of context
      1. Exploratory vs. explanatory analysis
      2. Who, what, and how
      3. Who
      4. What
      5. How
      6. Who, what, and how: illustrated by example
      7. Consulting for context: questions to ask
      8. The 3-minute story & Big Idea
      9. Storyboarding
      10. In closing
    6. Chapter 2 choosing an effective visual
      1. Simple text
      2. Tables
      3. Graphs
      4. Points
      5. Lines
      6. Bars
      7. Area
      8. Other types of graphs
      9. To be avoided
      10. In closing
    7. Chapter 3 clutter is your enemy!
      1. Cognitive load
      2. Clutter
      3. Gestalt principles of visual perception
      4. Lack of visual order
      5. Non-strategic use of contrast
      6. Decluttering: step-by-step
      7. In closing
    8. Chapter 4 focus your audience’s attention
      1.  
      2. You see with your brain
      3. A brief lesson on memory
      4. Preattentive attributes signal where to look
      5. Size
      6. Color
      7. Position on page
      8. In closing
    9. Chapter 5 think like a designer
      1. Affordances
      2. Accessibility
      3. Aesthetics
      4. Acceptance
      5. In closing
    10. Chapter 6 dissecting model visuals
      1. Model visual #1: line graph
      2. Model visual #2: annotated line graph with forecast
      3. Model visual #3: 100% stacked bars
      4. Model visual #4: leveraging positive and negative stacked bars
      5. Model visual #5: horizontal stacked bars
      6. In closing
    11. Chapter 7 lessons in storytelling
      1. The magic of story
      2. Constructing the story
      3. The narrative structure
      4. The power of repetition
      5. Tactics to help ensure that your story is clear
      6. In closing
    12. Chapter 8 pulling it all together
      1. Lesson 1: understand the context
      2. Lesson 2: choose an appropriate display
      3. Lesson 3: eliminate clutter
      4. Lesson 4: draw attention where you want your audience to focus
      5. Lesson 5: think like a designer
      6. Lesson 6: tell a story
      7. In closing
    13. Chapter 9 case studies
      1. CASE STUDY 1: Color considerations with a dark background
      2. CASE STUDY 2: Leveraging animation in the visuals you present
      3. CASE STUDY 3: Logic in order
      4. CASE STUDY 4: Strategies for avoiding the spaghetti graph
      5. CASE STUDY 5: Alternatives to pies
      6. In closing
    14. Chapter 10 final thoughts
      1. Where to go from here
      2. Building storytelling with data competency in your team or organization
      3. Recap: a quick look at all we’ve learned
      4. In closing
    15. Bibliography
    16. Index
    17. EULA

    Product information

    • Title: Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals
    • Author(s): Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
    • Release date: November 2015
    • Publisher(s): Wiley
    • ISBN: 9781119002253