Storytelling in layman’s definition is characterized by writers ability to help his or her audience to actually visualize the content being written or the case of movies, showcased. Our human instincts genetically make us wired to share information through storytelling to give vivid connotation to the subject matter. It is not just about collecting and analyzing data, we must tell what story the data is telling using visualization. From first principles, we understand that storytelling is the fabric of all cultures. This is because it becomes the main form of communication where custodians of a particular culture give information to the next generation.
For us to give a grassroot understanding of how data visualization tools mingle with the prospect of data storytelling, we first turn to our local environments to understand certain heroic characters, for example, the Avengers, the characters becomes our data visualization tool and marvel as storytelling. In understanding the subject matter there are 3 key components that make every data easy to tell stories out of it. But before we talk about the components let’s have a look at data visualization and data storytelling.
DATA VISUALISATION AND DATA STORYTELLING
It is true anything you can see is very easy to interpret but data visualization does not tell the full story of the analysis, it only explains the ‘what questions’ of the analysis while data storytelling answers the why questions of the analysis. Although data visualization gets connected to all visualizations tools such as infographics, dashboards and data presentation, the practice of data storytelling goes beyond just presenting graphics but putting bit by bit, the information gathered to give a wholistic idea to your audience for them to be on the same page with the kind of understanding you have with your analysis. Data storytelling aids the transformation of data into actionable insights. Let’s give vivid understanding to the above explanation.
DASHBOARD FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS
The above data though very easy to understand will still need a story to be told to help our audience understand data visualization tools used. In a nutshell, we understand in terms of sessions Africa has low sessions compared to the rest of the continent. Also the aggregate page per session for females and males depicts the bounce rate recorded respectively.From this analogy we understand it’s not just enough to represent data with visualization tools but also to tell the story for your audience to understand your dashboard.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD DATA STORY
We discussed the 3 components that make a good data story earlier in the article, we are now going to go into details. The components include Data, narrative and visuals. Every good data story has an iota of these three blue prints in them.
DATA
Data serves as the foundation for creating a good data story. We are not talking about any data but accurate data from all the sources in order to undertake better data analysis. Instropecting the components in a hierarchical order we see the first as data. It gives you the information to carry on in telling your story. Teasing insights out of the data to understand which parts of the data is saying something from the part that is supporting is the key here.
VISUALIZATION
In data storytelling we enlighten our audience with visualization tools in the form of pictures and graphs to dissipate any first impressions of ambiguous information on the part of our audience. Simply put, visualization is a representation of information in the form of graphs and charts to aid the understanding of your audience. Visualization gives your audience the first room to understand the story that is about to be told. Our analogy used to interpret data visualization and data storytelling gives a better overview of the importance of visualization tools to make a good data story.
BUILDING A GOOD NARRATIVE
As you tell your story, it is always expedient to support your findings and insights with the data presented. A good narrative brings your audience on the same page of your understanding. A good narrative and context is the catalyst for a good data story. The third eye in digital analysis is a tool in bridging the gap between having visuals and data storytelling.