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August 2, 2023
Who is your audience? What do you need them to know or do?
Picture a blank page or a blank screen: every single element you add to that page or screen takes up cognitive load on the part of your audience.
Identifying and
eliminating clutter is the focus of this chapter.
we first want to think about what it is we want our audience to be able to do with the data (function) and create a visualization (form) that
will allow for this with ease.
A story has a clear beginning, middle, and end;
We cover strategies for effective storytelling, including the power of repetition, narrative flow, considerations with spoken and written narratives, and various tactics to ensure that our story comes across clearly in our communications.
Exploratory analysis is what you do to understand the data and figure out what might be noteworthy or interesting to highlight to others.
When we’re at the point of communicating our analysis to our audience, we really want to be in the explanatory space,
meaning you have a specific thing you want to explain, a
(taking the time to turn the data into information that can be consumed by an audience: the two pearls).
To whom are you communicating?
What do you want your audience to know or do?
How can you use data to help make your point?
Avoid general audiences,
Sometimes this means creating different communications for different audiences.
Identifying the decision maker is one way of narrowing your audience.
It’s also helpful to think about the relationship that you have with your audience and how you expect that they will perceive you.
Do they already trust you as an expert, or do you need to work to establish credibility?
What do you need your audience to know or do?
If you are the one analyzing and communicating the data, you likely know it best—
In general, those communicating with data need to take a more confident stance when it comes to making specific observations and recommendations based on their analysis.
if you ask for action, your
audience has to make a decision whether to comply or not.
Your slides can remind you of the next topic, but shouldn’t act as your speaking notes.
What tone do you want your communication to set?
Are you celebrating a success? Trying to light a fire to drive action?
What data is available that will help make my point?
You might assume that showing only the data that backs up your point and ignoring the rest will make for a stronger case. I do not recommend this.
This means you may not have all of the context and might need to consult with the requester to fully understand the situation.
if you had only three minutes to tell your audience what they need to know, what would you say?
She says the Big Idea has three components: It must articulate your unique point of view; It must convey what’s at stake; and It must be a complete sentence.
The storyboard establishes a structure for your communication. It is a visual outline of the content you plan to create.
When you have just a number or two that you want to communicate: use the numbers directly.
Using a table in a live presentation is rarely a good idea. As your audience reads it, you lose their ears and attention to make your point verbally.
The data should be what stands out, not the borders.
While tables interact with our verbal system, graphs interact with our visual system, which is faster at processing information.
but in general the bars should be wider than the white space between the bars.
For example, if your categories are age groups—0–10 years old, 11–20 years old, and so on—keep the categories in numerical order. If, however, there isn’t a natural ordering in your categories that makes sense to leverage, think about what ordering of your data will make the most sense. Being thoughtful here can mean providing a construct for your audience, easing the interpretation process.
Who is your audience? What do you need them to know or do?
