Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

In this way, OXO kitchen gadgets afford correct use, without most users recognizing that this is due to thoughtful design (Figure 5.1

We’ll discuss three specific lessons to this end: (1) highlight the important stuff, (2) eliminate distractions, and (3) create a clear hierarchy of information.

“You know you’ve achieved perfection, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing to take away”

For our audience, by highlighting the important stuff, eliminating distractions, and establishing a visual hierarchy, the data visualizations we create afford understanding.

The concept of accessibility says that designs should be usable by people of diverse abilities.

As the designer, the onus is on you to make your graph accessible.

Good design takes planning and thought. Above all else, good design takes into account the needs of the user. This is another reminder to keep your user—your audience—top-of-mind when designing your communications with data.

Translation for data visualization: the more complicated it looks, the more time your audience perceives it will take to understand and the less likely they are to spend time to understand it.

Text is your friend Thoughtful use of text helps ensure that your data visualization is accessible. Text plays a number of roles in communicating with data: use it to label, introduce, explain, reinforce, highlight, recommend, and tell a story.

Be smart with color. The use of color should always be an intentional decision; use color sparingly and strategically to highlight the important parts of your visual. Pay attention to alignment. Organize elements on the page to create clean

Thoughtful use of color, alignment, and white space are components of the design that you don’t even notice when they are done well.

Offer your audience visual affordances as cues for how to interact with your communication: highlight the important stuff, eliminate distractions, and create a visual hierarchy of information. Make your designs accessible by not overcomplicating and by leveraging text to label and explain.

One decision point when graphing data is whether to preserve the axis, label the data points (or some data points) directly, or both. In

He proposed a three-act structure for plays. This concept has been refined over time and is commonly referred to as the setup, conflict, and resolution.

you’ve only done so on an intellectual basis. That’s not good enough, because people are not inspired to act by reason alone” (Fryer, 2003).

What exactly is story? At a fundamental level, a story expresses how and why life changes.

McKee describes this as “subjective expectation meets cruel reality.”

Keep it simple. Edit ruthlessly. Be authentic.

Don’t communicate for yourself—communicate for your audience. The story is not for you; the story is for them.

Story is what ties together information, giving our presentation or communication a framework for our audience to follow.

getting everyone on common ground so the story can proceed.

to consider and address when it comes to setting up the story: The setting: When and where does the story take place? The main character: Who is driving the action? (This should be framed in terms of your audience!) The imbalance: Why is it necessary, what has changed? The balance: What do you want to see happen? The solution:

Using PowerPoint to tell stories Cliff Atkinson uses PowerPoint to tell stories, leveraging the basic architecture of the three-act structure. His book, Beyond Bullet Points, introduces a story template and offers practical advice using PowerPoint to help users create stories with their presentations. More on this and related resources can be found at beyondbulletpoints.com