Data Story telling Flashcards
Story telling is a proven method of communication because
Stories provoke emotion and emotion leads to change
What is a narrative?
A blending of facts and emotions
Building a blockbuster story steps (Freytag Model):
The exposition or problem is the first stage
Rising action
The climax of a story
Falling action
Resolution or conclusion
This is where it introduces the problem that must be solved.
The exposition or problem
Many events of the story take place. Tension and suspense are built.
Rising action
This is when all the tension that has been built up during the rising action is released dramatically.
The main characters overcome obstacles
The climax of a story
Occurs after the climax.
Most of the events foreshadow the last section of the story
Falling action
Conflict is finally resolved
The resolution or conclusion
What is a non-technical audience?
Group that is not familiar with technology discussed.
How to present to a non-technical audience?
Avoid jargons, and offer more visuals
Best way to ensure that you will communicate effectively?
Know your subject matter
How to know your subject matter?
Study how experts in your field communicate
If you can teach your subject then you understand it
Break it down to the most basic elements
By taking the audience’s perspective, what should we keep in mind?
What does your audience want to know
What problems is your audience trying to solve
Even non-technical people may be briefed by technical experts daily
Avoid technical jargon
Who is the decision maker?
Conciseness is the key, what should we bare in mind during this?
A simpler, concise approach is effective
Technical details work best in footnotes
Good text messages are clear and concise
Highlight just a few main points
Limit yourself to three or four sentences per statement
Use clear examples
What are operational insights?
Deal with day to day operations
Require technical knowledge but limited accountability
What are strategic insights?
require non-technical knowledge but greater accountability
What is the exposition of a story?
It starts a story.
Sets the mood, introduces characters
“Why are we here”
Can be dramatic or low-key depending on the situation
Data story relevance to your audience is key
Problem statement three elements:
Problem
Implied Method
Problem scope
Specific words or phrases that help your audience think and feel in a memorable way
Keywords
What is inductive reasoning?
The process of making predictions based on evidence.
Inductive reasoning leads to a new theory.
Specific observations to broad generalizations
What is Deductive reasoning?
Seeks to test an existing theory.
broad generalizations to Specific observations
Gives a way to solve the conflict
Resolution
Previously unrecognized patterns discovered during data analysis
Actionable Insight
A prompt to encourage an immediate audience response
Call to action (CTA)
Small Incremental changes
Kaizen
Most commonly used visualization type
Charts
Certain chart types works best with certain data types
true
Visualization of numerical data divided into equal portions and presented as a circle
Pie Charts
Can be used to compare two very distinct categories against each other
Pie Charts
Disadvantage of pie charts
They do a poor job of comparing values with similar amounts
Most common type of charts.
Show counts and frequency by category
Bar Charts
When a pie chart is used, try a bar chart instead.
True
Bar charts require less effort from your audience
True
Best represent the relationship between two quantitative variables
Scatter plot
Plot the observations using an x-axis and y-axis
Scatter plot
Show if the relationship between two variables is positive, negative, or relatively neutral
Scatter plots
Works well with time series data
Compare and contrast performance over time
Line chart
Trends become easy to spot and analyze
Line chart
Similar to line charts but fill the area between the line and the x-axis
Area charts
Areas under a trend line are different colors for different categories
Area charts
Trust between the data storyteller and the audience is a key
True
Informing someone is merely reporting something in a clinical, passive manner
True
Proper communication means the audience has complete comprehension of the message
True
What is Dual coding?
Matches written, audible or visual cues in presentation or paper.
Leads to trust in your authority to tell the story.
Best practices to build and maintain credibility and integrity
Consistency and a reputation for integrity are important to practice
Consider having a subject matter experts speak about specific visuals.
Cite your information from credible sources.
What to avoid when building visuals?
Truncation without causation (avoid truncated y-axis)
What is data density?
The ratio of the information displayed to how much space it occupies
Ideal data density in a visualization is around 50%-60%
True
What does creating a story board mean?
Selecting an order so that the charts mutually support each other, represent the narrative, and have an emotional impact.
Questions to ask yourself while creating the storyboard?
Ask yourself how the visuals made you feel
Ask yourself if you are better informed after looking at the visuals
Ask yourself what you want your audience to think and feel
Storyboard construction:
Sort visuals in terms of beginning, middle, and end
There’s one challenge and main message
Feel free to explore different timelines
Final result should be a clear, cohesive story, and message
