Catalogue number: 892000062021005
Release date: May 3, 2021 Updated: December 13, 2021
By the end of this video, you should have a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of using data to tell a story. We will go over some the principle components of storytelling including the data, the narrative and visualization, and discuss how they can be used to construct concise, informative and interesting messages your audience can trust. And then, you will learn the importance of a well-planned data story, which includes learning who your audience will be, what they should know and how to best deliver that information.
- Data journey step
- Tell the story
- Data competency
-
- Data interpretation
- Data visualisation
- Storytelling
- Audience
- Basic
- Suggested prerequisites
- N/A
- Length
- 12:35
- Cost
- Free
Watch the video
Telling the data story: How to create stories that matter - Transcript
Telling the data story: How to create stories that matter - Transcript
(The Statistics Canada symbol and Canada wordmark appear on screen with the title: "Telling the Data Story: How to create stories that matter")
Telling the Data Story: How to create stories that matter
Welcome to telling the story. This video is meant to help learners understand how to tell interesting and informative stories with data.
Learning goals
By the end of this video, you should have a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of using data to tell a story. We will go over some of the principal components of storytelling including the data, the narrative and visualization, and discuss how they can be used to construct concise, informative and interesting messages your audience can trust. And then, you will learn the importance of a well planned data story, which includes learning who your audience will be, what they should know and how to best deliver that information.
Steps of a data journey
(Text on screen: Supported by a foundation of stewardship, metadata, standards and quality)
(Diagram of the Steps of the data journey: Step 1 - define, find, gather; Step 2 - explore, clean, describe; Step 3 - analyze, model; Step 4 - tell the story. The data journey is supported by a foundation of stewardship, metadata, standards and quality.)
This diagram is a visual representation of the data journey, from collecting the data to exploring, cleaning, describing and understanding the data, to analyzing the data, and lastly, to communicating with others the story the data tell.
Step 4: Tell the story
(Diagram of the Steps of the data journey with an emphasis on Step 4 - Tell the story)
This video will focus primarily on that final step of the data journey: telling the story. Being a good storyteller means being able to present information without inserting your opinions. It is important to keep things simple, which is done by determining what's important and what's not. Meaning, effective data storytellers also need to be ruthless editors and try to find signals in the noise.
What is a data story?
What is a data story? One way to describe data storytelling is the ability to convey data not just in numbers or charts, but as a narrative that humans can comprehend. A data story is made up of three principal components - the data, the narrative and visualizations, which all work together to create a spoken or written account of the data that meets the information needs of your audience. The goal of a data story is to provide context to help explain the importance of the data and help communicate any key messages you are trying to relay through your data story. Powerful data storytellers are ones that know how to effectively reduce their findings down to a core set that gets the point across in the most direct and succinct manner.
Why tell a data story?
But why tell a story? Why not just show people numbers in a spreadsheet? Well, quite frankly it's because stories are easier to remember. People relate to stories. And, truth be told, data stories are for the audience, not the author. Ever since humans first sat around a campfire, stories have been told to: Inform, to tell, update, provide facts; Persuade to sell, convince and recommend; Entertained to humor or amuse and touch our emotions. Overall when we want to tell a story, we don't just want people to understand the data and/or information we are discussing. Using stories helps your main ideas stick.
Components of a data story
Earlier, we told you a data, story is spoken or written account of the data made up of a narrative and accompanied by visualizations. Here, we will break down exactly what we mean when we use the terms data, narrative and visualizations. Data are Statistics and information included in your data story to support your key message. The narrative is built around the data and includes other information used to tell the data story. It also provides context to help explain the importance of the data and the key messages you are telling through to your data story. And finally, visualizations are the tables, graphs, charts, maps, pictographs and other data visualizations you use in telling your data story. If done correctly, visualizations help your key messages "pop".
More about the data
Before deciding which statistics and information to include in your data story, you must first confirm that the data are of adequate quality and value to be used for your purposes. Identifying data that meet the necessary criteria to be in your data story can be a ruthless affair. You'll likely have to conduct lots of analysis and now is the time to highlight and properly source your key findings.
More about the narrative
More about the narrative. A strong narrative is built on a strong structure. And what do we mean by structure? Well, if a narrative is used to tell a story, then it must, like all good stories, contain a beginning, a middle and an end or, what we will refer to here as the what, the so what and the now what. The what introduces a topic and explains the context. What are the facts? What does the audience need to know? The so what explains the data. What are the facts? Why are they important? And the now what calls readers to action. It should explain which conclusions can be drawn and what are the next steps.
More about visualizations
There are many different ways of presenting data visually, such as graphs, charts, maps, tables, pictographs, infographics and dashboards. For more detailed information on what data visualizations are and how to use them, check out our video titled "Data Visualization: an Introduction" also available in this series.
More about visualizations
But for now, our intention is to familiarize you with the final necessary component of an effective data story. Once you have chosen which data to include in your story and build your narrative around it, it's time to think about how to best present it to your audience. First, a good data visualization must be clear and quickly interpretable. Verifying this includes running tests for accessibility purposes. Remember, visualizations are not just there to look interesting, they are designed to aid readers' interpretation of your data story and help guide them. This means using visual properties the human brain processes immediately and without our conscious action and includes attributes like color, size and shape. We also want to make sure annotations are used to direct the audiences' attention and highlight key messages and all sourced materials are referenced. To avoid ineffective visualizations, you should ensure all unnecessary clutter has been removed and that it is not in any way distort key messages or mislead the reader.
Planning your data story
(Diagram of the key steps to keep in mind when planning a data story: 1) Who is the audience for the data story? 2) What is the goal of the data story? 3) What format will best fit the audience and achieve the goal?)
So far, we have examined the fundamentals of using data to tell a story, which include principal components of storytelling including the data, the narrative and visualization. Then, we discuss the part each one plays in constructing concise, informative and interesting messages. Next, we went through what it means to create a sticky story your audience can trust. So, now that we have all the pieces we need to create an effective data story, it's time to make a plan. Planning your data story, like planning a vacation, is when you know where you are now and you can see where you want to be at the end, but you haven't quite figured out exactly how you will get there. The three steps for planning your data story are as follows. First, who is the audience for the data story? Second, what is the goal of the data story? And third, what format will best achieve this goal?
Step 1: Who is your audience?
(Text on screen: General public? Senior Management? Academics? Colleagues? Policy makers? Media?)
Step one in planning your data story is knowing your audience. There are many different audiences and many different variables that could affect how we present our ideas. For example, when it comes to the general public, the level of engagement and understanding regarding any specific topic will most likely be very different than that of a senior government official. Each audience has a unique and specific expectation for how messages are presented. Other potential audiences include members of the academic community, who can handle very detailed and technical information. When communicating with colleagues and peers, the tone and style might be more casual. With makers of official policy, the opposite might be true, and the tone is very serious and professional. And with the media, you have many different types of audience.
Different audiences... different information
The types of audiences listed here demonstrate a range of comprehensions. Meaning the depth and detail of your story should be adjusted accordingly based on your audience's knowledge, interest and information needs. Novice means this is their first exposure to the subject. Here, we make no assumptions of prior knowledge, but it does not mean we oversimplify the message. A generalist is aware of the topic, but is looking more for an overview to help understand major themes rather than lower level details. A managerial audience requires something more in-depth and actionable. The have an understanding of the intricacies and interrelationships of the subject matter. Expert audiences want you to explore and discover new areas of the topic. They don't need a lot of background or high level details. And finally, there are decision-makers or executives, to whom time is the most important element. Keep it simple and be direct.
Know your audience
Another way to think about knowing your audience is by placing close attention to them and trying to understand different perspectives when planning your data story. Ask yourself, why is this important to this audience? Why does this matter to them? Why should they care? For example, if you are speaking to a novice, you might want to use common words and tell them a story that relays information they can immediately implement. Technical wording and expressions are more likely to be appreciated by managers or experts in the field, and their story might be used for briefing their own team or upwards to senior management. Inversely, if your story is a call to action for decision makers in a particular field, avoid any unnecessary detail and keep it need to know only. No matter who your audience is, use language that is understandable and relatable to them.
Step 2: What is the goal of the data story?
Step 2 in your data story is knowing your goal or purpose. There can be many goals to a story. One goal might be to simply to inform your audience about your data findings and where they fit into our current understanding of the topic. An example of this is weather or traffic report. Short and sweet. Another goal of a data story is to persuade. Your data story may be used to persuade a client to purchase your product or service, or to persuade your manager to follow your recommendations on a new sales strategy for the new fiscal year. The goal of your data story might even be to entertain. Entire businesses succeed or fail based on their ability to entertain their audience, such as magazines, blogs or websites. Of course, your data story could have multiple goals.
Step 3: What format will best achieve the goal?
Step 3 in planning your data story is to decide what format you will use. The format you choose will affect further decisions on the elements to use to tell your data story and the amount of time and space you have to tell it. Your audience can also affect the format you choose. For example, you are not likely to create an infographic to update your manager or project team on the progress of an ongoing research project. Instead, you might choose to provide a briefing report that can easily be altered and updated from week to week. Some briefing reports or publications may require a very specific format, but you may have more leeway in report to your team. They may even prefer an oral presentation. Whereas you may want to use more engaging visuals such as dashboards to engage an external audience such as new customers or new readers for your website.
Same information, different formats
(Two images representing information about walkable neighborhood and physical activity. Image on the right represent the front page of an academic paper. Image on the right represents an infographic summarizing academic paper.)
Here we have an example of how the same data can take on different formats, depending on who the audience might be. The goal of this data stories to inform the audience that physical activity is positively associated with the activity friendliness or walkability of the neighborhood a person lives in. In this case, we see how the audience can make a major impact on the final format of the data story. On the left, we see a research article that was written to inform academics and policy makers of our key message. And, on the right we have chosen an infographic to paint a picture for the general public who might not be as knowledgeable on the topic and benefit from a more visual storyline. Both formats have met their goal of informing their audience accordingly.
Dashboards for decision-makers
If your audience happens to be a decision maker, one of the most effective ways to tell a detailed yet concise data story is by using a dashboard. By tracking key performance indicators, a data dashboard manages important information that can be easily updated as time passes. Dashboards assists in monitoring the performance of a specific department or process, and deliver results quickly but without context, which is an important part of telling an effective data story and something that must always be kept in mind when choosing the right format for the right audience.
Recap of key points
In the end, this short video was meant to help learners tell interesting and informative stories with data. We explained the three most important components of a data story: the data, the narrative and visualizations, and we finally reviewed the importance of planning the structure of your data story by first determining who your audience is, what the goal of the story should be and how it might be best presented. Together, these elements are used to construct concise, informative and interesting data stories.
(The Canada Wordmark appears.)
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