How do you use storytelling techniques to enhance your data presentation?

Storytelling matters because it connects us all in a very basic way. Long ago storytelling was the means by which humans conveyed information. From the hunter gatherers hunting prey to the person walking alone in the woods becoming spooked by a strange sound. Storytelling was how we communicated our day's events to the community. What makes storytelling such a basic human construct is that every culture throughout history and geographic region, that we know of, has told stories. Mythology, history, even Albert Einstein's famous thought experiments all convey information through the process of telling a story. Sometimes I need to tell a story visually, or with sound, and sometimes through tactile contact for the information to be processed.

Data needs to be structured in a very human way. All too often, when I am asked to teach a class particularly a science class. I am asked if I can make the lesson relevant to the students. I am asked to explain or show to the students why and how this information matters and affects our lives. A data story should also make that connection for the audience it is being told to. A data story's beginning should tell why this information matters or briefly state what's this information all about. The middle of the story should state what makes this information so important that the audience needs to hear it. The end of the story should leave the audience with this thought, the information is going to affect our lives in this particular way.

The first step in using emotion in your data story is to ask yourself: what does this data mean to me emotionally. It is very difficult to engage someone else's emotional state, but you can engage your own emotional state. More than likely whatever you're feeling, most of your audience is feeling as well. The next step is to ask yourself; how do I want this information to allow me to feel emotionally. Thinking of how to do that, can lead you to elicit that same emotional response from your audience. People respond to action and or emotion not merely facts. Even when presented with the facts people need an emotional response to react to those facts. Most people will not react to the facts unless those facts elicit an emotional response.

Choose the right visuals: Select charts, graphs, or diagrams that best represent your data and message, such as bar graphs for comparisons or infographics for complex information. Follow design principles: Use contrast, alignment, hierarchy, and balance to create visually appealing and easy-to-understand visualizations. Match your brand and mood: Use colors, fonts, and icons that align with your brand and the emotional tone you want to convey. Simplify and clarify: Visuals should help simplify complex data and clarify key points, making it easier for the audience to understand. Use interactivity: Incorporate interactive elements, such as hover-over details or animations, to engage the audience and encourage exploration.

Know Your Audience: Adjust the interactivity based on the audience's goals, questions and preferences so that the data becomes more pertinent and appealing. Select Suitable Tools: Utilize platforms such as Tableau or Power BI that have visualization features for creating interactive web tools, dashboards and reports for exploring datasets by users themselves. Give Clear Directions: Incorporate instructions, tooltips and feedback systems to facilitate easier navigation through an interface by your audience members while making use of the information provided. Customize It: Have options for filtering, sorting or personalizing visualizations according to user interests in order to relate the story behind data to what they want or need most.

The fact that you sharpen and tailor your stories about data denotes that you care for both the quality of the information as well its availability through channels such as this one! One important way to start is through collecting colleagues’, buyers’ or shareholders’ comments in order to find faults or discrepancies. To determine if these narratives correlate with their targets, coordinate index numbers together with records analysis. Always be willing to know better and enhance everything so that it sounds more fascinating.