Crafting Visual Stories with Data

Visual data stories can enable us to move from analysis to synthesis, from numbers to visuals, and from an argument to a story. In this talk I talk about the purpose of data visualisation, the principles of storytelling and how we can combine the two together to craft visual stories with data.

Transcript

1. Crafting Visual
   Stories with Data
   Amit Kapoor
   amitkaps.com
   

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2. War Stories &
   Killer Charts
   

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3. analysis
   numbers
   argument
   

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4. Humans are
   pattern-seeking
   story-telling
   animals.
   

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5. analysis Synthesis
   numbers Visuals
   argument Story
   

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7. Visualisation
   Storytelling
   Visual Data Stories
   

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8. Visualisation
   Storytelling
   Visual Data Stories
   

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9. What is visualisation?
   

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11. How many ways can you visualise this data table?
    

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12. Visualisation is the transformation of the
    symbolic into geometric.
    McCormick et al.
    

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18. Learning to See
    

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20. Visualisation is the use of computer-
    generated, interactive, visual
    representations of abstract data to
    amplify cognition.
    Card, Mackinlay, & Shneiderman
    

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21. How do we use
    visualisation to amplify
    cognition?
    

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22. Visualization gives you answers to
    questions you didn't know you had.
    Ben Schneiderman
    

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25. Who & What: Distribution1
    1 Capabilities Premium
    

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27. How Many: Comparison2
    2 Working Capital Profiler
    

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29. Where: Maps3
    3 Wind Map
    

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31. When: Timeline4
    4 New York Times
    

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33. How: Relationship5
    5 Amit Kapoor
    

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35. Why: Deduction & Prediction6
    6 Mike Bostock
    

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37. What is the role of
    visualisation in the
    analytics process?
    

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39. Refine: Data Validation7
    7 Trifacta
    

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40. Explore: Freight Movement8
    8 Amit Kapoor
    

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41. Model: Model Interpretation9
    9 Fast Forward Labs
    

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42. Insight: Actionable Data 10
    10 Data Vis at Uber
    

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43. Vis amplifies cognition
    Vis answers question
    Vis accelerates analytics
    

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44. Visualisation
    Storytelling
    Visual Data Stories
    

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45. The universe is made of
    stories, not of atoms.
    — Muriel Rukeyser
    

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46. What is storytelling?
    

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47. Rhetoric
    Logos — Ethos — Pathos
    

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50. narrative | ˈ
    nærətiv
    noun: Any account of connected events, presented in a sequence
    of written words or spoken words or (moving) pictures.
    

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51. Events that happen in
    time
    Linear Order
    

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52. Named people who have
    to face decisions
    Personal Decision
    

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53. A disruption of a state of
    equilibrium
    Change in Context
    

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54. A foregrounding of
    human experience
    Elevation - Human Emotion
    

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60. One human life, closely
    observed, is everyone’s
    life. In the particular is
    the universal.
    — Roger Ebert
    

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61. Story Mindset
    In listening to stories we tend to suspend disbelief
    in order to be entertained, whereas in evaluating
    statistics we generally have an opposite inclination
    to suspend belief in order not to be beguiled.
    John Allen Paulos
    

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62. Stories are emotional
    Stories are memorable
    Stories are impactful
    

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63. Visualisation
    Storytelling
    Visual Data Stories
    

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64. Think Stories, Not Charts
    

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70. How can we craft visual-
    data-stories?
    

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73. 80% perspiration,
    10% great idea,
    10% output.
    — Simon Rogers
    

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77. We’re bad at the why
    questions, which are
    often much more
    interesting.
    — Amanda Cox
    

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79. Bad Aesthetics
    

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80. Good Aesthetics
    

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81. Above all else,
    do no harm
    — Tufte
    

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85. Overview first,
    then zoom & filter,
    details on demand
    — Ben Schniederman
    

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86. Types of Transitions
    

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88. Meaningful Annotation
    

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89. Powerful Narration
    

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90. There's always room for a
    story that can transport
    people to another place.
    — J.K. Rowling
    

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92. More Linear, More Storylike
    

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93. Guide the audience
    

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94. All stories are indeed
    structures, but all the
    best stories are brittle
    structures.
    — Tadhg Kelly
    

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96. Navigation
    

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97. Staging & Animation
    

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98. Ensure the interactivity
    has Affordance. To afford
    means "to give a clue"
    — Dan Norman
    

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99. Visualisation
    Storytelling
    Visual Data Stories
    

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102. Data is just a clue to the
     end truth
     — Josh Smith
     

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103. See the world through a
     data lens
     

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104. Aesthetics is deeply
     associated with emotions
     and feelings
     — Giorgio Lupi
     

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105. Create beautiful
     aesthetics
     

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106. The data is just part of
     the story.
     — Jonathan Harris
     

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107. Tell stories that connect
     

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108. Art | Craft | Science
     

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109. Closing the Gap
     

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111. @amitkaps
     amitkaps.com
     

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