Data stories: how to make your data more compelling and engaging
Structure: Setup, Conflict, resolution
Data is everywhere, but not everyone knows how to make it enjoyable. Data stories are a way of making data more engaging and compelling for an audience. In this blog post, we will discuss the following: what is a data story? What makes a good data story? How can you tell better data stories that are more engaging and compelling? And finally, why do we need to tell stories with numbers in the first place.
Let’s start with the basics:
what is a data story? A data story is, quite simply, the telling of a narrative using numbers. Rather than just presenting data in a table or graph, a data story brings those numbers to life by weaving them into a cohesive and compelling tale. Good data stories can take dry statistics and make them exciting and engaging for an audience.
What makes a good data story?
There are many ways to make your data stories better, but here are some tips:
- Structure your story around conflict
- Start by introducing the problem
- Provide context by showing numbers over time or against other items/points in time
- Use human interest stories to illustrate your points.
- Make sure your data is accurate and error-free
- Use robust visualizations to help tell your story
- And finally, make sure you practice telling your story aloud to sound natural.
Why do we need to tell stories with numbers?
There appear to be so many figures moving about these days that it’s challenging to make sense of what’s happening.
On the other hand, data stories can help us make sense of all that data by presenting it in a human context. Furthermore, presenting data stories allows us to understand our surroundings better and makes statistics more relatable.
In an era when so much news is data-driven, the ability to deliver compelling data stories is more important than ever.
For more tips on how to create better data stories, check out the following resources:
- Data journalism at the Guardian: what is it and how do we do it?
- Data Visualization Tips For More Effective And Engaging
- Andy Kirk: Let’s think about data visualization thinking
* * * Let’s recap what we’ve learned about telling better data stories.
- A data story is, quite simply, the telling of a narrative using numbers. Rather than just presenting data in a table or graph, a data story brings those numbers to life by weaving them into a cohesive and compelling tale. Good data stories can take dry statistics and make them exciting and engaging for an audience.
- A good data story should have an apparent problem or question that it’s trying to answer for its intended audience. We also need to think about what our chosen topic is saying and make sure that we can back up those claims with numbers.
- Before you begin telling your own data story, consider the following: What interesting tidbits can I share about my data set? What human stories can help bring life to my numbers? Are there any robust visualizations that can help tell the story better?
- Practice telling your story aloud to sound natural and easy to understand. Remember, you don’t need to go over every number in your data set — focus on the most interesting or compelling ones.
Finally, don’t forget that data stories are a great way to help us better understand the world around us. We can make statistics more relatable and help people see the world in a new light by telling good data stories.
