Sketching and Storyboarding
Lesson 19 from: Data Storytelling: Deliver Insights via Compelling StoriesBill Shander
Sketching and Storyboarding
Lesson 19 from: Data Storytelling: Deliver Insights via Compelling StoriesBill Shander
Lessons
Introduction
1Class Introduction
03:29 2Do The Exercises
00:37 3Communication Challenges and Solutions
05:20 4Exercise: 4X4 Model
04:31 5Exercise Solution: 4X4 Model
03:25 6Introduction - Quiz
Thinking Like a Communicator
The Power of Story
06:48 8Six Ways to Tap Into Your Inner Storyteller
12:32 9The Importance of Understanding Your Audience
03:42 10How to Understand Your Audience
04:35 11How to Embrace Emotion (to review)
04:38 12How to Tap Into Your Inherent Creativity
05:55 13Exercise: An Emotional Story
01:29 14Exercise Solution: An Emotional Story
01:12 15Thinking Like a Communicator - Quiz
Telling Data Stories
16Basic Data Analytics Tactics
08:54 17Basic Journalism Tactics
04:56 18Defining Your Story
05:37 19Sketching and Storyboarding
07:05 20Use Your Words
04:20 21Telling Data Stories - Quiz
Essential Design Principles
22The Power of Visuals
07:44 23How to Pick the Right Chart for Your Data
05:19 24Exercise: Chart Selection
06:27 25Exercise: Visualization
02:59 26Basic Chart Designs Principles
08:21 27Research Driven Design Principles
06:27 28Exercise: A Data Story
03:50 29Essential Design Principles - Quiz
And Now What?
30Great Data Stories for Your Inspiration
05:53 31Tips and Tricks
03:53 32How to Sell Data Storytelling Services
03:56 33A Conversation Guide for Talking to Prospects About Data Storytelling Projects
05:30 34Course Summary
02:48Final Quiz
35Final Quiz
Lesson Info
Sketching and Storyboarding
I have some data about arms trading in the Middle East and I have a story outlined, I'm gonna take the perspective of an audience of Saudi arabians looking at the arms build up in the region in the context of its rival Iran. So my buckets of content in order are focusing on the Iranian build up of arms which I'm assuming I will find data about then focusing on the Saudi arms build up, then the build up among neighboring countries and finally some caveats about missing data. My next step is to sketch out those ideas into the visual experience. I plan to actually create, I'm going to assume that this is for a local newspaper and I'm going to focus on creating a storyboard for a static infographic. The same principles apply two story boarding an interactive piece but in that case you also have to think through and capture what happens when people click and hover on objects. One thing I will say that's very important at this point is that it's critical that you use your hands when sketchin...
g and story boarding. I don't think you can do this effectively in software, you can much more easily and quickly try ideas on a whiteboard or with pen and paper or at least a stylist and a tablet as opposed to working in illustrator or PowerPoint or some other tool. You don't want to be fighting software features, you do want to be iterating quickly, finding out what does and doesn't work failing trying again this is the biggest advantage of analog tools, speed and flexibility and the whole idea is really to sketch. Okay, don't try to make things beautiful, just get the most basic idea of your visuals down. You're trying to prove that your ideas will work conceptually. You're not trying to really solve for aesthetics at this point. The first thing to sketch is to capture the overall information hierarchy of the piece. You want to know your flow, which we've already established and also how important and prominent different pieces of your content will be. This can be really iterative. For instance, this project could take several forms. I might just create a vertically organized linear collection of these buckets which would closely mimic the boxes you see, you can see I'm thinking the Iran and Saudi stories are pretty big and prominent and the rest is more subdued. Or maybe it's all on the map. In this case, I can emphasize Iran first and then Saudi and the other country is slightly less so, but I'm kind of looking at this and I'm thinking Kuwait might feel overly emphasized in this view or I could try something more like this. Maybe I start talking about Iran and then the next visual chunk is mostly about Saudi but incorporates the neighboring countries information at the same level, but the flow implies that will be lower priority by placement and size as in this sketch. You can see that the eye will be drawn to the Saudi story right after Iran and then it's likely to rotate around to see the sub stories. Even this first step in the story boarding process can be difficult for some people because you may be tempted to get creative and don't want to just sort of use that vertical flow or because you might feel you have to start filling in the sections before you figured out how the sections relate to each other. I would resist both temptations. First, organizer sections, visually before you fill them in second, if you're struggling to go beyond the vertical collection of objects, don't try just keep it simple. You might revisit this later as you fill in details but don't get hung up on it. That's why we're sketching and not working in software. Research has shown that people feel the penalty for starting over and rethinking things is much lower when working in analog as opposed to digital meaning. You don't have as much trouble throwing out and crippling up a piece of paper as when you're working in software and have to start over again. When you're in sketch mode, don't be surprised to find that you end up revisiting your story. For instance, if you take the approach sketched here, you may feel that you want to round this out with one more bit of content beyond just that missing data bit, you might include the per capita spending data that we talked about earlier or some other bit of data that you haven't even thought of yet. The final step is sketching your visualizations themselves. You know what story you're telling, how it's organized and what your data looks like. Now is the time to figure out what those little buckets actually look like. For instance I know I have time series data for a bunch of these data points. So I might easily have a bunch of line charts if showing things over time is important. This can also change your plans by the way because you might decide you want to show the data for Iran and Saudi together in one chart for instance. So you're two bubbles may not work. You might end up combining the view together. Maybe I want to tell a geographic story showing the import flows of arms across the region and where they're coming from. And maybe I want to show the per capita story by showing that using something more like ice a types you know little icon type things to explain how much more one country spends per person compared to another. This is another major roadblock for people. You might feel hemmed in thinking about the perfect chart. But let me tell you there is no perfect chart. There are better and worse ways of communicating. Certain kinds of data. Sure. But there is no right way. So when thinking of charts, try some standard charts. Sure. But then think about other ways to use lines and circles and rectangles and colors to communicate. The idea that you're trying to communicate. So if you're showing proportionality for instance, try pie charts. Try tree maps, try collections of objects like little ice a types. There are plenty of other ways to do that as well. The whole idea of the sketching process overall is to go from the general down to the specific. Now. Sometimes the sketching process doesn't quite work out this way. You maybe start with an idea of a visualization of some interesting data first and that influences how are you going to tell your story as long as you have a plan and you're sure you're getting to a focused story idea, then you're really okay doing it. However you like my point is that if you're a bit lost or don't know where to start work in the order that I'm describing because it will help you get most logically to a good end product. I'll also mention that somewhere along the way you're gonna want to include indications of copy, right, include the amount of copy that you have that you think might work to help you tell your story. If you're working on paper or a tablet, you can even include real copy. Not just greek that of course can be harder if you're on a whiteboard unless it's a really big white board. Once you get to this point, you have your entire plan together, you can hand this sketch off to a designer if you have access to one and ask him or her to get this into a final visual form or do it yourself. Of course, this is a great moment to go find someone else to bask in your glory. If you're working alone, get feedback, etcetera. All right, time for another exercise coming up next.
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