Research Driven Design Principles
Lesson 27 from: Data Storytelling: Deliver Insights via Compelling StoriesBill Shander
Research Driven Design Principles
Lesson 27 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
Research Driven Design Principles
compared to some fields. There has not been a ton of research over the years to investigate what works and what doesn't work in data visualization. There are a lot of people talking about what to do and how to do it based on a lot of intuition and gut instinct based on other types of research and experience in user interface design for instance. But in recent years more and more research has been done and more continues to be pursued, allowing us to more appropriately make our design decisions based on how well our visualizations achieve their goals, the kinds of things being looked at revolve around making visualizations that are more memorable and understandable. I can't include all of the research in this short video but do want to focus on two that repeatedly come to mind when I'm designing things. First there was a study that came out of M. I. T. That found that your interest in a visual is driven by your peripheral vision. The basic idea is simple. If you look at anything you hav...
e to focus on a small area While our field of view maybe 135° or so we can really only focus on a very small area. So when you look at a chart or an infographic or anything really, it's what's outside your focal point that will determine where you look next. Essentially your peripheral vision is allowing you to see something that if it's designed a certain way will encourage you to look around and therefore find the next interesting thing to look at. And it turns out there are serious design decisions to be made to maximize your chances of capturing someone's peripheral attention. But first, let me talk about the study. The researchers created software that was able to simulate what you see in your peripheral vision. So in this example we have an infographic and the software is going to be focused right there at the center, looking right at that leaf in the middle. And by the way, other studies have proven that we have a fixation bias toward the middle of images. Unlike text where we tend to start in the upper, left hand corner, in left to right, language cultures with images, we tend to start in the middle. So remember that one. So watch the graphic as the simulation is turned on, see that the leaf is in focus and everything else just falls apart. The researchers interpreted these findings pretty simply. There's a clear argument for using large monochrome boxes and against using irregularly placed decorative elements as you can see those brown boxes hold up pretty well. They give the eye an anchor to turn to, whereas the decorative leaves and food pictures disappear in the mess. Other graphics run through the same simulator show similar effects. And argue for the use of simple graphical elements, simple geometric shapes like circles and squares. So when you're designing your graphics for your data stories, keep them simple using simple shapes and large blocks. Otherwise your audience may not see anything at a glance that catches their eye and nothing in their peripheral vision to move on to next. The second study I want to share came out of stanford in this study, the authors were investigating data storytelling and described it on a spectrum from entirely author driven experiences where the editorial voice and decisions of the author are entirely in control. Two reader driven experiences where the reader is in complete control. So at one end you have as an example, a video where the viewer is forced to watch through the entire narrative and can't jump around or explore anything and any more depth than exactly what's presented at the other end. You have a data dashboard, there's no editorial voice. The user makes all the decisions about what data to view by selecting dropdowns and clicking buttons, him or herself. While surely there are arguments for experiences at both ends of the spectrum, I would argue that the best data storytelling lies in the middle. It incorporates a strong editorial voice, so it is author driven but simultaneously allows the user to explore the data within that framework. The researchers refer to this as the martini glass structure following a tight narrative path early on the stem of the glass and then opening up later for free exploration the body of the glass. So in the real world, this takes the form of a linear experience like this project I created for a think tank within the World bank focusing on small family farmers in Tanzania Mozambique and Pakistan. So it's a linear experience. You know, there's a series of pages quote unquote that I can click through either by clicking the dots or clicking the the next and previous buttons. And some of them are just text, but for the most part they include explora ble data experiences. So in this example there's a scatter plot chart and you know, there's this data that I can play with so I can look at just the Mozambique data or just Tanzania or Pakistan. So within the linear narrative experience, which by the way, I could just read page by page by page and not explore the data if I wanted to and I would get a very complete story out of it. But within that I can explore. So in the next page this is showing income streams, all the different types of income sources these people have. And again, I can sort of play with the data a little bit in this case or on the next screen. I have access to all the survey questions. This is what these families were asked so I can jump around and see what the people in Tanzania said to all the questions. So this is that martini glass, it's a linear experience. There's a strong editorial voice which could stand alone. And in addition, I can explore one interesting aspect of this project is this here more button. If I were to click on this, a narrative comes on and tells an even more restrictive narrative story. But again, the actual data experience will animate and react to what the speaker is saying. So it's a very powerful way of telling data stories. The field of data visualization is really growing and maturing, so there's a lot more research out there and it's coming from inside and outside of academia, you can find a lot of helpful tips driven by cognitive science and psychology that will help your data stories have real impact. I encourage you to keep your eyes open for this research. Follow me on twitter, where I always share what I come across and share it back with me. If you find anything new, I'd love to get it out to my audience to and now it's time for our last exercise for the course.