DATA STORYTELLING IS CHANGING HOW WE CONSUME INFORMATION

 We hear the word Data all around in businesses, but data can’t alone be effective enough to run big business campaigns. That’s where the need for storytelling comes and its associated need to connect with the right kind of people. Data has become an omnipresent resource to be consumed by businesses as it does help them attain the benefits of getting better marketing strategies and strengthening their customer experience. To do that, they need to extract out the valuable data to turn them into actionable business insights.

 In a 2009 interview with Google’s Chief Economist, Dr. Hal R.Varian said that” in the following decades the essential skill to have is the ability to gather data, to be able to understand it, process it, extract value from it, visualize it and to be able to communicate it effectively.” Many businesses would agree that it was an accurate statement when reflecting. This capability of preparing data and analyzing it turns out to be a handy skill, specifically when it comes to making complex business decisions.

 “Numbers have an important story to tell. They rely on you to give them a clear and convincing voice.”   

    _ Stephen Few (Data visualization expert)

 There are lots of self-service data analytics platforms such as Power BI, Tableau which have made it easier for businesses to generate insights from their large pool of data. As a result, it led to an unprecedented rise in the number of insights fostered through business processes. These insights need to be communicated in an understandable context and in a more compelling way to get the best out of the insight-to-value- conversion- rate. This action of sharing data insights and communicating them with clarity involves the use of data storytelling.

 Oftentimes, the use of data storytelling is closely associated with data visualizations, infographics, dashboards, data presentations, and so on. However, its use is not limited to only creating visually appealing charts and graphs to communicate the hidden insights within data. In short, it is a combination of three main elements; data, visuals, and narrative. These three elements bring together the change that is needed to drive businesses towards innovation.

Let’s see how these three elements work in combination to bring data storytelling to life:

• Data and narrative; within data storytelling, when data and narrative are used together, they tend to mainly explain the data thoroughly in every aspect to provide a deep insight into what has happened.
• Visuals and data; Visuals when used with data provide its audience an insight that would not be possible to see in mere data. Whereas data complements visuals and suggests what could have gone unnoticed within the rows and columns. The combination of these two elements works in coordination to enlighten its audience about the hidden possibilities.
• Narrative and visuals; when narrative and visuals are merged together, they have the capability to engage their audience and even entertain them.

• Data, narrative, and visuals; the effect of these three elements is much greater in data storytelling, with the combination of the right visuals, narrative, and the right kind of data, the data story has much more influence over the audience and brings change through deep well-communicated insights.

Conclusion

Data storytelling might seem unnecessary to many businesses. Our history is filled with stories. Stories were the only way to pass down generations of information. It was the only coping mechanism to communicate when the humans hadn’t invented the script or writing for keeping records. Today, people spend thousands on movies to experience the engagement that visuals and data provide us.

The whole purpose of preparing data and analyzing it is to look for insights; these insights contribute to making crucial business decisions and bringing change. If these insights were not communicated well with the audience that requires these insights, it would be worthless. The role of data storytelling is to engage its audience and compel them to make a rightful decision based on the data insights.