Hello Friend,
Your data has a story to tell. Really, it does. Sometimes it’s known or obvious. But other times, as you dig into it, you find an entirely new or unexpected story.
Unfortunately, whether through force of habit, fear of the new, or just not knowing any better, most data presentations simply show data rather than communicate with data. Pie charts and the like are dropped onto slides, maybe some numbers are made larger. The speaker then repeats what is already visible to the audience.
Sure, some data is powerful all on its own. But often visual storytelling is needed to illustrate what the data actually means vs what it simply adds up to. Stories bring context and relevance to the data, add a human element, and help make presentations and reports more engaging and memorable. Without visual storytelling—a mix of visual and textual content that helps people connect to and understand information—data remains a nearly infinite set of measurements or statistics. And while this data is used to make decisions, it remains a step removed from its effects in the real world and on real people.
