Data Storytelling Basics (in 3 Steps): How to Communicate Data and Numbers

today we're looking at how to communicate data and numbers in a more engaging way by using story techniques this is the basics of data storytelling hello and welcome back to word cortex i'm anita and it's so good to see you here now communication can seem like an external pursuit right it's the words that we say but good communication begins from in here and so as the foundation of our data story we are going to unlearn a common myth about data communication no matter what profession you're in you've probably heard the phrase the data speaks for

itself but does it let's find out data say something anything don't be shy yeah i thought so data does not speak for itself it cannot speak for itself why it's just a collection of numbers and you have given it a purpose you have put those numbers in a particular context which means you my friend are a non-negotiable element in data communication to craft your data story you will need two ingredients one is the data you're presenting and two is you your opinion your perspective and what you have inferred from those numbers and that is equally

as important as displaying the numbers when we say things like the data speaks for itself we are making a couple of hasty assumptions we're assuming that people look and understand numbers in the same way as we do and that's not true people have their own worldview when they're looking at data we also assume that people care about these numbers as much as we do and that might not be true either so it's our responsibility to communicate the meaning behind the numbers and highlight the significance of these findings and in doing so it helps to borrow

some fun techniques from the world of storytelling when you think of a good story and it could be from any genre a documentary a thriller a romantic comedy it doesn't matter at its core a good story has a few key attributes one of these attributes is a clear structure a beginning a middle and an end the bulk of the action happens in the middle this is where things get really messy or things are looking really good the beginning is where the premise is established you learn a little bit about the background of the story and

the context of the story and of course the end is where you see a resolution to the story right what if we could use this exact structure and bring that to data communication i want to share with you a really simple three-step process to craft a basic data story at the middle of your data story is where the data is that's where the action happens but you didn't just arrive at these numbers you began with a question or a reason and that is our step number one communicating the purpose or the why behind your data

if you are a scientist or a researcher this is where you communicate the hypothesis of your experiments without this crucial step your audience wouldn't fully appreciate the data you're just about to present much like you wouldn't really understand a movie if you didn't know the premise or the context of the movie right step number two is presenting your data it's where the action is and no we're not just displaying a chart or a graph we're actually expanding upon the meaning behind the numbers and what exactly we measured if you're in science or research you're expanding

upon the experimental protocol the procedure the methods the analysis the stats whatever is relevant to your data story and step number three which is often overlooked but is also important is for us to clearly communicate the conclusion that we have drawn from our data analysis remember i mentioned to you that people look and understand numbers based on their own world view so it's important that we clearly communicate what we have inferred from our data analysis your conclusion reveals the insights that you have gathered from your data when you structure your message in this way you

have just crafted a data story with a beginning a middle and an end you came in strong by communicating your purpose you then moved on to where the bulk of the action was which is your data and all the work you did to gather and analyze that data and of course you finished off with the flare by communicating your conclusion i have a power tip for you when you tell your data story you want to match your verbal delivery with the information you display on your slides the last thing you want is to cram a

lot of information on your slides because your audience will then start reading off your slides instead of listening to you and we don't want that we want them to listen to our beautifully crafted data story so as you advance from step one to step two step two to step three in your data story you wanna reveal information one by one on your slides by doing so your verbal delivery matches your visual delivery and you look like a total pro when you communicate to learn how to tell a good visual story on your slides you can

click on the video right over here if you like this video give it a big thumbs up and i'll see you in the next one bye [Music] you