Telling Stories with Data. The Art of Presentation and Visualization. Sharing my Analytics Learning Journey Part 8: @CXL
As marketers we are in the business of telling stories and of course to make those stories more compelling they need a lot of data within to supplement and rationalize their POVs!
As a marketing and agency practitioner with nearly two decades of experience I have been through a lot of milestones on this learning journey. From beginner shock to data overloads and disinterested audiences – I have seen a lot of scenarios when it comes to making presentations and creating storylines using data.
Let dive right in and come back to the main topic – CXL’s course on Data Presentation and Visualization with its amazing content and masterful storytelling from Tom Wilson. This write-up will address some key learnings that I was able to refresh in my own personal learning journey and hope this is useful for all my readers as well.
Now think about a bad presentation and ineffective and confusing data visualization in terms of the outcome? What do you think will happen?
An ineffective communication of analysis results can completely negate the impact of the analysis itself.
In short not only will the presenter’s objective fail but that entire effort will go to waste. Another thing to remember and keep in mind as a golden rule is:
Data visualization is not merely about making the data look ‘pretty.’
The course was divided into 3 Parts – overview, ins and outs of visualization and finally the narrative construction and build needed for presenting and storytelling.
So what exactly should a presenter and data analyst focus on before they deliver what needs to be a compelling piece. Some golden rules and points to keep in mind, which are practical and impactful:
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2. Understand the limitations posed by cognitive load on short-term memory. In a presentation its fatal to plonk more complexity into the charts and visualizations. As per George Miller (a psychologist) who published a paper called Miller's Law. Essentially it is known today as the "Seven Plus or Minus Two" principle. What Miller found was that our brains are only able to hold seven plus or minus two pieces of information simultaneously in our short-term memory. This basically means that putting in too much into a slide or an analysis piece will likely get lost or not remembered, effectively cutting the analysis and actionability short
3. Remove “Pie-charts or doughnut charts” from your analyses. They add little or no value and add a lot of cognitive load which makes interpreting them harder and reducing the net take away that you want your audience to have. Glancing at the chart then the legend then the data point and back to the chart itself and comparing 2 data segments that are both 12% but in reality one might be 11.6% and the other is 12.4%. Clearly the mind and eye is not going to pick up some of these discernible differences. There might be some instances where they might be justified but as a general rule of thumb – stay away from the pies/doughnuts!
4. Maximize the Data-Pixel ratio. This can simply be expressed as the ratio of data on the non-background pixels of your presentation or chart or graph. The whole idea is to maximize the data itself on these pixels to maximize impact of the content that you are trying to present. When you keep the data-pixel ration in mind there will be an inevitable focus on decluttering your presentation and data visualizations
5. Smart and LESS use of color. Now this is hard to control – and I admit I am guilty in littering my charts with color for the simple reason that it looks nice, is brand friendly etc. Colors can play havoc for 2 reasons – attention is all over the visualization and it takes attention away from the point that you might be trying to make. Secondly there are a number of people who suffer from deuteranopia which is really green-red color blindness where shades from these colors (and yellow) are hard to see and distinguish
6. Importance of Axes. A few common sensical tips here but its really going back to the basics on avoiding the fallacy of mis-representing data e.g. using Zero-based axes and having too much information in the axes when it is not really required e.g. labels, lines etc. Also while on this topic its critical to under-use dual axes charts as they will only confuse and confound your audience.
7. Choose your Chart Wisely. In terms of visualizing categorical data the horizontal bar chart is your best friend so stick to that whenever you can. It offers a clear comparison of multiple metrics across categories. Again avoid stacked bar charts for similar reasons – the cognitive load and the point of reference may vary as the 2nd data point will not line up across bars. In terms of effectiveness the other chart format that is super-apt to communicate time-series data is a line graph/chart. Again the same rules – avoid using complicated color palettes and highlight the point you are trying to make using thicker lines and accentuating the line color. Simple but highly effective tools
8. Build the Data Story: Now different situations will demand different approaches to charts and graphs but remember that there are many interesting visualizations at your disposal. These include Sparklines (excel and sheets) and the use of Small multiples. The latter can be defined as splitting a complicated chart with multiple data points into smaller charts representing different data points across multiple visualizations. Avoid crowding your chart and just split it up – with the right formatting of course! Another relevant visualization is the use of text as a visualization when used correctly and calling out attention to a certain fact or data point. There is a lot more content here, but you got to discover that on your own. Interesting and fascinating both!
9. Last but not the least, don’t forget the Audience. Understand them and the overall objective to really thrash out the narrative that you need to build. Avoid over-using bullets to kill your presentations and whatever happens DO NOT FORGET TO REHEARSE. Like a proper rehearsal and not one which involved reading the slides while at your workstation! 😊
Overall this course brought back the use of simplicity and the basics of a good narrative that are required to really crush the effective presentation and visualization pillars! Super-useful and super timely.
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My review is based on going through the course content, attempting the exercises and completing the end of course test. You can check out the details of the Analytics Degree and more from CXL yourself, via this link: https://cxl.com/institute/certificate/cxl-digital-analytics/
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