storytelling with data podcast

Cole talks with professional “chart looker-atter” Steve Wexler, about his new book The Big Picture: How to Use Data Visualization to Make Better Decisions—Faster. Tune in for a conversation centered around evangelizing the transformative power of data visualization in an organization, including the value of visualizing for “aha!” (not “ooh and aah”), increasing data fluency, and the importance of collaborating with stakeholders for better results. Also hear Steve’s view on why several highly-lauded historical graphs aren’t ones he’d recommend emulating, whether dashboards can tell a story, and more.

LINKS:

Buy Steve’s new book! The Big Picture | download a sample

Follow Steve: @datarevelations | www.datarevelations.com

More by Steve: The Big Book of Dashboards

A good data visualization can reveal and communicate insights. But bad graphs abound. In this episode, Cole chats with Ben Jones about misleading graphs. They discuss a number of common issues, including missorted time, miscalculated area, going against expected norms, spurious correlations, and more. Tune in for tips on how to read graphs and spot issues and avoid being duped, as well as strategies to consider when graphing data so the visualizations you create don’t inadvertently misinform.

LINKS:

Ben Jones | @dataremixed | Data Literacy

Books by Ben mentioned: Learning to See Data, Avoiding Data Pitfalls

Ben’s repository of graphical gaffes: What NOT to Do

Book: Mind in Motion (Barbara Tversky)

Book: Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts (Williard C. Brinton)

Article: Linear vs. Quadratic Change (Robert Kosara)

Article: Why not to use two axes, and what to do instead (Lisa Charlotte Rost)

Article: The public do not understand logarithmic graphs used to portray COVID-19

Site: ourworldindata.org

Site: spurious correlations

Site/books: Calling Bullshit (Carl Bergstrom & Jevin West)

Tweet/graph: Who emits the most? (Greta Thunberg)

Resource: Ben’s “16 chart reading tips” checklist

SWD workshops: see upcoming dates & register (use discount code PODCAST10 at checkout)

Giving good feedback to others—when done well—can help you sharpen your own thinking and approaches for visualizing and communicating with data. We’ll start with this critical topic in our new 10-week course, so it seemed like the perfect timing to repost the original episode of the storytelling with data podcast. I discuss the value of giving and receiving data visualization feedback and potential problem areas to avoid. Hear The Economist’s eloquent response to critique of one of their graphs, plus answers to reader questions on when to use graphs, considerations with dashboards, and data viz book recommendations (updated with some recent publications!).

MENTIONED LINKS:

10-week course & upcoming workshops: storytellingwithdata.com/workshops

Feedback? email [email protected]

Blog post: SWD makeover challenge on The Economist’s hurricane graph

Article: “Design & Redesign in Data Visualization” by Fernanda Viegas & Martin Wattenberg

Blog post: my guiding principles

Article: The subtle art that differentiates good designers from great designers by UX Planet

Blog post: a tale about opportunity

Book: The Big Book of Dashboards by Steve Wexler, Jeff Shaffer & Andy Cotgreave

Book: storytelling with data by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Book: WSJ Guide to Information Graphics by Dona Wong

Book: Show Me the Numbers by Stephen Few

Book: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte

Book: Avoiding Data Pitfalls by Ben Jones

Book: Better Data Visualizations by Jonathan Schwabish

Book: Let’s Practice! by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

Resource: SWD community

Questions? email [email protected] or start a conversation in SWD community

“You don’t have to be a cartographer to make a great map.” Cole talks with cartographer Kenneth Field, author of the award-winning book, Cartography. Tune in to hear the thought process for visualizing data when the “where” matters, including different types of maps, how purpose and audience should drive design decisions, and whether there’s any such thing as a truly accurate map. Plus, learn how technology has compressed the mapmaking process (for better and worse)—from graphicacy to objectivity and ethics, it’s an episode not to miss!

LINKS:

Follow Ken: @kennethfield | carto.maps.arcgis.com

Buy Ken’s book: Cartography

Also mentioned: How to Lie with Maps (Monmonier)

Non-cartographers who made exceptional maps: Charles Minard (map), Florence Nightingale (map), Harry Beck (map)

“For data visualization, you don’t need to be an artist to make good sketches.” Cole talks with Data Sketches authors, Shirley Wu and Nadieh Bremer, about their multi-year project that has been turned into a beautiful new book. Listen as they discuss their exploration of the creative side of data visualization through colors, shapes, math, code, and storytelling. Tune in to learn why you should give a 4-year old a watercolor set, the power of a rainbow palette, using flowers to visualize data, and much more.

LINKS:

Data Sketches: buy on Amazon | datasketch.es | @datasketches

Follow Shirley: shirleywu.studio | @sxywu

Follow Nadieh: visualcinnamon.com | @NadiehBremer

Projects shown/discussed: Nadieh’s Lord of the Rings | Shirley’s Film Flowers

Cole talks with Jon Schwabish about his latest book, Better Data Visualizations. Tune in to hear about Jon’s goal to make people aware of a wider array of graphs, which less common graphs he wishes people would use more, his favorite Sankey diagram, and how Luxembourg highlighted an important lesson about maps. Jon also addresses viewer questions on fact-checking, communicating qualitative data, and his work on racial equity in data visualization, including things we should all be thinking about when we make graphs.

Pre-order: Better Data Visualizations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks

Other books by Jon: Better Presentations, Elevate the Debate

Follow Jon: @jschwabish | www.policyviz.com | Data@Urban

Other books mentioned: Storyteller’s Secret, Resonate, Slide:ology, Presentation Zen, How Charts Lie, Avoiding Data Pitfalls 

People mentioned: Kim Rees, Ann Emery, RJ Andrews, Moritz Stefaner, Nadieh Bremer, Pedro Cruz

Jon's 2014 article “An Economist’s Guide to Visualizing Data”

Jon’s projects: The Graphic Continuum, One Chart at a Time video series

Exploratory vs. explanatory: Form and Function: Let Your Audience’s Needs Drive Your Data Visualization Choices

Sankey diagram from Reddit: How 52 Ninth-Graders Spell Camouflage

Interactive Sankey from The Pudding: The Gyllenhaal Experiment

Medium article: "Word Clouds: We Can’t Make Them Go Away, So Let’s Improve Them" by Marti Hearst

Research resource: Our World In Data

Medium article: "Applying Racial Equity Awareness in Data Visualization" by Jon Schwabish and Alice Feng

Being able to introduce yourself eloquently and in a way that captures and keeps your intended audience’s attention is a hugely important thing. Yet, we don’t commonly devote a lot of time or thought to planning how we do this. In this episode, Cole shares the process that she and the storytelling with data team used to create their intros, plus shares the steps you can use to form your own inspirational introduction. She also addresses listener questions on dot plots, the audience constraint, and tips for slowing down when presenting.

Mentioned Links:

Workshops: storytellingwithdata.com/custom-workshops

Worksheet: the Big Idea worksheet

Exercise: storyboard YOUR project

Article: the structure(s) of story

Exercise: craft your intro

Challenge: let’s plot with a dot

Article: what is a dot plot?

Resource: SWD chart guide

Podcast: it’s for THEM

Conversation: slowing it down

Video: presenting data

Ask a question: start a community conversation

Current challenge: visualize your resume

Live podcast with Jon Schwabish: register

Virtual event (1/26): become a data viz superstar

Go premium! premium community membership

How can you get people’s attention on what you want to share and drive the action you seek? Carefully consider your audience. In this episode, Cole dives deep on audience, discussing ways to identify who they are and prioritize their needs, strategies for approaching the challenging but common case of the mixed audience, and tips for getting to know an unfamiliar audience. She also addresses listener questions on grad school, gauging data storytelling success, and innovation in data visualization.

LINKS:

Book: storytelling with data: Let’s Practice!

Exercises: community.storytellingwithdata.com/exercises

Worksheet: the Big Idea worksheet

Webinars: storytellingwithdata.com/webinars

Conversation: contemplating grad school

Conversation: efficacy of data storytelling

Challenge: xenographics

Challenge: critique then (re)create

Virtual event (12/14): member makeovers

Go premium! premium community membership

When communicating data in a meeting or presentation, YOU play a very important role. How can you talk about your data in a way that makes others want to listen? Tune in to this special episode, excerpted from a recent virtual event, about presenting data. Cole shares practical tips for rehearsing aloud, planning how you’ll start and end, harnessing the power of your voice, and the important role of feedback for refining your presentation skills.

LINKS:

Become an SWD community premium member

Video: presenting data

More resources at storytellingwithdata.com

A xenographic is simply a chart type not seen before, and in this episode, Cole talks with data journalist and designer Maarten Lambrechts, creator of xeno.graphics. They discuss having an open mindset for weird graphs, pushing boundaries to elevate graphicacy, and the value of bringing strange data visualizations mainstream. Tune in to also hear about Maarten’s experience as a data visualization freelancer, the important role of the online portfolio, and how a relentless focus on the end user helps drive smart data visualization design.

LINKS:

Follow Maarten: @maartenzam | maartenlambrechts.com

Explore: xeno.graphics 

Tools: RAWGraphs, R (ggplot), Javascript, D3

Graphics: NYT graphics, Washington Post, Financial Times, FiveThirtyEight, Die Zeit, Berliner Morgenpost

Upcoming conferences: IEEE VIS (Oct 25-30), S-H-O-W (Nov 27-28)