Have you ever been in a business meeting or scrolled through an article and got completely lost in the data that was presented? Or maybe you lost interest due to the monotonous and dull numbers that displayed across the screen. Somewhere along the way, the data lost its significance causing you, the reader, to overlook it.
Data, known as evidence, facts, or hard numbers, is one of the most powerful ways to communicate a message. In this technological day and age, we realize that numerical figures cannot stand on their own. In order to achieve a powerful impact on the target audience, your data must be visually engaging. Therefore by incorporating data visualization you will enhance your story and create an interactive, dynamic viewer experience.
Discover how this visual technique transforms graphics from static to visually influential; and morphs an audience’s understanding from vague to an impactful, relatable story.
Why Use Data Visualization?
By presenting your data in a visually engaging way, your audience will be able to profoundly connect and relate to its findings. The following ways support why you should use data visualization to enrich your data:
- Once you have setup your graph, chart, or graphic, it is quicker and easier to update the existing content and produce new data.
- The lively components of data visualization such as animation, color schemes, and noises make them more interactive and engaging.
- The capability to link to live data allows you to keep your data sources up to date, you can also automatically update the graphics as you gain new results.
- Static graphics often change in size and resolution depending on the viewer’s device. Data visualization will have a clearer appearance for a range of devices.
When to Use Data Visualization
Data visualization is a great way to provide support or clarity to a subject. It will help you effectively communicate to a variety of audiences while providing credibility. The following are examples of when you may want to use data visualization to help support your argument:
- To answer questions.
- To reveal new understandings.
- To communicate conceptual ideas quickly.
- To add persuasive insights on a specific topic.
- To compare various classifications.
Who Benefits From Data Visualization?
In a professional setting, data visualization can be useful when informing your organization about customer feedback, reporting financial comparisons, or when communicating an increase of sales and growth to your overall team.
For marketing purposes, you can use data visualization for promotional content pieces. Some examples of this include infographics, slideshows, white papers, and/or e-books.
How to Use Data Visualization
We understand that developing clean and compelling designs will entice your audience to view the content, and will inspire them to explore the data more in-depth. But prior to deciding how your data will look, you need to map out your story.
First, try starting with a question. As you gather your data you may end up with a whole new argument, which is acceptable. Research is like a journey that offers new insights as you navigate through the various reports and metrics – but having a starting point is key.
Next, outline where you will insert data to support your question. You may gather internal data from your organization such as marketing metrics, sale percentages, or customer growth. Depending on the type of information you want to communicate, you will want to focus on collecting data that will not only support your question, but will also provide a strong contextual background – possibly including some data that backs up a counterargument for persuasive purposes. Sometimes data, or in some cases “big data,” can be too overwhelming to comprehend. If you are looking at a large data set, the best thing to do is to focus on maintaining a compressive and consistent collection.
Lastly, analyzing the data. Data becomes impactful not when you simply tell the story, but when you show the story. Through your findings you must hone in on the differences and similarities within the data set. From the beginning of your analyzing process, you should be aware of specific components that stand out, or possibly that make an interesting correlation. These are the elements that will be the core of your story. The following are some data relationships to keep in mind:
- Trends
- Patterns
- Correlations
- Infrequency
- Outliners
How to Enhance Your Story
When you have a well-designed visual presentation, you will have an easier time attracting your audience. Reading flat numbers is mundane, but once you enhance the data visually, your audience will be able to truly appreciate the information for all its worth. In addition, there will be an increase of comprehension and retention, which forms a lasting impact on the viewer.
This is where a good heat mapping tool comes in really handy – you can create a custom Google heat map that will help you to easier present your data on a custom map and make your point understandable for everyone!
After you choose what data to reveal, it is time to craft your narrative. Consider the following when producing your narrative.
Outline
Just as you would draft a narrative for a play or proposal, you will need to create an outline with main points, each with supporting data. This will act as your guide as you tell your story – be sure you are keeping your audience top of mind.
Assemble Content
When you are dealing with data – numbers and logic – it is important that you arrange your content in a progressive order, or organize the data in a logical flow that helps the viewer understand how you got from point A to point B.
Clarity is Key
Clarity is one of the greatest strengths when using data visualization. If there is a gray area that might become confusing for the viewer you will want to add extra clarification in the context.
Accurately Present Data
Ensure that all of your visuals are an accurate representation of the data and are not exaggerated or misrepresented.
Emphasize Key Points
There may be crucial areas that you want the viewer to take note of. Use a selective color, font style, or combination of both to identify key points.
Today’s workplace needs to reconsider the way data is presented and understood. No longer should we view data as numbers and lines, but we should think of data as an interactive story or visual experience. Data visualization easily communicates big data through clean and clear insight, which entices the viewer to connect and relate to its concepts. The more data that is collected and understood, the more people can find relevance and communicate these important notions to others, and better yet, could discover perspective-changing realizations.
