What is better than data? The answer is more data. Pieces of data can be made to many sort of individual information. But what good the data your own if you don't know that they are trying to say. Most businesses know that to be powerful, they require the skills to make them achieve their goals. But only a few of them acknowledged that meaningful data is what made the success possible.
To make data resonate both intellectually and emotionally, businesses have to alter the data into a form that can be easily digested. This is for them to be able to emotionally understood.
One of the very best way to form data so they can be easily understood, is to make them a story.
Not everyone speaks your language. If you are a programmer, for example, your employer may not understand clearly what your technical ideas mean. On the other hand, your clients also may not understand how your words really define their needs.
In order for the data you are about to give can be meaningful for people that don't speak your language, you need to translate them into a story in which they form an understandable pieces of information
Data To Own, Story To Tell
History is not everyone's favorite subject. It includes many dates and plenty of figures to remember. As the list of data goes on and on, the more you need to memorize. But if that data is conveyed in a form of a story, you can relate each pieces to one another. So rather than memorizing the bits of information to recall them later, you will be able to learn what's the meaning of the reasoning.
People at companies have been occupied with various of data in the form of analytics and numbers. Without them knowing what each of them really represents, they are struggling with the data-driven decision because they have no idea what is the story behind them.
To make a data reasonable to be understood, they don't necessarily be presented as a spreadsheet or graphs, they should be formed into a connected meaningful story that delivers a single experience.
Stories are meaningful when they are memorable, impactful and personal. Data is often delivered in interesting visuals for others to understand. But through research, people respond differently when they are presented with statistics or through stories.
When data and stories are delivered together, they resonate with their audience in both intellectual and emotional level.
In the current Digital Age, with the internet in everyone's palm, people are bombarded with data. The internet is already a source of overflowing information, without the proper way to deliver them to people, the audience won't be able to digest everything they are given.
With so many data coming from different types, only experienced people in the field can separate what's what, and find the true meaning behind them. These people, when they want others to see what they see, need to find the right information and display them in the right way, just like a storyteller.
Data from analysis, for example, doesn't need to be sophisticated and long. It can be complex, but it shouldn't be vigorous and time consuming to digest. Data in a correct form of story, is what made them able to convey the correct information to their audience.
The better and faster the audience can clarify what's the true meaning of the data, they can response to it faster and more efficient.
Another example is data collected by various researches. The data can be used to create visualization such as a chart, numbers, or maps. But what makes the conclusion of them all come up as an evidence is when the story is delivered naturally.
Knowing the Audience
Storytelling is one of the basic thing people are able to do, whether they realize it or not. From putting their children to sleep at night, or doing some presentation at the office. When they quarrel with their spouse, or laugh with their friends. The most captivating storytellers are those that can put all the data into one place, and deliver the grasp to the audience by delivering the important bits to the audience in a manner they understand.
From the words and sentences that are chosen, to the intonation of the voice, different audience needs different approach. This is the same when data should be altered based on the listeners.
For example, when you are speaking to an executive of a company, data in the form of statistics are preferred means of communication, while when you are speaking to your Manager, words that describe the techniques and methodological ideas will make them understand. But to people that work on the field, you can use more advanced technical terms that may suit them better.
In the world where people need a common language to be able to convey message, the audience that is interested in a particular data is separated into five categories:
- Novice: The people who are new to the subject, but are eager to learn.
- Generalists: People that are aware of the topic, but are interested in just the major themes.
- Managements: Those that seeks deeper knowledge about data and wants to understand the correlation and interrelationship between them.
- Experts: People that wants more exploration without needing excessive data they find useless.
- Executives: People that wants the conclusion of a subject for understanding the weighted probabilities.
The five categories of the audience represent the five level of understanding and interests. As someone who wants to tell the story, your objective is to create an appropriate narrative. How should you tell the story? The answer to this question is crucial because it will define whether your story will be heard or not.
Using Words to Complement Visuals
How easy for you to understand a well-written novel, if compared to an colorful comic books? But how deep a comic book have to explain the situation, if compared to its novel? Visuals are targeting objective, and that means it tries to convey message in a way the narrator wants it. Words are subjective, they are trying to give one information using the readers imagination.
By combining both correctly, you can convey your message in a way that is both appealing, and meaningful, while at the same time, getting your audience's emotions.
Data can be converted to a lot of types of visualizations, and those can be incorporated into reports and articles. However, the focus is on data exploration, not aiding your narrative. While there are visuals that can stand alone to help tell your stories, they are not usually used in formal meetings and conferences. The reason for this is because understanding numbers is more difficult that understanding a story.
With the advent of data journalism, the world is seeing author-driven narrative and reader-driven narrative used together. The two narrative genres, if they must work together to interact and deliver a message, they need to have a balance between a narrative intended by the author of the story, on the part of the reader.
A good example of this "hybrid" author-reader approach is by using a few short paragraphs explaining the data, and an interactive charts that allow marketers to break down the information. Additional interactive data visualizations must provide even more context.
A good data visualization does a few things. It stands on its own; if its taken out of context, the reader should still be able to understand what the visuals are saying because the visualization tells the story. It should also be easy to understand. And while too much interaction can distract, the visualization should incorporate some layered data so the audience can explore.
Marketers are often reside as the "bridge" between data and those who wants to learn something from it. This has made them responsible for delivering messages to both parties. By rethinking the way you use data and understanding your audience, you can create compelling and meaningful stories that can influence and engage your audience on both an emotional and logical level.