Finding and communicating the story using visualisation - Lesson 5 of 6

Finding and Communica-ng the Story – Lesson 5 of 6 – Visualiza-on Ray Poynter, 2016

Finding and Communica-ng the Story

Lesson 5 of 6

Visualiza-on – for finding and communica-ng the story

Ray Poynter

September 2016


Series Schedule

•  An Introduc5on and Overview – Feb 23 •  Working with Qualita5ve Informa5on – Apr 5

•  Working with Quan5ta5ve Informa5on – May 26

•  Working with mul5ple streams & big data – July 5

•  Visualiza-on – Sep 13 •  Presen5ng the story – Nov 8


Agenda

•  Brief recap •  The difference between finding and sharing •  Making numbers more visual

•  Rela5onships in the data •  Visualiza5on for communica5on


The Frameworks Approach 1.  Define and frame the problem –  A problem fully defined is a problem half solved

2.  Establish what is already known –  Find out what is believed and what the expecta5ons are

3.  Organise the data to be analysed –  Systema5c checking and structural procedures

4.  Apply systema5c analysis processes

5.  Extract and create the story


Finding Versus Telling •  Most of the steps in finding the message in the data are

NOT part of the communica5on

•  Some5mes, none of the visualiza5on you use to find the story will be part of the telling of the story

•  Finding: –  Show me the contenders for the main story and let me choose one

–  Alterna5ve perspec5ves, alterna5ve stories

•  Communica5ng –  Here is the one story I want to show


Different Uses For Visualiza-on •  Finding the story in the data •  Telling the story •  Monitoring, for example dashboards

•  Workshop discovery of findings •  Teaching – the geometry of the circle

•  Allowing self-‐discovery and story crea5on •  Instruc5ons – how to build that IKEA furniture


Radar Charts for Finding

0

20

40 Training

Recruitment

Entertaining

Research

Partnerships

Innova5on

Marke5ng

NPD

Can be useful to find the story Only use with ‘trained’ audience


Data Reduc-on


Op-mising the Detail

Chuck Close


Making Numbers More Visual

•  2 or 3 SD – significant digits •  Sor5ng •  Indices (Indexes) •  Colour Coding


Per Capita Govt. Spend on Health -‐ $

183 Countries, 1995 to 2010, source Gapminder


3SD – Units of $10

Divide by 10, display no decimals (but don’t delete them)


Sor-ng – Filters in Excel

Adding an ID field let’s you get back to the star5ng posi5on easily


Looking at the Shape of the Data


Index, 1995 = 100


Line Chart for Outliers Congo, Dem Rep

Niue

Georgia

Equatorial Guinea

Sudan

$ by Govt on Health Indexed 100=1995


What is the Ques-on?

•  To use analysis to find answers, you need ques5ons

•  To use visualiza5on to find answers, you need ques5ons

•  For example: Does expenditure on health vary by wealth or poli5cs?


Gapminder – Govt. Health Spend v Income

Saudi Arabia


Total Health Spending


Spending and Child Mortality

South Africa

Bangladesh


Brand A`ribute Data


Condi-onal Formaang


2SD


Diagonalise


Tidy Those % Signs


1 SD


What is the Ques-on?

•  To use analysis to find answers, you need ques5ons

•  To use visualiza5on to find answers, you need ques5ons

•  For example: How does income relate to life expectancy?


Gapminder and Narra-ve Flow

Hans Rosling finds the story using data – Rich countries = long life – Very poor countries = short life – But

•  In most countries (the middle group) it depends on how the money is spent

Then the charts tell the story – The charts are not the story, they tell the story


Different Perspec-ves

ASK: The alterna5ve explana5ons for this data are?


Findings Need a Comparator

RFID





Bad news for men in Eastern Europe

Eurostat -‐ hhp://goo.gl/r2q526

Amenable Deaths Per 100,000 of popula5on -‐ 2012


Use Numbers for Illumina-on Not Support


Visualiza-on and the Power Shic

hhp://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/the-‐triumph-‐of-‐coal-‐marke5ng.html


The Numbers have less impact

Source: World Health Organisa5on

Infographics?

Allows the reader to find stories But, does not tell a single story If used in a presenta5on, would need:

1.  Time 2.  Planning


Google Music Timeline


Audiences can be Trained – but not quickly

Feynman Diagram The interac5on of sub-‐atomic par5cles can be complex and difficult to understand intui5vely. Feynman diagrams give a simple visualiza5on of what would otherwise be a rather arcane and abstract formula.


The Big Picture •  Visualiza5on for finding the answer is usually different from telling the story

•  The key is data reduc5on, the Michelangelo way – remove the stone that is not David

•  In a visualiza5on numbers should be largely irrelevant to the communica5on

•  A visualiza5on should match or stretch the audience, but not be out of their quick grasp


Thank You!

Follow me on Twi`er @RayPoynter

Or sign-‐up to receive our weekly newsle`er at h`p://NewMR.org


Schedule

•  An Introduc5on and Overview – Feb 23 •  Working with Qualita5ve Informa5on – Apr 5

•  Working with Quan5ta5ve Informa5on – May 26

•  Working with mul5ple streams & big data – July 5

•  U5lizing visualiza5on – Sep 13 •  Presen-ng the story – Nov 8


Q & A

Ray Poynter The Future Place

Education

Finding and communicating the story using visualisation - Lesson 5 of 6