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Storytelling with Data
This week I interview Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, an expert in data visualization, the effective display of quantitative information, and storytelling with data.
Following a brief introduction I asked Cole the following questions;
- Why are stories important in communicating data?
- Why is data important to a story within a content marketing context?
- How is data most effectively expressed?
- Where should data appear within a story? For instance if a story has a structure – beginning, middle, reveal, end – Where should the data be?
Cole recently published a book called Storytelling with Data
My takeaway’s
- Aim to build a story around your data, using real things that have happened to you or people you know.
- Some point of conflict/trauma always helps to make a story memorable
- Data adds credibility to a story.
- Be conscious of your audience and how important data may be to them.
- Presenting data is a visual way makes it more memorable
- Use colour to focus on key data points. Aim to mainly use shades of grey with occasional colour for emphasis.
- Avoid pie charts, they are often hard to understand.
- Repetition of data and key points make it easier to remember.
A big thanks to Cole, I’m really looking forward to reading her book and I intend to use much more data in my content from now on.
Cole’s talk at Google
Cole’s contact details;
Storytelling with data website
Email – cole@storytellingwithdata.com
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