The ever increasing computational capacity has enabled us to acquire, process and analyze larger data-sets and information. However, the human memory and attention required to use this data is more limited and has remained relatively constant. Data visualization can enable us to compress data and encode it visually in ways that allows us to aid perceptual and cognitive understanding. However, data visualisation alone is not enough and often we need to try to tell stories through data. Storytelling with data can enable us to move from analysis to synthesis, from numbers to visuals, and from an argument to a story. Operating at this intersection of data, visual and story can help persuade not only through logos (logic) but also through pathos (empathy) and ethos (credibility). In trying to tell compelling data stories, we can empower our selves to engage, communicate and persuade a large and diverse audience. In this talk, I discuss ‘why’ stories work and what we can learn about the art of storytelling from other mediums like oral storytelling, written stories, pictures, comics and movies. I will summarise basic principles that can help us in our crafting journey, as we take the data through the layers of abstraction. The focus would be on unpacking the seven dimensions of creating an engaging data story - Abstraction (data patterns), Representation (visual encoding), Framing & Transition (perspective, focus), Messaging (verbal, text annotation), Flow (arrangement) and Interactivity. Further, creating data stories is a cross disciplinary activity that requires us to operate at the intersection of a visual designer, data scientist and storyteller. It is both a science and an art. So how does one realistically learn these multitude of skills needed to get good at it. I will also discuss ideas about the possible path that practitioners could adopt to learn this craft through sustained practice. ## About the Speaker Amit Kapoor is interested in learning and teaching the craft of telling visual stories with data. He uses storytelling and data visualization as tools for improving communication, persuasion and leadership. He conducts workshops and trainings for corporates, non-profits, colleges, and individuals at narrativeVIZ Consulting. He also teaches storytelling with data as invited guest faculty in academia, both in management context at IIM Bangalore and IIM Ahmedabad and in design context at NID, Bangalore. His background is in strategy consulting in using data-driven stories to drive change across organizations and businesses. He has 15 years of management consulting experience, first with AT Kearney in India, then with Booz & Company in Europe and more recently with startups in Bangalore. He did his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT, Delhi and PGDM (MBA) from IIM, Ahmedabad. You can find more about him at amitkaps.com and tweet him at @amitkaps

1. Storytelling
with data
Amit Kapoor
@amitkaps

2. War Stories &
Killer Charts

3. Joshua Bell

6. Rhetoric
Logos — Ethos — Pathos

7. Humans are
pattern-seeking
story-telling
animals.

8. analysis Synthesis
numbers Visuals
argument Story

10. What is a story or a
narrative?

11. narrative | ˈnærətiv
noun: Any account of connected events, presented
in a sequence of written words or spoken words or
(moving) pictures.

14. Events that happen
in time
Linear Order

15. Named people who
have to face
decisions
Personal Decision

16. A disruption of a
state of equilibrium
Change in Context

17. A foregrounding of
human experience
Elevation - Human Emotion

23. One human life,
closely observed, is
everyone’s life. In
the particular is the
universal.
— Roger Ebert

24. Storytelling
Visualisation

25. Think Stories, Not Charts

28. Explanatory
Growth of the Dual Ecosystem

32. Exploratory
Where do I live?

37. The Joy of Stats
Hans Rosling

47. How can we create
data-stories?

50. 80% perspiration,
10% great idea,
10% output.
— Simon Rogers

54. We’re bad at the why
questions, which are
often much more
interesting.
— Amanda Cox

56. Bad Aesthetics

57. Good Aesthetics

58. Above all else,
do no harm
— Tufte

62. Overview first,
then zoom & filter,
details on demand
— Ben Schniederman

63. Types of Transitions

65. Meaningful Annotation

66. Powerful Narration

67. There's always room
for a story that can
transport people to
another place.
— J.K. Rowling

69. More Linear, More Storylike

70. Guide the audience

71. All stories are
indeed structures,
but all the best
stories are brittle
structures.
— Tadhg Kelly

73. Linear Navigation

74. Staging & Animation

75. Ensure the
interactivity has
Affordance. To
afford means "to
give a clue"
— Dan Norman

76. How to learn the
skills to craft data-
stories?

77. Art - Craft - Science

78. craft | krɑːft
noun: An activity involving skill in
making or doing things by hand

79. How do you learn a
craft?

80. Novice — Expert

81. Start with Basics

82. Do Repetitions

83. Conduct Deliberate
Practice

84. Focus on Mastery

85. It took me a lifetime
— Pablo Picasso

86. So, how do you
start?

89. Learning Styles

91. We don’t see things
as they are, we see
them as we are.
— Anais Nin

92. Understand your
own strength

93. Learning Data
Visualisation &
Storytelling

94. Start with Charting
Simple Datasets

95. Learn Basic Charts

97. Design Basic Charts

98. Expand your Chart
Vocabulary

100. Visualisation is the
transformation of
the symbolic into
geometric
— McCormick et al. 1987

101. Think Geometric,
Not Charts

102. Encode with Shapes
and Colour

103. Position them out

104. Learn the Grammar

105. Play with Colour

106. Understand Visual
Perception

107. Develop an
Aesthetics Sense

108. Learning to See

109. The universe is
made of stories, not
of atoms.
— Muriel Rukeyser

110. Nature

111. Architecture

112. Abstract Art

113. Sketch ideas

114. Visualise Wide
Datasets

115. Visualise Large
Datasets

116. Visualise Spatial
Datasets

117. Move to Layering

118. Multi-layered Static
Visualisation

119. Narrative
Visualisation

120. Dashboard
Visualisation

121. Interactive
Visualisation

122. Tools

126. Data is just a clue to
the end truth
— Josh Smith

127. See the world
through a data lens

128. Aesthetics is deeply
associated with
emotions and
feelings
— Giorgio Lupi

129. Create beautiful
aesthetics

130. The data is just part
of the story.
— Jonathan Harris

131. Tell stories that
connect

132. Closing the Gap

134. @amitkaps
amitkaps.com