Writer’s Tears – Turning Numbers into Textures

Data Storytelling Tips

Data Storytelling Challenges

Raise your hand if you find telling stories with data challenging.

For data analysts (or those aspiring to be), much of your day involves taking numbers and giving them meaning. If I say “150” and just leave that number hanging, what does it mean? Is it the price of a watch, a percentage increase in stock, or the distance a train has traveled?

As an analyst, your job is to define numbers and give them context. For example, “150” could be the number of cars your company didn’t rent out over the weekend. That might represent 50% of your rentable vehicles, which in turn means revenue could be down by 30% compared to last weekend.

While those insights can be verbalized or written down, the real challenge comes when you have to present them visually. What type of graph should you use? Which colors, data points, and legends will best convey the story behind the numbers?

Why even use graphs, you might ask? One reason is information density—graphs can summarize large amounts of information much more effectively than raw text.

Example: Summer Activity Scores

25
Movie
25
Hiking
75
Biking
69
Swimming

Two Tips for Adding Texture to Data Storytelling

  1. Use color gradients to show increases or decreases in amounts.
  2. Segment colors: Use one color for data on the left, a different color for the middle, and another color for data on the right.

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