Two-Day Data Storytelling, Infographics and Visualization Workshop for Organizations

To start the day, I discuss the primary challenges communicators face trying to reach audiences in today’s world. The solution to these challenges are many, but revolve primarily around my “4X4 Model for Knowledge Content”, which is a simple framework for presenting content to people in different layers and with key aspects, including visualization and storytelling. I then walk through the four-step process required to turn data into visual narratives, interspersed with exercises and lots of research-backed best practices along the way.

Practice getting to a narrow, focused idea from a large complex pile of information.

Practice turning numbers into narrative using outlining techniques.

We review some basic data analysis tactics (when this workshop is delivered to communications staff and not analysts!)

We spend a half hour doing some great warmup whiteboard exercises, getting everyone thinking visually and expressing abstract ideas in visual form. This is fun and really helps build confidence on the part of the group.

We break into small teams (of 5-6 people) and create a relatively straightforward infographic (on paper/whiteboard) using a concept I bring with me. If you have a project you’re working on that we can do as a team exercise, we can do this instead!

One of the challenges people face is the many ways you can visualize certain kinds of data. The most common is proportionality (everyone goes right to the pie chart!) In this short talk, we discuss other ways to visualize proportionality and I share some research that is relevant.

By the end of the day, if not sooner, people are starting to feel they can do the conceptual work and want to learn more about what tools they can use. I talk about the many categories of tools available and briefly demo a couple of them. But this is a very high level overview of an endless abyss of information!

Yes, I think it’s important to be sure everyone in the room understands some VERY BASIC statistical concepts. I am NOT a statistician – this will not go deep, don’t be afraid. But it is critical that you know the difference between Mean and Median – and why you might use one or the other – plus a few other basics. This content is included when this workshop is delivered to an audience that is not made up of data analysts or others who already know this information.

Understanding how humans process visual information will help you create visuals (charts, graphs, maps and infographics) that communicate effectively. We will review the science behind design best practices to help you create more impactful visual depictions of data.

Picking the right chart to visualize the data you have and to emphasize what you’re trying to emphasize is an art, but there are definitely rules and best practices that can help. We will do a group exercise to work those muscles a bit.

This is the big daddy of the exercises – we spend the entire afternoon researching, analyzing, visualizing and storytelling with data. Once again, I will come with an exercise or we can work with your content.