Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals By Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic

I was recommended this book, but unfortunately, it doesn't live up to expectations. This will be helpful for you if you have no common sense and have never met a good graph before. If you're looking to improve from creating basic graphs, this won't help you. The overviews of the different graph types were basic, I would argue many of the author's examples of a 'good graph' could still be improved, she tries to argue pie charts are rubbish through showing an awful 3D pie chart, then explaining 3D in itself is rubbish (duh!). Then also tries to argue for ethics in data on the principle that you shouldn't mislead because you'll be figured out by a smart audience member (not because it's principally wrong). Big book with big text, not much substance and will be reselling. Would highly recommend 'Better Data Visualizations' by Jonathan Schwabish instead. Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals Don’t be fooled by the title. It’s not about visualising business information and modelling it’s about visualising KPIs. I’m sure it’s a fine book. Just not what I wanted. it’s bar and line charts not how to tell a story using the core data. My fault. Didn’t do my homework! Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals If your job is to talk with people about numbers (any numbers: profit and loss, salary, election results, number of stars in the universe) then this book is for you. If you have created a chart to explain something, but not sure if people will understand what you're trying to tell them then this book is for you. If you work with Excel, Power BI or any other tool to visualize data, don't stop on readying books about ETL and Power Query, Excel formulas, data modeling and DAX. ETL, data modeling, formulas/calculations all this steps you're doing for one reason to make it possible and easy for you or other people to get useful insights from the data. To make data easy to understand, to extract useful insight you need to visualize the data. To visualize the data doesn't mean to drag&drop data fields onto a chart. It means to make meaningful visual representation of the data. And you need to read good books about data visualization to understand the concepts. And this is the first book to read. Easy to read book based on real life examples. This books will help you understand why colorful visualization is not the same as insightful visualization, why you need to think carefully about each line, each caption, each color on your data visualization. After reading this book you'll be crying looking at the thousands of colorful pie charts (with tens of similar size sectors colored using all possible colors) posted in the internet by people who know how to create a chart using a software, but don't understand (yet) what is the purpose of this data transformation into a visual object. Read the book, and make the world of data visualization better. If you need practice, read another book of the same author Storytelling with Data: Let's Practice!. Cole is a great teacher of the science (and art) called data visualization. Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals It is difficult (if not impossible) to manage what cannot be measured. Yes, there are “intangibles” (e.g. empathy) that have unique value and importance. Quantifying the so called “soft skills” (e.g. listening) also poses challenges. However, the fact remains that data visualization can enrich and extend a narrative’s impact, especially when the objective is persuasion or resolution rather than entertainment.What Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic provides in this volume is an abundance of information, insights, and counsel that can help almost anyone to master the skills needed, in Knaflic's words, “to visualize data and tell stories with it” in order to turn the data “into information that can be used to drive better decision making.”These are among the several dozen passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Knaflic’s coverage:o Thinking like a designer (Pages 15 16 and 127 150)o Importance of context (19 33)o Selecting visuals that will be effective (35 69)o Graphs (43 49)o Bar charts (50 59, 156 158, 161 162, and 236 237)o Visuals to avoid (61 68)o Voiding clutter (71 98)o Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception (74 81)o Lack of visual order (81 86)o Focusing on an audience’s attention (99 126)o Preattentive attributes (102 116)o Affordances (128 138)o Hierarchy of Information (135 138)o Accessibility (138 145)o Storytelling (165 185)o Storytelling with data process (187 205 and 242 255)o Case Study 2: Leveraging animation in the visuals you present (210 218)o Case Study 4: Strategies for avoiding the spaghetti graph (227 234)I agree with Knaflic: “There is a story in your data. But your tools don’t know what that story is. That’s where it takes you — the analyst or commentator of the information — to bring that stay visually and contextually to life. That process is the focus of this book.”These are the specific learning objectives on which she focuses, each preceded by “How to….”o Understand the context in which the story is presentedo Select an appropriate visual display of the datao Eliminate cluttero Focus attention where it is most neededo Think like a designero Tell the story (setting. characters, plot, conflicts, resolution, etc.)Presumably Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic agrees with me that the most effective storytellers are aware of an unspoken question that every member of the given audience has in mind: “Why should I care?” or perhaps “What’s in it for me?” The story format will help to engage their interest but there must also be substantive support of the message. That’s where the data component is decisive, for better or worse. If you need help with creating visualizations “that are thoughtfully designed to impart information and incite action,” look no further. Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals Cole's first book, Storytelling with data, forms the base for her 2nd and 3rd books (storytelling with data let's practice & storytelling with you coming September 2022).The lessons ask us to focus on our audience and context. Help us to choose an appropriate visual, discuss the need to eliminate clutter from the visual, and sharpen the focus and attention of the audience bearing in mind the need to prevent your audience from trying to figure out the visual whilst not listening to your presentation. Finally, UI/UX followers will appreciate the authors' encouragement of us to think like a designer and tell a story.Visualizations can be tricky, without the Cole makeover, they are open to interpretation, and invariably different audience members will arrive at different takeouts from the standard run of the mill bar and pie charts. Creating a different visual and explaining the story to the audience is demonstrated clearly in the book. You can practice with the follow on book Let's practice. Take time, read the lessons, think about previous visualization experiences, and read . Then practice! Appreciate the difference between graphs for exploratory data analysis (EDA) and an explanatory graph.I enjoyed and valued the purchase which I often open and refer back to whilst doing a data visualization as part of my presentation decks. Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

Dont simply show your datatell a story with it! Storytelling with Data teaches you the fundamentals of data visualization and how to communicate effectively with data. Youll discover the power of storytelling and the way to make data a pivotal point in your story. The lessons in this illuminative text are grounded in theory, but made accessible through numerous real world examplesready for immediate application to your next graph or presentation. Storytelling is not an inherent skill, especially when it comes to data visualization, and the tools at our disposal dont make it any easier. This book demonstrates how to go beyond conventional tools to reach the root of your data, and how to use your data to create an engaging, informative, compelling story. Specifically, youll learn how to: Understand the importance of context and audience Determine the appropriate type of graph for your situation Recognize and eliminate the clutter clouding your information Direct your audiences attention to the most important parts of your data Think like a designer and utilize concepts of design in data visualization Leverage the power of storytelling to help your message resonate with your audience Together, the lessons in this book will help you turn your data into high impact visual stories that stick with your audience. Rid your world of ineffective graphs, one exploding 3D pie chart at a time. There is a story in your data Storytelling with Data will give you the skills and power to tell it! Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

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