Telling stories with data

Dan Hill / @DanHillReports

DATA

Qualitative / Quantitative

Viz can be awesome!

Explorers / Dashboards

"Dataview" / Stepper graphics

Everybody loves data viz

"While text is frequently presented to students for critique, diagrams and data visualisations are overwhelmingly used simply as a medium of displaying final results."

“Do you know where your data come from?”

CHECK THE METHOD

Checklist for a new dataset

• Count the the records
• Confirm numbers add up
• Look for what’s missing
• Examine the "shape" of the data

Bias is everywhere

including your own analysis

• Colors, scales and axes
• Sample selection
• Small sample size!

What is shown and not shown in the data?

What are the pros and cons of your method?

NYT chart types

The Data Visualisation Catalogue

MAPS

“Do not use a map to compare quantities or volume, unless geography is relevant to the message.”

Dona M. Wong

Choropleth

“A type of heat map with areas shaded by a variable.”

Kyle Kim

Heroes of viz

Edward Tufte

Alberto Cairo

"Functional art" tells a story

Giorgia Lupi

Always be scrapin'

• ImportHTML in Google Spreadsheets
• import.io?
• Tabula for PDFs
• Program your own!

Humanizing data

Humanizing data

TOOLS ARE COOL

but

STORIES ARE THE COOLEST

NUMBERS ARE BORING

for most people

USED EXCEL

BREAKING NEWS DATA CHALLENGE

bls.gov

Email screenshots!