Join Bill Shander for an in-depth discussion in this video Story structure, part of Data Visualization: Storytelling.
- [Voiceover] As I've mentioned many times before,…for thousands of years humans have communicated via stories.…We know what stories look, feel, and sound like,…which means stories have predictable attributes.…So if you want to tell stories, even data stories,…you have to be able to define what that means.…Lisa Cron's book Wired for Story has a great definition…for what a story is, what those attributes are.…Lisa sums up the definition of story like this.…"A story is how what happens affects someone…"who is trying to achieve what turns out to be…"a difficult goal and how he or she changes as a result."…So to break that down a bit more into four key things,…a story is how what happens, that's the plot,…affects someone, the protagonist,…who's trying to achieve what turns out to be…a difficult goal, this is the story problem,…the challenge the protagonist faces,…and how he or she changes as a result, the so what.…
So a story has a beginning, middle, and end,…and every story has a plot, protagonist, challenge…and transformation, which is the real so what.…
Join data visualization expert Bill Shander as he guides you through the process of turning "facts and figures" into "story" to engage and fulfill our human expectation for information. This course is intended for anyone who works with data and has to communicate it to others, whether a researcher, a data analyst, a consultant, a marketer, or a journalist. Bill shows you how to think about, and craft, stories from data by examining many compelling stories in detail.
- Creating a narrative structure for data
- Applying narrative to data
- Identifying what you want to say with the data
- Analyzing what your data is saying
- Determining what your audience needs to hear
- Leveraging tables, charts, and visuals
- Ensuring your narrative provides context and direction