Week 11

Data Storytelling and Visualization

Author

Byeong-Hak Choe

Published

November 3, 2025

Modified

November 3, 2025

In Week 11, we’ll finish the topics in Big Data and the Modern Data Infrastructure. We’ll then move onto the new topics, Data Storytelling and Visualization.

🏫 Lecture Slides

🎥 Looking for lecture recordings? You can only find those on Brightspace.

️📊💡 Data Storytelling

“The narrative is the key vehicle to convey insights, and the visualizations are important proof points to back up the narrative.” Ryan Fuller, Corporate Vice President, M365 Data Strategy at Microsoft

  • Data visualizations are useful for showing “what” is happening in the data.
    • However, they often fall short in explaining the “why” and the “how” or providing the necessary context to uncover underlying reasons.
  • Data Storytelling: Bridge the gap between data and insight by integrating descriptive statistics, data transformation, visualization, and narration within the appropriate audience context to communicate findings effectively and support data-informed decision-making.


Data Storytelling - Context

Context - Who, What, and How

  • Before creating a data visualization or communication, it’s essential to spend time understanding the context behind your message.
  1. Who is your audience?
  2. What do you want your audience to understand or act upon?
  3. How will you present the data to effectively support your point?

Context - Who

  1. To whom are you communicating?
  • Gain a clear understanding of whom you’re communicating with and how they perceive you.
    • The more precisely you define your audience, the better you can tailor your message for successful communication.

Context - What

  1. What do you need your audience to know or do?
    • Make your communication relevant by aligning it with your audience’s interests and needs.
    • Clearly articulate why they should care about your message.
    • Adopt a confident stance; as the analyst, you are the subject matter expert.

Context - How

  1. How would you present your data to help make your point?
    • Use data as compelling evidence to build and tell your story.
  • Choose data transformations and visualizations that effectively convey your message.


Data Storytelling - Data

Understanding Your Data

  • Prior to doing any storytelling or analysis, it is critical to understand your data and its limitations
    • How was the information collected?
    • What is the source of the data?
    • What is missing variable from the data?
    • What is missing observation from the data?
    • What is missing value (NA) from the data?


Data Storytelling - Narrative

The Foundations of a Narrative

The 3-Minute Story & Big Idea

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” - Blaise Pascal

  • Purpose: Boil the “so-what” down to a concise statement
  • Challenges: Being concise is often more difficult than being verbose

3-Minute Story

  • If you had only 3 minutes, what would you say?
  • Goal: Be clear and articulate the key message
  • Useful in:
    • Quick updates (e.g., elevator pitches)
    • Shortened time slots (e.g., 5-minute briefings)
  • Know exactly what to communicate and adjust to the time

Big Idea

  • Must meet three criteria:
    1. Articulate your unique point of view
    2. Convey what’s at stake
    3. Be a complete sentence

The Foundations of a Narrative - Example

  • 3-Minute Story
    • Science department initiative: Resolve issues with incoming 4th-graders’ negative attitudes toward science
    • Piloted a summer learning program with 2nd and 3rd-graders
    • Survey results: Significant improvement in positive perceptions toward science
  • Big Idea
    • “The pilot summer learning program was successful at improving students’ perceptions of science, and we recommend continuing and expanding it.”

💬 Discussion

Welcome to our Week 11 Discussion Board! 👋

This space is designed for you to engage with your classmates about the material covered in Week 11.

Whether you are looking to delve deeper into the content, share insights, or have questions about the content, this is the perfect place for you.

If you have any specific questions for Byeong-Hak (@bcdanl) or peer classmate (@GitHub-Username) regarding the Week 11 materials or need clarification on any points, don’t hesitate to ask here.

Let’s collaborate and learn from each other!

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