How to use storytelling conventions to create better visualizations

Story is the best form of communication we have. To the steely-eyed analyst, it may seem superfluous and manipulative — a way to persuade with emotion instead of facts. While it’s true that some have used storytelling to mislead and befuddle, to discard it altogether is like blaming shoes for an inability to dunk a basketball. Stories aren’t the problem; false stories are. The goal of the analyst, then, isn’t to avoid stories but to tell better ones.

Storytelling is an effective way to communicate, but for the data analyst it’s unavoidable because every presentation of data tells a story whether it’s intended or not. If the story isn’t made explicit, the audience will make one up. Take the ubiquitous tabular report as an example…

A visualization project doesn’t succeed by accident. Behind every project is a developer who’s mastered the data, the subject matter and the user stories. No one understands the content better than she does. By comparison, the audience’s vantage point is limited. If left to their own devices, chances are they’ll miss important insights or draw incorrect conclusions.

Given that, there’s no better person than the visualization developer to provide a point of view on what the data means. If the audience is looking for a story, it’s incumbent on the developer to guide them to the one that’s the most meaningful while staying true to the data. For a visualization to succeed, the developer must own the role of storyteller.

The story framework

Stories are about ideas. A particular story might be about a detective figuring out who did it or survivors fighting off a zombie apocalypse, but underneath the fictional facade is a point of view about life. The combination of setting, characters, events and tension is simply a metaphor about real-world ideas that matter — and are true. The genius of storytelling is that it doesn’t tell you an idea is important — it shows you. When done well, its outcomes seem inevitable and its conclusions are convincing. Few methods can match a great story’s ability to enlighten and persuade.

To accomplish this, stories typically follow a framework or narrative arc that looks like this …

1. A relatable protagonist whose world is in balance 
2. A crisis that knocks their world out of balance, making the status quo unacceptable
3. A journey to restore balance that faces progressively escalating opposition
4. A climax where the protagonist must decide to risk everything to find balance once again

You can see how this plays out in a couple of great movies from the ‘80s …

In The Karate Kid, a high schooler named Daniel moves to California with his mom and is doing reasonably well at making new friends (balance), when a bully with a cool, red leather jacket and sweet karate moves decides to make Daniel his target (crisis). Daniel is determined to learn karate to defend himself and finds Mr. Miyagi to train him (journey). In the end, Daniel must overcome the bully in a final battle royale for all to witness (climax).

In Back to the Future, Marty is a normal kid trying to take his girlfriend to the prom who also happens to be friends with a mad scientist who discovers time travel (balance). A string of events leads Marty to accidentally travel back in time to when his parents first met. This threatens his future existence when his mom becomes enamored with him instead of his dad (crisis). Marty then has to orchestrate events so that his mom and dad fall in love (journey), and then get back to the present using the power from a clock tower struck by lightning (climax).

The beauty of this framework is that it takes advantage of a characteristic we all share as humans: the need for order and balance. When something threatens that need, the tension causes us to direct all of our mental, emotional and physical capacities toward restoring that balance. Sitting idle isn’t an option. Action must be taken.

A visualization can also use this framework to present information in a more persuasive and compelling way. If a report states facts simply because they exist with no concern for what they mean, then a visualization shows the facts that matter. An effective visualization focuses on the facts that reveal meaningful tension and provide a guided path to the appropriate actions.

Let’s look at how each part of the framework applies to visualization design …

Scope depth over breadth

“A relatable protagonist whose world is in balance”

Storytellers understand their audience, which enables them to create relatable protagonists and a clear picture of a balanced and desirable life. Good storytellers go deep, not wide. They limit the number of characters and the breadth of the created world to only what can be known intimately.

If visualization is a form of storytelling, the audience is its protagonist and the setting its analytical scope. A successful visual creates a world its audience will immediately recognize as its own. Its scope favors depth over breadth. It doesn’t waste space on extraneous topics because the data is available or previously reported. It focuses solely on the problem it set out to solve and solves only that.

Exception-based visual cues

“A crisis that knocks the protagonist’s world out of balance making the status quo unacceptable”

Crisis is the driving force of a story. Without it, there’s no action, and without action there’s no story. If the protagonist lives in a world where everything is as it should be, then why would she do anything to change that? Minor annoyances or moderately challenging setbacks might lead her to make adjustments, but that doesn’t make for a compelling story. What’s compelling is when an event threatens the essence of life as she knows it. When that happens, action isn’t optional; it’s a matter of survival.

A visualization is also defined by action — consequential action, more to the point. Its aim is to convince the viewer that the status quo is unacceptable and that action is mandatory. In the same way a story uses a crisis as an impetus for action, a visualization makes crises jump off the screen and compels the viewer to act. It doesn’t allow minor issues to clutter the view. It focuses squarely on the things that’ll dramatically damage the current state if left unaddressed.

In the business world, it’s common to see a report full of performance KPIs like sales this year vs the previous year, or market share of a company vs a competitor. In far too many cases, every positive and negative variation is highlighted with green or red, like the left side of the chart above. While it succeeds in looking like a Christmas tree, it fails at helping the viewer understand what truly matters. Only a few KPI variances have meaningful implications for the overall health of a business, which are called exceptions. An effective visualization is clear on which exceptions impact performance the most and displays them front and center.

Progressively revealed detail

“A journey to restore balance that faces progressively escalating opposition”

Every story is a journey. They’re sometimes about the protagonist literally getting from point A to point B, but they’re always about the protagonist’s journey of personal transformation. No good story leaves its characters how it found them. It may seem that all is well at the beginning of a story, but a major crisis exposes how vulnerable they are. The narrative arc isn't about recovering what the crisis took away. It’s about the protagonist growing into a better version of themselves they didn’t realize was possible before. Like in real life, it doesn’t happen with one transformational event. It happens progressively. The heroism that’s always required in the final act wouldn’t be possible in act one. It’s the journey in the middle that makes it possible.

While a visualization doesn’t usually demand heroic acts from its users, it does concede that they need to go through several stages of analysis before they’re ready to act. Few real-world problems are so simple that a single KPI or view could clarify the severity of a situation or the appropriate response. Decision-makers want to go through a progression that starts with high-level performance questions and moves to increasingly detailed questions until a specific opportunity for action is identified. The job of a visualization is simply to mirror this progression.

Actionable conclusions

“A climax where the protagonist must decide to risk everything in order find balance once again”

In the narrative arc of a story, the protagonist’s transformation is only complete once they irreversibly turn away from who they once were and embrace their new self. Every event, character, decision and action in the story builds to the moment at the end where they make a final decision and take the required action. In a well-crafted story, the end seems inevitable because every moment logically leads to it, one step at a time.

In the same way, a visualization builds toward a final, decisive action from its users. Every choice about what, how and where to show information is made with this end in mind. Common tabular reports provide information and nothing more. A better visualization provides the necessary insight for making decisions. To do this well, a visualization designer learns what type of information her user base needs for better decision-making. She then figures out how to sequence visuals so her users can intuitively get to that information as quickly as possible.

As a visualization developer, it’s tempting to focus on developing technical skills. The list of database types, languages and visualization tools is ever-expanding and there’s obvious value in mastering many of them. However, few people have mastered the critical skill of storytelling. Those that do are highly valued and sought-after — even those with average technical skills.

A great next step for someone who wants to go deeper is to read what the master storytellers say about the topic. If you need a place to start, read Story by Robert McKee. Aside from being an enjoyable read, his framework for screenwriting parallels data visualization in a way that is insightful and inspiring. There are, of course, many great resources on the topic, so pick one and invest in becoming a better storyteller. Your visualizations will always tell a story, so why not master the skill of telling the best one possible?

— By Dan Gastineau