Why use Visualizations and Infographics With Data Story Telling

BySteve Young Updated on

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but you can use a well-designed graphic to help the reader understand your point of view by telling a story. Using Visualizations and Infographics with Data Story Telling can become the vehicle that leads a reader through your Power BI narrative.  Having an infographic or series of visuals allows one to tell a story and provide greater understanding than simply having text alone.

I read a fantastic article by Allison Stadd entitled, 15 Data Visualizations That Will Blow Your Mind, which shows examples of using visuals to tell a story. A quote from the article resonated with me;

“The best data visualizations are storytelling tools that spark discussion and elicit calls to action.” 

Infographics are an excellent example of storytelling which is gaining in popularity as writers try to capture readers’ attention with complex topics. A quick search on Pinterest will provide many examples of how infographics are used to tell a story.

Taking a multi-step article and putting the information into an infographic makes the data easier to digest and more accessible to more people. USA Today has a section on Interactive Graphics they use in various news stories that illustrate how they have utilized this storytelling trend.

This is what drew me into working with data;

To help people advance their point of view by giving them the ability to tell their story through data.

You can summarize a thousand lines of data in a well-designed visual that will convey your point with a more significant impact than having hundreds of words of text. In addition, adding visuals will engage your readers and help to lead them through complex topics.

I have a few articles I wrote that tell a little more about telling stories with data visualizations;

Resources

22 Free and Open Source Data Visualization Tools to Grow Your Business – This list of free tools allows you to create your own visualizations.

9 popular ways to perform Data Visualization in Python – Python is hot in the data analytics area right now.  This article has some examples of using Python in data visualization.

With over 34 years of experience in the data and technology industry, the last 16 with Microsoft, I have had the opportunity to work in various capacities, contributing to my knowledge and expertise in Data Engineering, Power BI, and Data Visualization.