E-Book, Englisch, 464 Seiten
Pulipati Data Storytelling with Google Looker Studio
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-80056-195-3
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection
A hands-on guide to using Looker Studio for building compelling and effective dashboards
E-Book, Englisch, 464 Seiten
ISBN: 978-1-80056-195-3
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection
Presenting data visually makes it easier for organizations and individuals to interpret and analyze information. Looker Studio is an easy-to-use, collaborative tool that enables you to transform your data into engaging visualizations. This allows you to build and share dashboards that help monitor key performance indicators, identify patterns, and generate insights to ultimately drive decisions and actions.
Data Storytelling with Looker Studio begins by laying out the foundational design principles and guidelines that are essential to creating accurate, effective, and compelling data visualizations. Next, you'll delve into features and capabilities of Looker Studio - from basic to advanced - and explore their application with examples. The subsequent chapters walk you through building dashboards with a structured three-stage process called the 3D approach using real-world examples that'll help you understand the various design and implementation considerations. This approach involves determining the objectives and needs of the dashboard, designing its key components and layout, and developing each element of the dashboard.
By the end of this book, you will have a solid understanding of the storytelling approach and be able to create data stories of your own using Looker Studio.
Fachgebiete
- Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion Informationsarchitektur
- Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Daten / Datenbanken Datenbankdesign & Datenbanktheorie
- Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Informatik Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion Informationsvisualisierung
- Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Business Application Unternehmenssoftware
Weitere Infos & Material
Table of Contents - Introduction to Data Storytelling
- Principles of Data Visualization
- Visualizing Data Effectively
- Google Looker Studio Overview
- Looker Studio Report Designer
- Looker Studio Built-in Charts
- Looker Studio Features, Beyond Basics
- Employee Turnover Analysis
- Mortgage Complaints Analysis
- Customer Churn Analysis
- Monitoring Looker Studio Report Usage
1
Introduction to Data Storytelling
Data storytelling makes the presentation of data compelling and persuasive. This is a book about learning how to use the Looker Studio tool to visualize data and build useful reports and dashboards. Before we learn how to build different visual data representations, it’s important to first understand the craft of storytelling with data and its utility. It will serve us well to take a step back and understand the big picture.
This introductory chapter sets the stage for understanding the meaning of data storytelling and its importance. We will go through the components of a good data story, understand how data storytelling manifests at work, and learn the key skills required to be a good storyteller. Finally, we will learn about an approach to building effective data stories. In this chapter, we will cover the following main topics:
- Understanding data storytelling
- Building data stories – an approach
Understanding data storytelling
Simply put, data storytelling means telling a story using data. According to Brent Dykes, author of the bestselling book , data storytelling is the skillful amalgamation of data, narrative, and visuals.
Why tell a story? Stories are an integral part of our lives and are the most natural way we consume and retain information. Compared to straightforward facts and messages, stories are memorable, impressionable, relatable, and persuasive. Stories appeal to the humanness of the audience. Stories often help in communicating a complex concept or message more effectively. This is evident through the prevalence and effectiveness of parables, fables, and other forms of stories throughout human history.
Structuring a data story
Stories can be told in different ways and can have different purposes. Some have a moral or a lesson to teach, some report events, while others just entertain. In the simplest sense, a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This basic structure is referred to as Aristotle’s arc, known to have been introduced by the ancient Greek philosopher.
Figure 1.1 – Aristotle’s arc
The traditional narrative arc expands on this basic linear structure and involves building up tension through rising and falling action. German playwright Gustav Freytag’s five-step paradigm, commonly known as Freytag’s Pyramid, forms the basis of most modern-day stories.
Figure 1.2 – Traditional story structure – Freytag’s Pyramid
In this traditional form of narrative, the most important aspects of the story are revealed in the latter half of the story – climax through resolution. The traditional story approach when applied to data stories typically involves the following narrative flow:
- Provide the context
- State the problem
- Highlight the impact
- Share the key insight
The other major form of storytelling is news reporting. It follows an inverted pyramid format. The most important information is provided at the beginning, followed by the key supporting information, and finally, the least important details.
Figure 1.3 – News story structure
When a data story is created using the news story approach, it follows the following sequence of steps:
- Share the key insight
- Provide the context and causes
- Details through drill-throughs/drill-downs
A data story can use either of these approaches depending on the presentation format, the audience, and the objective of the narrator – to influence a decision, to inform, to trigger an action, and so on. If you are presenting data to an executive audience with little time to spare, you might want to follow the news story approach by starting with the key insight. This will help you get their attention and then you can delve into the details as needed.
On the other hand, when you are trying to present a complex or counter-intuitive insight, you might want to follow the more traditional approach of first setting the stage with the context and evidence, then laying out the problem, drawing attention to the impact of this problem, and finally closing with one or more solution recommendations.
The purpose of a data story could either be explanatory, where we explain a phenomenon, or be actionable, where we want to elicit an action or decision through actionable insights. While data can also be used to describe a situation, the descriptive nature doesn’t typically make a story by itself. Data on its own has no useful meaning. It needs to be gleaned for information and insights. And it is these insights that we are usually after.
Instances of powerful data stories that persuade action and influence decision making are ubiquitous. Consider a non-profit organization that is seeking donations for supporting cancer research. Sharing personal stories of those who suffered from cancer and those who benefitted from the research supported by the organization makes an incredible impact on the potential donors. Presenting a data story around the effectiveness of the organization, the amount of money raised, the membership growth, and the people served helps potential donors and volunteers to connect with the cause and persuade them to take action.
As another example, consider the owners of an online personalized gift store. Their sales are declining and they would like to understand what action they can take to remedy the situation. By analyzing sales and customer feedback data, they learned that over 30% of customers in the last 6 months have experienced shipping delays and damage. These customers left poor reviews on the e-commerce site and prominent social media forums, resulting in poor sales. Based on this insight, the owners decide to replace the shipping carrier. This caused the negative customer feedback to dwindle immediately and the store saw more positive feedback and sales over time.
Data storytelling is not the same thing as data visualization. While data visualization refers to the effective representation of data through graphics and visuals, data storytelling goes beyond just data visualization. Visuals are critical but are only one component of data storytelling. Data storytelling embeds data visuals in a narrative and presents a cohesive picture.
Note
Much of this book is focused on building great visualizations with Looker Studio. We will touch upon the narrative aspects of data storytelling where applicable.
When building a data story, always start with understanding your data and identifying the key insight or phenomenon you would like to share. Then create a narrative that you would like to take your users or audience through. Follow that with sketching the scenes and designing the storyboard. Only then work on building the visuals and presentation.
Further reading
For a deeper understanding of the psychology of storytelling and various aspects of data stories, read Brent Dykes’ book .
Presenting data stories
Data stories can be presented either to a live audience for direct consumption or to an offline audience to consume the content indirectly. Data stories can take many forms – documents, PowerPoint presentations, videos, websites, dynamic dashboards, reports, and more. When you present directly to the audience, you are in full control of the narrative. You determine what the audience sees at any point in time. You can carefully walk them through your various story scenes in sequence, building up the necessary tension and anticipation.
In this mode, you can also employ various visual aids and tools – images, animations, video, text, charts, and more – to facilitate the narrative and make the presentation more compelling. The audience passively consumes the information you are providing. Nevertheless, it can be presented in quite an engaging way. Perhaps the best example of data storytelling comes from the Swedish physician and public speaker Hans Rosling’s iconic narration of the story of the world using augmented reality animation. You can watch it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo.
On the other hand, when the intent is to present to an audience or users who will consume the content later, the format can be static, such as in published reports or articles, or can be interactive, such as on dashboards, websites, and so on, allowing the audience to interact with the content and explore. In offline consumption mode, you need to be really cautious about driving the desired user behavior so that all users can interpret and understand the key insight or phenomenon consistently and with little ambiguity.
When the data is static and doesn’t change over time, as the narrator or storyteller, you know exactly the insight or the message that needs to be conveyed and how best to present it. A good example of using text and visuals to narrate a story about can be found at https://vizhub.healthdata.org/child-mortality.
With the help of simple animations, powerful visuals, and supporting text, the narrator has built a compelling narrative to highlight the problem of child mortality and how uncovering inequalities in child survival...
