September, 2021

6 tips to learn data visualization basics in a month

September 28, 2021

Data visualization is one of the most powerful tools in marketing today.

It’s used to convey complex information fast and with impact. Generally, it has a higher retention rate for the reader than text-based content. It is great for marketers as viewers share visuals on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Your target audience will be more engaged by data visualizations than only words.

Data visualization is an evolving field. But it’s important to know the fundamentals to harness the power of data visualization. This post will provide 6 tips to help you become a data visualization pro in no time.

Good design is key to creating accessible data visualisations. Don’t understand the data visualization? Then they won’t understand the message you’re trying to get across.

Next time you look at a data visualization, see how long it takes you to make a judgement on it. Most people decide whether they want to read it or not within two seconds. This is what we mean when we talk about impact. For a data visualization to have impact, it must be easy enough to grasp in two seconds.

Viewers spend little time considering a data visualization. But they also spend seconds on almost all design and written work. Only when it passes the impact test, do viewers read on.

If you want your data visualization to have impact here are a few basic design principles to learn:

1. Keep it simple (KISS principle)

Imagine you are explaining something to a very smart nine year old. Make your data visualization design with that nine year old in mind. It is harder than it looks. Einstein said if you cannot explain something to a nine year old, you have not understood it yourself.

Next, show comparisons (relative size, shape, colour etc.). Out of context data points mean little. Comparing them with other points, gives them meaning. Strong comparisons communicate a story it is easy to grasp.

Use the right visual aids for the right occasion. For example, using a pie chart only makes sense if there are a few categories that add up to 100%. If you want to show a company that is making more money year on year a bar chart is a good choice. The graphic must make intuitive sense. This can get difficult. While we can show intensity using a heat map, showing impact can be less easy.

Readability comes first. Avoid the use of too many colours, or fonts. Colour is very powerful. Each colour has a different meaning. Blue is calm, red means danger and so on. If you add too many colours to your data visualization you will give it too much meaning. The viewer will feel overwhelmed. It will be a mess. A better strategy is to limit yourself to one colour only. Show that colour in different shades.

When Google show users their data they usually use different shades of blue in their charts. This makes the charts feel controlled, grown-up and easy to grasp.

Limit yourself to shades of one colour too. That way you will avoid your charts looking like they belong in a kindergarten.

Notice patterns in other visuals you like and apply them when designing yours.

Master the basics first. There are 36 different charts and maps. – Learn how to read and understand them and then you will be able to pick the right chart for the right data point.

2. Think hard about your headline

The name of the data visualization is of critical importance. If you want to learn how to make a data visualization, first learn how to write its headline. The headline should be the conclusion of the data we are about to see.

For example, the conclusion of your data could be “There was very little wind this August.”

Do not title your data visualization “August weather trends”. If you do, the viewer will need to read the whole chart first to draw the conclusion about wind in August. But we already know that most viewers give up on a data visualization after two seconds . So the chances of them reading the whole chart are small.

The correct strategy is to title the data visualization with the conclusion of the data. If you call your chart “There was very little wind this August” viewers will understand it in two seconds. The data visualization can then prove this fact with charts and graphs. Eye-tracking surveys support this strategy. They show viewers read the title of the data visualization first and then look at the chart or graph for proof. In this way, your data visualization is proof of the title.

This point is important. Matching the headline and the chart beneath is the foundational skillset of communication.

If you can do that you can make any kind of communication. You can make a video, a presentation, a movie, a magazine, a brochure or a newspaper.

3. The key software you need to get to grips with

There are many paid and free tools available both in the form of desktop and online versions. Online tool Piktochart allows you to choose from templates created by designers worldwide. It’s easy to learn, with many features already built-in.

Another great tool is Easel.ly. It allows you to recreate charts from the Office for National Statistics.I t’s library has over 100 chart types. You can learn the basics and learn new types of charts you can recreate yourself.

4. Share your work and seek authentic feedback

Once you’ve created a chart, share it with your friends and co-workers. Ask them to point out any areas that might need improvement. Is the data easy to understand? What about your contrast in colours? Do the fonts need to change? Is there too much information? The sooner you learn from your mistakes, the faster you’ll learn.

5. Follow industry leaders who share tutorials

There are many influencers who share tutorials on how to learn data visualisation. My favourite practitioners include Scott Galloway and Gapminder.

Influencers show you how to use software tools available for learning data visualization.

The Power BI Program Managers have a YouTube playlist “Analyze & Visualize Data with Power BI” is also available as an EdX course.

The Power BI team produce a 30-minute video of the new features in the Desktop every month. The latest video at the time of writing (May 2019) is here.

DataCamp offer fantastic online training in core data science skills and languages. They include Python, R and SQL. They are subscription-based but the first chapter of each course is free so you can try before you buy.

You can also learn how the Financial Times make charts

6. Read books on data visualization

If you’re feeling more comfortable with data visualisation learn from some masters. Try The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics by Dona M. Wong.

Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett have intuitive explanations of data science algorithms.

BONUS: You can learn python or R to make use of data cleaning and statistical analysis. You can learn how to make charts in R

As you see it is easy – and in some cases free – to learn data visualisation. Learn how to show your data in a way that anyone can grasp in under two seconds. Then you can begin to use data visualization as a tool for persuasion. Learn the fundamentals of data visuaization, and you will also be able to make other kids of content too . You will be able to make video, brochures, reports and articles.

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About the author

My name is Andy Pemberton. I am an expert in data visualization. I guide global clients such as Lombard Odier, the European Commission and Cisco on the best way to use data visualization and then produce it for them: reports, infographics and motion graphics. If you need your data visualized contact me at andy@furthr.co.uk or call 07963 020 103

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5 reasons why infographic design is a powerful tool for your business

September 20, 2021

Infographic design is taking numbers and turning them into graphics. An infographic designer takes numbers and shows how they change over time.

Visualizing the data in this way reveals trends and patterns. Most would not be visible if you could read the data in a table.

By adding design elements, infographic design gives those numbers impact. Infographic design becomes emotional. A user can not only see a spike in the number of cases of Coronavirus, she can feel them too. In this way, infographic design is powerful and persuasive.

We like to make numbers emotional. This is why we are an infographic design agency. In fact we are the UK’s leading infographic design agency. It is what we specialize in. We believe it’s important that people understand data so they can make sense of the world around them. This will also mean they can make better decisions.

Infographic design is not the same as other kinds of design. It only cares about numbers and what they mean. Infographic design is not only graphic design. it is more than that. It is not a schematic either. Schematics are diagrams that are symbolic or simplified versions of ideas or systems. Infographic design is different. It is only interested in numbers. No numbers, no infographic, as we say in the business.

Infographic design does not rely on words. In fact, you might say that if you need words to explain your infographic design, it has failed. An infographic design must be “stand alone.”

Infographics must be simple, clear and easy to grasp. Or put another way, they must be impossible to misunderstand. A user can understand a good infographic in under two seconds.

The title or headline of an infographic is important. It should always be the one big conclusion of the data. Eye-tracking surveys show that users read the headline first. Then they look at the infographic design. Then they go back to the headline before checking the design again.

Based on this research we see that the infographic design is “proof” that the headline is correct. In a way, we could say the infographic design is a delivery mechanism for the headline it sits under.

That is how infographics work. But why bother making them in the first place? Your business is sitting on mountains of data. You should use it. Here are five reasons why infographic design can be a powerful tool. Whether you work in finance, health, education or infographic design matters.

Five reasons why infographic design can be a powerful tool for your business

1. Users trust infographics

With an infographic, there is nowhere to hide. Other forms of communication sometimes bend the truth to suit a point of view. With infographics, the numbers are the numbers. It is impossible to manipulate them. For this reason people trust infographics. That is why they are so often used it situations where the stakes are very high.

Financiers use infographic design to show the value of savings or a stock. Medical professionals use infographics to show the efficacy of a treatment or vaccine. In each case users trust infographics. And in communication trust is everything.

2. Businesses use infographics to close a sale

Businesses often refer to the sales funnel. It is an upside down pyramid. It describes the journey of the customer, from first encountering a product to buying it. In the sales funnel, infographic design is often used near the pointy end at the bottom. This is the point of “conversion” when the customer decides to buy the product. Once the buyer has been through the funnel, we show the customer infographics. Infographics close a sale. Infographics confirm that the product is of value. The buyer can feel secure that it is worth signing on the dotted line.

3. Infographic design bridges the comprehension gap

In most organisations there are technocrats and managers. They do not always “speak each others language.” Infographic design can be a bridge between each group. Infographic design translates numbers into meaning for non-experts to consume. It becomes a bridge between technocrats and the managers.

Businesses who use data to guide decision-making out-perform those that don’t. Infographic design ensures managers have all the information at their fingertips. Then they can make crucial business decisions. This makes infographic design a critical tool in any business hoping to succeed.

4. Infographics can untangle complexity

The world is complex. Infographics can cope with this complexity. The more complex the data, the better.

A simple chart can show you spending on restaurants over the year. But an infographic can show you spending on restaurants for an entire country for the past 50 years.

Interactive infographic design can allow users to focus on one area in particular.

Infographic design can provide pattern and meaning to random events. It turns the obscure into something easy to understand.

5. Infographics can move

The blend of infographics and animation is motion graphics. Motion graphics can be easy and inexpensive to produce. They are very good at showing changes in data over time. Motion graphics can be more memorable too.

Studies show that when motion graphics move, user engagement increases. If a website has animation on its honepage, Google is up to 50 times more likely to index it.

Mobile video consumption is rising all the time. A recent report showed it rises by 100% a year. Something like 82% of content online is now video. Most of the internet is a place to watch video and motion graphics.

Generally about half videos published in a year are less than a minute long. That’s not a bad thing. Users love to share motion graphics animations like this on social media such as Tik Tok.

By deploying motion graphics services your message can reach a much wider audience.

Infographic design is powerful. Users trust it. Infographics can make the difference between a sale and no sale. If you want to communicate something complicated use infographic design. To communicate something important infographic design is your friend. If you want to engage your audience online or on social media, motion graphics are popular.

Every firm now has troves of data. It can relate to health or finance, education or tech. It is valuable. To use it as a persuasion tool it you must visualize it. If you want to find out how to do that best, get in touch with andy@furthr.co.uk

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5 benefits of data visualization and why it’s critical for marketing

September 16, 2021

Data visualization is the science of showing data in a visual form. Data visualization conveys information and data fast and without bias. It’s a great example of that old communications adage,”show, don’t tell.”

Data visualization storytelling an effective tool for business owners and marketers. It will help them distribute their data and storytelling content. Data visualization is the perfect way to get a complicated message across.

Data storytelling is particularly effective when used as a tool to reassure customers. Data visualization storytelling helps customers see the benefits of a product or service. And it can show that benefit in a way that is free of hype or marketing spin.

It is always best to position your data visualization towards the end of the “marketing funnel”. Introduced at the right time, data visualization will close the deal. Data visualization is the final piece of the puzzle that allows customers to buy with peace of mind.

In this post, we explore five benefits data visualization. They will have a powerful impact on your business and marketing materials.

1. Data visualization creates engaging content

Creating data visualization content is a great way to stand out from your competition. Not only that, it also separates your message from the noise of data and information we’re faced with every day.

The use of data visualization in marketing creates engaging and interesting content. It grabs the attention of your target audience and entices them to engage with your brand.

In a matter of seconds, your customers can understand your key message. They can grasp complex concepts in the blink of an eye. It can turn non-experts into well-informed individuals in a very short space of time. If your data is trustworthy, it follows that your product or service will must be too.

In all business communication, trust is the return on investment. If your customers trusts you, they will do business with you. Beautiful data visualization is brilliant at building trust.

2. Data visualization is easy to consume

The rise in technological advancements int he 21st century has led to increased access to data. People are consuming more data than ever before. They are looking at it on smartphones, tablets and other connected devices such as smart TVs.

Creating data visualization allows you to present complicated data. And you can do it in a way that is easy to digest by audiences on all platforms. It does not matter what device they’re using or where they’re accessing it from.

Beautiful data visualizations are a perfect blend of form and function. Audiences grasp their basic meaning i in a matter of seconds, whatever platform they are on.

We call this impact. The most effective data visualizations all have impact. Once grabbed , the user can be further drawn into the detail of the data visualization. Users who read through to the end will grasp the conclusion of your data. They will be persuaded.

3. Data visualization will enhance your storytelling

The truth is that if you leave your data in a table no one will ever read it. Only when you visualize your data will it come alive. By visualizing data we imbue it with emotion. It makes us feel something.

Scientists say emotion drives behaviour. If we engage the emotions of our audience, they will take an action. Data visualization allows us to do this. But just as important, data visualization storytelling promotes understanding.

What do we mean by story telling? This story structure is called “the hero’s journey.” It is a structure as old as mankind itself and is in everything from Marvel comics to the Bible. The hero’s journey is easy to follow, memorable and emotional satisfying.

The trick is to create a variety of visualizations. Then we take those visualizations and place them in the structure of the heroes journey. That is the sweet spot of data storytelling. Then our visualisations will be irresistible.

4. Data visualization is flexible

reating data visualizations means you can display data in many different ways. You can create tabular data displays right through to infographics. Businesses can also make interactive data visualizations. These include virtual reality, augmented reality and even 3D data visualizations.

The flexibility of data visualization means you can adapt it to suit your audience and goals.

Studies confirm that interactive data visualization increases engagement compared to static data visualizations. Data visualizations that move show audiences changes in the data. Gifs are great and showing how data changes over time.

Data visualization software tools are also proven to increase accessibility and engagement. Data visualization software tools that are easy to manipulate means that users can investigate the underlying data. They also allow users to zoom in on specific data points. The more time a user spends with a visualization, the more engaged they are.

5. Data visualization provides reassurance when making important decisions

One of the key benefits of data visualization is that it is a reassurance tool.

Imagine you are buying something significant, such as a house. First you inspect the property and speak to neighbours. Then you complete a survey of your potential new home.

The surveyor will present the data in the survey as data visualization. It offers reassurance that the house you are considering to buy will not fall down. In that sense it is emotional. And emotion is a key factor when it comes to making data visualizations.

Data visualization is brilliant at delivering reassurance that a product or service works. It is often used to “close the deal” especially if the decision is a significant one.

That’s why data visualization often features in medical and financial statements. Data visualization is always used when trust and reassurance are critical.

If you use data visualization at the right moment, it is a powerful tool. It will make customers feel reassured that the decision they are about to make is the correct one.

There is no doubt that visualizing data is beneficial. You’ll be able to explore data from many angles. You will find insights have been immediately clear.

Today everyone has data. It is a powerful persuasion tool in serious situations. But data can only works after you have turned it into data visualization.

If you want your data to work for you, you must visualize it. Sign up to Furthr’s newsletter to find out more.

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7 benefits of data visualization storytelling

September 15, 2021

Data visualization is the art of displaying data in a visual form, to convey information and data quickly and clearly. Given the deluge of data we’re faced with every day through newspapers, TV broadcasts and social media streams, data visualization can be an incredibly effective tool for business owners and marketers looking to distribute their data and storytelling content effectively.

In a data-saturated world, beautiful data visualization allows businesses to stand out from the crowd and present information in a way that will grab the attention of their target audiences. In this post we’ll explore seven benefits data visualization storytelling can have on your business.

A core truth about data is that if you put it in a table no one will read it. Only when you visualize your data will stakeholders begin to take notice. We could even call it a golden rule: you must visualize your data. But sometimes even visualization alone is not enough.

Most of us are busy. We do not want to pay the cost of engaging with something if we cannot see an immediate benefit. Data visualization storytelling displays the benefit.

We are hard-wired to frame the world as stories. Stories to make sense of the otherwise unconnected but never-ending series of events we call life. The methods of data storytelling to make sense of the world and get our point across.

Data storytelling is the same as any other kind of storytelling. It centres on the hero’s journey. This is the pattern of a story we all recognize from almost every story we know or have ever seen. The Lord of The Rings, Star Wars and Marvel movies all use the hero’s journey. So does the Bible. Shakespeare’s plays features the heroes journey too. They fit a pattern. A hero encounters an inciting incident that sets he or she off on a quest. They face many challenges which are overcome. At the end of the film, script or book, the hero has changed.

If you use the structure of the hero’s journey as your data visualization structure, your message will land. If it is easy to understand readers will trust you. Trust is the return on investment of all good data and story telling. Once a stakeholder trusts you, you can persuade them to act based on your data.

Here are seven more benefits of data visualization storytelling

Benefit 1: Data storytelling allows more rigorous analysis of the data in the first place

Stories do not only provide a shape to the finished data visualizations. They also allow us to construct a set of hypotheses.

Before diving into the data, we can start with a story line or narrative hypothesis. This can come from your previous experience or from qualitative research.

Your storyline can provide a map for investigating the data. That hypothetical story can be a way to separate noisy data from the signal.

Benefit 2: Data storytelling helps bridge the difficult “last mile” inside your business.

Gaps between business managers and technology people are not new. But the divide can run deep.

In businesses, the hardest barriers to overcome are not technical ones. They are a lack of management or financial support. Data storytelling is brilliant at over-coming these “last mile” internal barriers.

Data storytelling helps data scientists provide data visualization examples that explain complex results to non-technical stakeholders

Benefit 3: Users can process visual storytelling in the time it takes to blink your eye

Almost 50 percent of the brain processes vision. We can understand a visual scene in under one-tenth of a second.

Well-designed data storytelling takes advantage of our rapid visual processing. Data visualization storytelling means viewers can find patterns, trends and comparisons very fast..

Next time you look at a chart, see how long it takes you to decide whether you want to read it thoroughly or not. The answer is seconds.

Beautiful data visualization has impact. That means it has enough immediate appeal to make readers want to stay tuned beyond about two seconds. After that, they will absorb its message.

Benefit 4: Data visualization storytelling can handle complexity

The most unique aspect of data visualization is that it can handle complexity. It can crunch vast troves of data and display it on many dimensions. It can show how things have changed over hundreds, even thousands of years. The best data visualization storytelling can transform complex data into beautiful clarity.

Remember: no one reads a table; everyone looks at the chart.

Benefit 5: You can’t bend the truth with data storytelling

Journalism sometimes embellishes the truth. Sometimes it creates false impressions. But with data visualization, there is “nowhere to hide.”

If the numbers in your data visualization show a decline in sales, then that will be impossible to mask. If you data visualization shows a higher infection rate than predicted, it will be plain to see.

Good data visualization storytelling reveals truths that we do not cannot see.

Benefit 6: Effective data visualization storytelling is persuasive

Whether it’s individual measurements or broader patterns, the best data visualization surprises you. It reveals something you did not already know.

For instance, the most deadly animal is not the shark, nor is it man. It is the mosquito. Half of all the people that have ever died in the world, died from malaria. As temperatures rise, malaria is making its way to the UK.

These are surprising data points I learned from compelling data visualization storytelling. This kind of data visualization storytelling is persuasive. That is not a mere opinion, but the finding of a study by New York University.

Benefit 7: Data visualization storytelling is a way to make better decisions

Decisions based on data are more effective than prejudice, gut feeling or what has worked in the past. Making decisions based on data visualization means you can gain a competitive advantage, says this study.

The only way to tackle data is to come to the data with an insight or hypothesis to test. Building stories provides a good framework in which to do that.

But that is just the start of the process. When we show our findings, telling a story with data visualization is the only way to get our message to land.

The world is awash in data. Data visualization story telling makes sense of it.

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