Data will be remembered only if presented in the right way. Often, executives and managers are being bombarded with charts, graphs, dashboards with complex data analytics. The reason why they struggle with the data-driven decision making is that they don’t understand the story behind the data. In this way, a powerful story with data means a lot.
Stories are meaningful when they are memorable, impactful and personal. When data and stories are used together, they resonate with audiences on both an intellectual and emotional level. To tell a meaningful story, you’d better:
Identify the audience. What does the audience know about the topic? There are usually five types of audience in common: novice, generalist, management, expert and executive. The novice is new to the subject, but doesn’t want to oversimplification. The generalist is aware of the topic, but looking for an overview understanding and major themes. The management want in-depth, actionable understanding of intricacies and interrelationships with access to detail. The expert want more exploration and discovery and less storytelling with great detail. The executive only has time to glean the significance and conclusions of weighted probabilities.
Use data visualization to complement the narrative. There are mainly two visual narrative genres: one is author-driven narrative, which doesn’t allow readers to interact with charts; the other one is reader-driven narrative, which provides ways for reader to play with the data. Those two should be balance intended by author with story discovery on the part of reader. A good data visualization should stands on its own. If you take it out of the context, the reader should be able to understand what the chart is saying as well. A good data visualization also should be easy to understand. while too much interaction can be distractive, the visualization should incorporate some layered data so the curious can explore.
Reference: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/tell-meaningful-stories-with-data.html