Duncan Clark, co-founder and CEO of Flourish and Head of Europe for Canva, brings a wealth of experience as a former data journalist at The Guardian. He dives into the art of data storytelling, stressing the difference between merely 'explaining' and truly 'exploring' data. The conversation highlights crafting engaging narratives, the importance of clear communication, and the power of interactive visualizations. Listeners gain practical insights on connecting with audiences and presenting complex data effectively, making the concepts relatable and actionable.
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insights INSIGHT
Data Storytelling vs. Data Analysis
Data storytelling uses data to communicate insights, unlike data analysis, which focuses on understanding.
It bridges the gap between exploring data and explaining it to an audience.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Visualizing for Understanding vs. Explaining
Start by visualizing data to understand it, then shift to visualizing for explanation.
Craft a clear narrative before creating visualizations, as visuals alone won't convey the message.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Carbon Map: A Player Piano for Data
Duncan Clark's company, Kiln, created "Carbon Map," an interactive visualization showcasing data with a play button.
This allowed users to experience the data story automatically, similar to a "player piano," before exploring it further.
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In 'Nudge,' Thaler and Sunstein argue that by understanding how people think, we can design 'choice architectures' that nudge people toward better decisions for themselves, their families, and society. The book introduces the concept of 'libertarian paternalism,' where gentle nudges guide people toward beneficial choices without limiting their freedom. It explores various aspects of human decision-making, including the distinction between the 'Automatic System' and the 'Reflective System' of thinking, and provides numerous examples of how nudges can be applied in real-life scenarios to improve outcomes in health, finance, and other areas[1][3][5].
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In this ninth Pigeon book by Mo Willems, the Pigeon has a new holiday dream: to drive Santa's sleigh. When Santa takes a break to wrap gifts, the Pigeon sees his chance and pleads, wheedles, and begs readers to let him take the reins. This book is a fun and interactive holiday classic that continues the tradition of Willems' engaging and humorous storytelling.
Data storytelling is a perpetually hot topic in analytics and data science. It's easy to say, and it feels pretty easy to understand, but it's quite difficult to consistently do well. As our guest, Duncan Clark, co-founder and CEO of Flourish and Head of Europe for Canva, described it, there's a difference between "communicating" and "understanding" (or, as Moe put it, there's a difference between "explaining" and "exploring"). Data storytelling is all about the former, and it requires hard work and practice: being crystal clear as to why your audience should care about the information, being able boil the story down to a single sentence (and then expand from there), and crafting a narrative that is much, much more than an accelerated journey through the path the analyst took with the data. Give it a listen and then live happily ever after! For complete show notes, including links to items mentioned in this episode and a transcript of the show, visit the show page.
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