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More than 3,000 years ago, storytelling helped build one of the most famous civilizations on the planet.<\/p>\n
When the Dorians invaded the Greek peninsula, the people of the region did not have a common language. Divided by vast lands and uncommon words, they were relatively easy to conquer. But under Dorian rule, storytellers began traveling from village to village using the Greek language to spin their tales. People wanted to listen, so they began to learn the language. Slowly, it spread. United with one language, the Greeks became stronger and defeated the invaders, and became one of the most influential civilizations the world has known.<\/p>\n
That is the power of stories.<\/p>\n
Stories are such a universal<\/a> and ancient means of communication that researchers began to study what makes them so powerful. What they found was pretty remarkable. When stories are told, audience members\u2019 brains do two interesting things.<\/p>\n Stories, in other words, are scientifically proven to both forces us to listen and to feel. Two things that are essential to any persuasive effort.<\/p>\n What sets a story apart from a jumble of language is simple \u2014 the dramatic arc.<\/p>\n You know a story when you hear it, or even, when you see it. Ballet, for example, can move an audience to tears or laughter just by building a narrative through movement.<\/p>\n Numbers, though perhaps less elegant than ballet, can do the same thing \u2014 tell a story without words. Doing so requires careful planning. A group of ballet dancers can get on stage and start twirling around without ever spinning a story. And a spreadsheet of numbers could be presented to your executive team only to elicit blank stares and a chorus of \u201cWe\u2019ll think it over.\u201d<\/p>\n If you want your business intelligence<\/a> to have true persuasive powers \u2014 the kind that gets you project approvals, strategic buy-in, and budget allocation, your numbers must tell a story.<\/p>\n Data is critical to effective and persuasive communication today. The onslaught of information and opinions into everything we see and hear is at an all-time high. Numbers provide us with validity and credibility that makes us believers.<\/p>\n On their own, numbers aren\u2019t very compelling. Many people either think they\u2019re boring or fear them, assuming they\u2019ll be difficult to understand. That\u2019s where visuals come in to help. Our brains process images faster and remember them longer than words.<\/p>\n By combining data and pictures (two communication powerhouses) to form a story, you have a highly persuasive tool. Data visualization stories present the evidence (the numbers) needed to reach a certain conclusion, the imagery to make them memorable, and the scientific impact which to understand them.<\/p>\n To take data from a simple chart to a story, you should aim for the following:<\/p>\n If you need any more convincing, consider this our story\u2019s resolution \u2014 while only 5 percent of people<\/a> remember a statistic they\u2019ve heard, 63 percent remember a story.<\/p>\n Enough talk. Below is an example of a data visualization that tells a story about the world population. It lets the user quickly see the relative distribution across continents, with actual counts visible on hover-over. As the user clicks on continents or countries to drill deeper, a new story unfolds.<\/p>\n \n\n
So, what makes a story a story?<\/h2>\n
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Storytelling with data<\/h2>\n
Numbers, pictures, and stories: a powerful trifecta<\/h2>\n
Bonus points<\/h2>\n
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