Second Thoughts

I came across this on the topic of data visualisation.

Think of all the popular data visualization pieces out there – the ones that you always hear in lectures, read about in blogs, and the ones that popped into your head as you were reading this sentence. What do they all have in common? They probably all told a great story. Maybe the story was to convince us of something, compel us to action, enlighten us with new information, or force us to question our own preconceptions. Whatever it is, truly great data visualization reaches us at a very human level and that is why we remember them.

It is really our bread and butter. I guess it is always the way that I think about the business situations I come across, and mabye that’s connected to my theatre background. (On the other hand, maybe my theatre background is an expression of this preference for a ’story perspective’ in me…) But when I think about it, whenever I’m in a business situation, I’m getting a kind of dramatic story going in my head – what are the roles (story-type roles, not org-chart roles), what are the dramatic forces making for good or bad turns in the story, what are people or groups after, what would make them pleased or disappointed. Some of the basic forms of story-telling help me to construct these dramas. They are simple but powerful heuristics. One is the pattern of ‘that’s good – that’s bad’, or ‘things get better/things get worse’. Good story tellers get this pattern set up clearly. We are after some happy ending: the things that happen along the way take us closer to or further from that goal. And each choice that we make might take us further on our way, or thwart our ambition. And it’s magic when you can get the data organised to help tell a story like that.