Developing Your Data Visualization

Consider your audience first. Be specific, e.g., students in their first-year of university.  Broad terms like “stakeholders” may be appropriate but try to narrow down your audience even further such as employees or patients. If you have multiple stakeholders with a wide variety of interests, that may lend itself to multiple data visualizations.

Questions to ask yourself about your audience include:

1. To whom are you communicating?
2. What do you want your audience to know or do?
3. How can you use data to make your point?  (Nussbaumer Knaflic, p 20-21)

When building a good data story, consider the following:

• Keep it relevant. The data should be meaningful to your audience.
• Analyze good quality data from reliable sources.
• Develop a clear narrative.
• Use visuals to augment your story in a compelling way.