22 Storyboards

TODAY’S GOALS

Understand how storyboarding can be a useful tool to organize a group data story

Refine your data story through storyboard process

For more on this topic

Read:

Communicating with Data (Nolan and Stoudt)

WHERE ARE WE?!? Data Storytelling

Data Storytelling is the process of creating a narrative around a dataset. This narrative can be used to inform, persuade, or entertain. It is a way to communicate the insights we’ve gained from our data to others.

22.1 Warm-up

Up until this point, you’ve been working individually on writing and revising data stories. Today, we’re going to start working on a group data story.

We’ll use a storyboard to facilitate and organize the larger narrative of the data story.

22.1.1 Storyboarding

What is a Storyboard?

A storyboard is a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence to depict important milestones and changes in the narrative.

They are used frequently in film, animation, and graphic novels to plan out the visual narrative. We’ll use a storyboard to plan out the narrative of our group data story.

Nolan and Stoudt lay out a six step process:

Collect tables and plots: gather all the relevant visuals and tables you’ve created
Group related findings: organize the visuals and tables into groups that tell a coherent story
Find the story: consider the connections between the groups and sequence the groups so you can tell a story
Choose tables and plots: select or design the most important visuals and tables to include in the final presentation
Sequence the tables and plots: consider the flow of details needed to understand the data and visuals
Add captions and transitions: write a summary for each plot and a description for why it matters

22.2 Exercises

22.2.1 Exercise 1 - Storyboard

Open the template file.

Make a copy of this document for your project group (all members + instructor should get editing access)
Each person should

copy the template slide [3rd slide] and insert a screenshot of a visual or table they’ve created for the project
for each visual/table, add important message (top) and why it matters (bottom)

Important Message: a 1 sentence summary of what is the most insightful finding of the visual

Why it matters: few sentence description of why the audience should care and what they might do with that insight

Discuss the order of the slides to tell the broader narrative and what is missing from the current set of visuals/tables.

Use this activity to work through ideas for how to tell the data story (in written and oral formats)

# Storyboards ```{r setup, echo = FALSE, warning = FALSE} knitr::opts_chunk$set(collapse = TRUE, warning = FALSE, message = FALSE, fig.height = 2.75, fig.width = 4.25, fig.env='figure', fig.pos = 'h', fig.align = 'center') ``` ```{r, echo=FALSE, results="hide", warning=FALSE, message=FALSE} # Load packages library(tidyverse) library(tint) library(mosaic) question_num <- 0 NextQ <- function() { question_num <<- question_num + 1 return (question_num) } library(conflicted) conflict_prefer("rename", winner = "dplyr") conflict_prefer("filter", winner = "dplyr") conflict_prefer("smiths", winner = "tidyr") conflict_prefer("melt", winner = "reshape2") conflict_prefer("count", winner = "dplyr") conflict_prefer("group_by", winner = "dplyr") conflicts_prefer(ggthemes::theme_map) conflicts_prefer(base::sum) conflicts_prefer(base::min) conflicts_prefer(base::max) conflicts_prefer(base::mean) ``` <div class='content-hidden'> **SETTLING IN** Sit with people that **are** in your project group. Check in with each other as humans. \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ </div> > **TODAY'S GOALS** > > - Understand how storyboarding can be a useful tool to organize a group data story > - Refine your data story through storyboard process \ \ \ \ > **For more on this topic** > > Read: > > - [Communicating with Data](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/communicating-with-data-9780198862758?cc=us&lang=en&) (Nolan and Stoudt) \ \ \ \ **WHERE ARE WE?!? Data Storytelling** - **Data Storytelling** is the process of creating a narrative around a dataset. This narrative can be used to inform, persuade, or entertain. It is a way to communicate the insights we've gained from our data to others. \ \ \ \ ## Warm-up Up until this point, you've been working individually on writing and revising data stories. Today, we're going to start working on a group data story. We'll use a storyboard to facilitate and organize the larger narrative of the data story. ### Storyboarding [What is a Storyboard?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storyboard) > A storyboard is a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequence to depict important milestones and changes in the narrative. They are used frequently in film, animation, and graphic novels to plan out the visual narrative. We'll use a storyboard to plan out the narrative of our **group** data story. Nolan and Stoudt lay out a six step process: 1. *Collect tables and plots*: gather all the relevant visuals and tables you've created 2. *Group related findings*: organize the visuals and tables into groups that tell a coherent story 3. *Find the story*: consider the connections between the groups and sequence the groups so you can tell a story 4. *Choose tables and plots*: select or design the most important visuals and tables to include in the final presentation 5. *Sequence the tables and plots*: consider the flow of details needed to understand the data and visuals 6. *Add captions and transitions*: write a summary for each plot and a description for why it matters \ \ \ \ ## Exercises ### Exercise 1 - Storyboard Open the [template file](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1a_79ZlShNijAtJDYWIVG6HVL-cjeZnmByNCmxDRHbdk/edit?usp=sharing). 1. Make a copy of this document for your project group (all members + instructor should get editing access) 2. Each person should - copy the template slide \[3rd slide\] and insert a screenshot of a visual or table they've created for the project - for each visual/table, add important message (top) and why it matters (bottom) > **Important Message**: a 1 sentence summary of what is the most insightful finding of the visual > **Why it matters**: few sentence description of why the audience should care and what they might do with that insight 3. Discuss the order of the slides to tell the broader narrative and what is missing from the current set of visuals/tables. *Use this activity to work through ideas for how to tell the data story (in written and oral formats)* \ \ \ \ <div class='content-hidden'> ## Wrap-up - Upcoming due dates </div>