What Makes a Data-Story Work? A Framework for Effective Visual Data Narratives

Stories have been recognized for their power of communication & persuasion for centuries and we need to operate at that intersection of data, visual and stories to fully harness the power of data. Online journalism has already started to show the path but we need to develop the science of data-story to get them widely adopted in business. We used a case study based approach to map the four different layers in a data-story: See - Show - Tell - Engage. We developed a framework of key dimensions within each of these layers and then rigorously analyzed 25 carefully selected case-studies to see which elements were being employed in the data-story. We focused not only on the dimensions of data abstraction and visual representation, framing and transition but also on the dimensions of story structure, point-of-view, relatability and engagement through emotions, takeaways and interaction. Our framework indicates generic strategies that can be used for effective data-stories using exploratory and explanatory visualization in personal and presentation context.