What Is Storytelling in Data Visualization?

Collecting data for your business and projects is essential. It’s how you can tell if your efforts are effective and your strategies are productive. But raw data can be tedious to manage and complicated to understand in its basic form. And for many enterprises, there are silos of untapped data just waiting to be interpreted. Data visualization storytelling and Power Bi Reporting are pivotal solutions to this data mining challenge. Discover what storytelling with your data entails and learn how today’s businesses are transforming their data interpretation methods in a big way using both.

See how your business can break down data sharing barriers and put actionable steps in place using data visualization storytelling. Connect relevant information with all your teams across diverse backgrounds and throughout a host of various business disciplines.

What Is Storytelling in Data Reporting?

Storytelling with data doesn’t mean weaving tales of personal interpretation with the metrics. It’s not storytelling with data so much as it is a framework for science-based communication. It’s data journalism that captures raw analytics and presents it in a storytelling way, teaches, and provides insightful direction. 

The data collected is a pile of numbers and figures. Storytelling is the method used to frame those metrics in a way that establishes explanations, answers “why,” and highlights potential trends. The go-to tool for capturing those storytelling frameworks is Power BI Reporting.

Power BI Reporting is the solution for scrubbing your raw data and drawing unique images, graphs, and charts that help frame your data-driven story. Using the analytics pane of your Power BI Desktop, you can apply searching, sorting, and forecasting functions to your datasets. From there, you’ll be presented with easy-to-interpret and understand visuals. And with PBRS software, you automate your Power BI Reporting with automatic reporting and real-time refreshing capabilities. 

Use the data visualization to spot emerging trends, anticipate potential challenges, and act quickly on insightful intel with your business strategies.

But Why Use Visualizations?

Even if you’re a numbers wizard with extensive experience researching your data, you will need a data visualization solution. At some point, you’ll need others to act on and interpret your data, too. And data visualization using Power BI Reporting can present all the storytelling benefits you need to actionalize that powerful data.

Your Brain Loves Images

The human brain is just more efficient at processing images than it is with text or numerals. Science says the brain can simultaneously evaluate several ideas 60,000 times faster than it does linearly with straight text. These findings indicate that presenting data in a visual form and implementing storytelling techniques will be far more effective than simply presenting sets of numbers.

Imagery Provides Context

Data visualization storytelling is a great way to illustrate a point, bring context to raw data, make decisions or describe trends. Storytelling with your data also allows you to:

• Introduce a new topic or challenge.
• Communicate historical or background information.
• Explain the relevance and significance of the datasets.

Essential for Improved Customer Experiences 

Your company’s ongoing pool of collected data can tell you incredible details and insights about your core customers and their experiences. Use Power BI Reporting to illustrate better who your target market is and what their buying habits are. Tailor those illustrations and data visualizations to personas, depicting their unique roles and goals. Having these storytelling metrics available to you will ensure you continue evolving and improving your customer service overall.

Creating a Narrative Flow with Your Data-Inspired Imagery

Your data will often follow a timeline and trajectory that can be cataloged using imagery. You can use storytelling to help logically create sequences of your data. Narrative flows are also helpful when guiding an audience through next steps or when addressing pain points. Use your data imaging to document coherent discussion flows. These can be an incredible resource for demonstrating how your teams take action based on data and storytelling. Here are some examples of how you can use visuals to create data-driven narratives:

• Infographics
• Charts and Graphs
• Interactive Maps
• Feature Articles

How to Establish Data Credibility

Another storytelling advantage is the ability to establish credibility for every dataset you analyze and present. You can use data visualization to illustrate methodologies used in data collection. It’s also great for supporting your data analysis and citing any sources that were used as part of your process. Don’t just tell your audience what data points support your conclusion, show them how the data lead you there.

Additional Benefits of Data Storytelling

In addition to all the advantages mentioned above and reasons why leveraging data storytelling is so effective, there are other benefits to this approach. Data visualization continues to emerge as a powerful tool for transforming complex raw data into actionable insights and images. And with Power BI Reporting tools, that transformation is simple and wildly effective. 

Storytelling Enhances Data Comprehension

Because the data you’re collecting can be complex and challenging to unravel, storytelling in data visualization is essential for enhanced data comprehension. Bring in illustrations that will help map out a narrative your team can follow. 

Data Impacts Decision-Making

Use storytelling with your data to create timelines and visualizations that inspire change, improvements, and decision-making processes with higher information retention. It’s how you can keep every strategy and process aligned with actionable, real-time data.

Driving Meaningful Actions

Don’t just share numbers and figures when you can engage your teams and customers with data visualization stories. Data-driven narratives lead to more meaningful outcomes.

Explore Storytelling in Data Visualization in Your Business

Start tapping into the power of storytelling with data visualization. It can be a powerhouse solution your business or project needs to make the most of every point of data you collect.