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Articles by Elizabeth Hardman Ricks
how do I give an unbiased recommendation to my analysis? — storytelling with data
Through virtual and in-person workshops around the globe, we have taught tens of thousands of people how to communicate effectively with data. This series captures some of the noteworthy questions we hear during those sessions—and our answers. How do I avoid misleading my audience—and introducing bias—when providing a recommendation to my audience? When shifting from exploratory to explanatory analysis, you should always think about what you want your audience to do with the information.
How are maps used for data visualization and data storytelling — storytelling with data
March’s SWDchallenge was a popular one! Fifty-eight people found data that lent itself to visual representation in a map, and shared their creations with the community. As Alex mentioned, the SWD team doesn’t typically encounter many geospatial examples from our custom workshop clients, so this month’s theme was a fun “detour” into a different visual type than our norm.
examples of remaking confusing data visualizations — storytelling with data
January 21, 2021 by Elizabeth Ricks in Data Viz Challenge, SWDchallenge Recently, SWD has had makeovers on the brain. We launched a new makeover page full of tips and examples of effective data storytelling and we’re gearing up for another year of customized workshops, where we’ll illustrate the storytelling with data lessons by remaking examples from client organizations. Last month, we challenged you to flex your own makeover muscles by first critiquing, then re-creating this confusing visual.
how to create a shaded range in excel — storytelling with data
October 08, 2019 by Elizabeth Ricks in Tips Today's post is a tactical Excel how-to: adding a shaded region to depict a range of values. To illustrate, let’s consider an example from the tourism industry. Suppose a watersports company offers four categories of outings: fishing charters, family rentals, nature cruises and sunset cruises. The graph below shows the monthly volume of passengers for each offering over a year.
recapping radials
July 22, 2019 by Elizabeth Ricks in Data Viz Challenge, SWDchallenge This month’s challenge was to find a dataset that makes sense tovisualize in circular form—including but not limited to chord diagrams, coxcomb charts, polar area diagrams, radar plots, or sunbursts—and share what you learned about the process.
designing in style
June 24, 2019 by Elizabeth Ricks in SWDchallenge This month, we explored the concept of brand in data storytelling and received an enthusiastic response with fifty-eight exercises in re-branding an example graph.
how YOU visualized it
The March #SWDchallenge took on a slightly different flavor. Rather than summoning you to try a certain graph type or approach, this month’s goal was effectiveness. We sought to see how people varied in answering specific questions about the same dataset. Data was sourced from AidData in partnership with Enrico Bertini, Associate Professor at NYU, who will be undertaking some data visualization research based on this challenge.
September #SWDchallenge recap: MAKEOVER edition
This month, we challenged you to remake a dual pie chart and a record number of you delivered—96 submissions to be exact! With everyone starting from the same visual, it’s fascinating to see the diversity in your makeovers—from chart types to design choices to points of emphasis. This reinforces one underscoring theme of storytelling with data’s guiding principles: there is no single “right” answer and two people can approach the same dataviz challenge in completely different ways.
When marketers ask me, "How can I boost my data-savvy skills?"
Recently I perused the sales and marketing job postings on Charlotte Agenda’s job board and found a somewhat surprising recurring theme… Upon further examination of the top job postings, I discover that a whopping 90% of marketing postings* contained a data-driven component, which manifests as: Being in the analytical field myself, this was not particularly surprising to me, as most organizations are scrambling to find people who can help them make sense of the growing amount of data being...
I massively underestimated ImaginOn. But after my first visit, my family is obsessed
How did I not already know about it? I thought I knew all the best places to take a bored toddler in Charlotte. (And this place is free!) I mean, fine, I had heard of it, but I was like “It’s just a library? I have a library within walking distance! I’m going to go to that library?” Oh, how ignorant I once was. What I have learned is that ImaginOn includes a library, but it’s so much more and totally worth a visit (or 12) with your kids. Why? Let me spell it out for you.
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