DPBS 1190
Data, Insights and Decisions
Week 10.2 – Data Communication -1
So far in the course, we have covered starting from the
role of big data in business decision making to the design
and experiments.
This session will focus on data communication and
particularly focusing on:
• charts and graphs and their role in communicating
data to a range of stakeholders.
• context of data communication
• lessons for COVID 19

• Judicious use of colour
• Telling a clear and simple story
• Without knowing the context; no one is able to say
which one is a good chart
• In the absence of the context, a chart is neither good
nor bad.
• For instance, if you are presenting to the board; the
directors may be interested to know which market
they can invest. In that case a breakdown of
changes in the global distribution of revenue might
make a good chart.
• There are lots of rules for
creating charts
• Never use pie charts
• No use geomap plots unless
geography is relevant
• Line charts work best for trends
• Do not focus on whether a chart
is “right” or “wrong”
• Focus on whether the chart is
good
We don’t go in order: Generally the writer agrees to use
words to communicate with reader and stories are
presented “in order”. With visual communication, this is
not followed. A chart reader generally scans and start
reading the chart from anywhere.
We see first what stands out: Our eyes go right to change
and differences, such as, dominant colours. Many
successful charts – often the ones that please us the
most, we understand the chart’s meaning without even
trying.
We see only few things at once: The more data that’s
plotted in a visualization, the more singular the chart’s
meaning.
We see meaning and make connections: Once we see
what stands out, we try to make sense of it immediately
and incessantly. Seeking sense this way has obvious
benefits. For one, we process visual information
thousands of times more efficiently than we do text.
We rely on conventions: Conventions are a form of
expectations, and our brains use experience and
expectation as cognitive shortcuts so that we do not have
to process everything anew every time we see it. On the
basis of our experience, we mentally store all kinds of
metaphors and conventions about what information
means.

Think of the purpose when selecting a
visualisation:
• Is the information data-driven or conceptual;
i.e., is your graph qualitative or quantitative in
nature?
• Is the figure declarative or exploratory, i.e.
are you communicating decided information
or using visualisations to search and
uncover?

• Create Space
• Mental space (Focus)
• Physical space (Away from others)
• White space (Paper/white boards)
• Put aside your data
• You will be more open minded and
creative
• Write down the basics
• What will you call the chart?
• Who is the audience?
• What setting will it be used in?
• Which of the four types of
charts are you creating?

• What are you trying to show, learn,
or prove? Explain this to others
• Words will give clues to the best
data and type of chart
• Write down visual words from your
conversations: distributed, groups,
spread out, relationship
• Listen for metaphors and imagery: We
saw a huge dip last year, revenues fell
off a cliff
• Match keywords to chart types
to create a starting point
• Sketching should be quick,
simple, messy
• Create shapes of what you think
the audience should see
• Sketch at least two versions

• When to start prototyping?
• Your sketches show what you
are trying to say/show/prove
• Your sketches are refining a
single idea
• You are plugging in actual data
and labelling charts, focusing
on colour
• What should prototypes
include?
• Real(er) data, labels, axis,
• Potentially think about colour,
medium,


Understanding the context:
• what story you will be telling?: about your business
growth, customer loyalty.
• what background information is relevant?
• who is your target audience?: internal or external; or
both
• how you will communicate?: formal presentation,
email, informal discussion
• what data strengthen your message?
• what bias does your audience have to support your
message?
Avoiding excessive cognitive load: for instance, you
are reading a report in the newspaper, and a graph
caught your eyes. You may think that this looks
interesting! In trying to get meaning out of it if you
spend more time; you may turn the page and move
on. In this case, you have experienced excessive
cognitive load.
Cognitive load is the mental effort to learn and
process new information.
One element that creates excessive cognitive load is
clutter. These are visual elements that take up space
but don’t increase understanding.
Designing message clearly for audience
Who are the audience?
Audience interaction
Use right colour and right tone to attract audience
attention
Position on the page
Presentation of key messages
Highlight important points
• Bold: use titles, labels, captions, and short word
sequence
• Bold is generally preferred over italics and
underlining as it adds minimum noise to the
design while clearly highlighiting chosen
elements
• Colour and size
Eliminate distractions
• Not all data are equally important
• When detail is not needed; summarize
• Use straightforward language
Don’t wait for the perfect data: John Hopkins University published
their COVID Dashboard on January 22,2020. The goal was to
provide user-friendly information. Data was haphazard and slightly
unreliable. Any data was better than no data (Blog written by Andy
Cotgreave on April 19, 2021).
World Economic Forum in their publication on June 23, 2020
outlined:
• COVID 19 has shown that it is possible to communicate urgent health
and hygiene information in ways that prompt people to take action.
• The success of the iconic “flatten the Curve” chart illustrates the power
of data-driven story telling.
• Data can be used to drive social changes, but need to be done
ethically.
• Data alone is not enough, need to be accompanied with clear message
• Authentic story telling
• Storytelling for a better future
• When you create a visualization you need to know: is it
effective?, are you helping people see and understand?, are you
making your case?
• The context is a critical factor in understanding graphs and
charts.
• In understanding chart, we scan and relate our thinking and
expectations to find out what the presentation means.
• Communication should focus on context.
• Clear and precise storyline needs to be created.
• Add as much as clarity possible.
• Focus your audience and understand their needs.
• COVID 19 exhibits many examples of data-driven
communication.