a pixar twist on presenting data
TRANSCRIPT
A Pixar Twist on
Presenting Data
Amanda Makulec with invaluable input from
Michelle Samplin-Salgado
Amanda Makulec, MPH Visual Analytics Advisor
John Snow, Inc.
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Recommendations
We can do better.
take your
audience on
a journey
the Pixar story arc
Once upon a time there was ___.
Every day, ___.
One day ___.
Because of that, ___.
Because of that, ___.
Until finally ___.
From: http://www.pixartouchbook.com/blog/2011/5/15/pixar-story-rules-one-version.html
today’s design sprint
Task #1
Pick an idea
you want to
work with
for the next
hour.
Let’s talk about
the science
behind stories.
It starts in
your brain.
Stories
Hormones
Who’s your audience?
Interests?
Motivations?
Action?
Task #2
Who will
you share
that idea
with?
Name your
audience
What kinds of stories would resonate?
What questions would they ask?
What action do you want them to take?
Let’s talk about
great stories.
What stories do
you remember?
Exposition
Rising Action
Climax Falling Action Denoument
Freitag’s Dramatic Arc
Themes from Great Stories
COMING OF AGE You have arrived.
Shows experience and demonstrates strengths
CONSTANT EVOLUTION You’re always changing and growing.
Shows adapatibility.
TRUE AS IT EVER WAS You remain true to yourself and your core values.
Shows steadiness and helps to reinforce trust.
OVERCOME OBSTACLES There were challenges but you came out ahead
Shows resilience
REBIRTH You’ve grown, changed, reinvented yourself.
Shows new hope, direction, and promise.
THE QUEST It’s been quite the journey. You’ve remained true to you.
Shows commitment and dedication.
the
characters
the point
of view
Image credit: David MacCandless, Knowledge is Beautiful
explicit (implicit)
visualization (art of design)
Structuring visual elements
information (art of journalism)
structuring information
focus
Task #3
Map out your key
story points: data
stories,
characters, a
point of view
(if you like).
Designing your
visualizations
conceptual data driven
declarative
exploratory
idea illustration everyday data viz
idea generation visual discovery
Matrix credit: Harvard Business Review’s Good Charts
make data sticky
color
“ t h i n k i n g w i t h
y o u r l i z a r d
b r a i n ”
preattentive attributes
length
width
shape
size
enclosure
preattentive attributes
strategic chart selection
Paired Column Column
Bar Paired Bar Stacked Bar
Stacked Column
Slope
compare categories
Histogram Box and Whiskers Confidence Interval
distribution
Scatterplot Bubble
relationship
Dot Plot
time series
0 20 40 60 80
why dots?
0
20
40
60
80
Facility1
Facility2
Facility3
Facility4
Facility5
Facility6
Facility7
Facility8
Year 1
Year 5
0 20 40 60 80
Facility 1
Facility 2
Facility 3
Facility 4
Facility 5
Facility 6
Facility 7
Facility 8
Pie Donut
part-to-whole
a cautionary tale
Image credit from: https://www.biostat.wisc.edu/~kbroman/topten_worstgraphs/bell_fig3.jpg
Image Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/
03/16/magazine/16wwln-
lede.graphic.ready.html
Tree Map
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Icon Matrix
part-to-whole better
839
294
145
50
Small Multiples Chart
Horizontal Stacked Bar
View & order a copy at http://policyviz.com/graphic-continuum/
chart type quick reference
three things t o i m p r o v e e v e r y c h a r t
1: declutter
“Erase non-data - ink , wi th in rea son .”
8
14.9
11.7
38.9
19.2
16.6
20.4
26.2
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Facility 1 Facility 2 Facility 3 Facility 4 Facility 5 Facility 6 Facility 7 Facility 8
Year 1
Year 1
0
10
20
30
40
50
Facility 1 Facility 2 Facility 3 Facility 4 Facility 5 Facility 6 Facility 7 Facility 8
2: color sparingly
0
10
20
30
40
50
Facility 1 Facility 2 Facility 3 Facility 4 Facility 5 Facility 6 Facility 7 Facility 8
0
10
20
30
40
50
Facility 1 Facility 2 Facility 3 Facility 4 Facility 5 Facility 6 Facility 7 Facility 8
Brand compliant =
Rainbow charts
be mindful
custom styles
3: purposeful title
0
10
20
30
40
50
Facility 1 Facility 2 Facility 3 Facility 4 Facility 5 Facility 6 Facility 7 Facility 8
Health Worker Data Use Assessment Score by Facility
Zambia, 2015
0
10
20
30
40
50
Facility 1 Facility 2 Facility 3 Facility 4 Facility 5 Facility 6 Facility 7 Facility 8
Health workers at Facility 4 showed the highest
proficiency in using data for decisionmaking.
chart templates
Illustrate
your story.
Harness your inner child
timelines
use icons
icon matrix
pick your icon
cartoons
combine visuals
83% of nurses in our
program used the
mobile app
57
49 51
45 48
1992 1997 1999 2005 2006
According to most recent data, stunting
remains a major challenge in India.
% children
under 5
for social share &
infographics
Task #4
Storyboard
with stickies
And consider…
Think like a
designer
Simple LESS IS MORE
white space is nice
Strategic use of
color
no more than 2 fonts
You can vary the
SIZE width ke ar n in g to create visual interest and
hierarchy
images
for high res images…
slidedocs
favorite things
Graphic Continuum
Dot plots
Icon matrix
Canva
Piktochart
Noun Project
Pexels
Slidedocs
duarte.com // storycorps.org // skillshare.com
storytelling recs
Insp
ira
tio
n
Skill building
data viz recs
For more information about JSI’s
work in visual analytics and data use,
contact the JSI Center for Health
Information, Monitoring & Evaluation
Follow @jsihealth
Amanda Makulec
John Snow Inc.
@abmakulec