Effective Business Presentations with Storyboarding and Data Visualization

Storyboarding and

Data VisualizationBasic Steps To Create Effective Presentations

By Carmen Proctor

E2E IT / CloudenUp

Why are you here?

Changes:

• Shortens extremely long presentations

• Delivers content in a very clear and easy to understand manner

• Simplifies very data heavy presentations

• Keeps focus on the project objectives, not filling the white space

A shift is being made to focus on delivering concise, to the point, and

visually appealing presentations to both internal and external clients.

What is Storyboarding?The process of visually depicting the flow of a presentation in an

organized manner to create a cohesive compelling end-to-end

story.

Benefits

Forces you to assimilate information, causing you to clarify the logic of your hypothesis and supporting assertions

Help you to focus the analysis

Can identify gaps in your analysis

Prevent work that is unnecessary or redundant

Act as a work plan for each activity stream

How Is It Done?

Storyboarding is an iterative process, where you make

adjustments as you go to create the best story.

Gathering the information you found through

analysis

Collect

Findings

Create

Headlines

Organize

Findings

Sequence

Findings

Determine the message for each piece of analysis

Look to identify themes among

findings

Add, remove, and sequence themes and findings to create the story.

Collect Your FindingsAs you come to the end of data analysis, begin to collect your

findings based upon hypothesis’ and assertions.

Create Headlines

Create your headline for each of your findings, briefly conveying the

message of the content to be included within the slide.

Authentication

CustomerAuthentication

CSA’s are frequentlyunable to authenticate

the customer

MultipleAuthentications

Customer’s areauthenticated multiple

Times each contact

Headlines

Concise and to the point

Identifies which pieces of analysis fit where

Occasionally, one finding yields creation of multiple headlines

Organize Findings

Categorize your headlines to identify high level themes or pre-

targeted areas of analysis to create a preliminary structure to the

presentation.

IVR Process Systems Operations

Sequence the Story

Review story board to determine the most impactful and relevant

information to the client and sequence the content in a smooth and

meaningful manner.

Theme 1 Theme 2 Theme 3 Theme 4

Objectives

Remove and/or move (appendix) irrelevant and low impact analytical findings

Determine most powerful way to display the analysis

Create a cohesive flow to the story

How Do I Support My Story?The Assertion-Evidence methodology provides a guideline to adding

content within each presentation slide.

Assertion Sentence

• Top of the slide, below slide headline

• Expresses the answer to each question in a clear succinct manner

• Short, but not so short it’s cryptic

Assertion Evidence

• Supports assertion sentence with evidence or an explanation and visual aids

• Evidence can be an example, statistics, flowchart, etc. (data visualizations)

Things to keep in mind:

• The key topic/objective of the slide

• The audience of the slide and their knowledge/familiarity of the topic

• Possible questions the audience may have about the key message

Client

How Do I Support My Story?

Data Visualization

The core objective of all data visualization is to effectively display

data to assist in analysis.

Client

The 6 fundamental questions guide how we see the world around us.

We should use these same questions to guide us in data visualization.

PORTRAIT

CHART

MAP

TIMELINE

FLOW CHART

MULTI VAR PLOT

Align Visuals to How Most People See

the World

Who

What

How Much

Where

When

How

Why

Visualization

X

X

X

X

X

Certain charts lend themselves best to showing certain types of

data; whether relationship, comparison, distribution, or composition.

Data Driven Teams Use Charts Often,

But Which Chart Type Should I Use?

Get rid of any elements in a chart that do not convey anything

new, distort data, or distracts the audience from the story you

want to convey.

Grid Lines

Axis Values

3D Aspect Distorts Data

Simple, Accurate, and No Distractions

Actual value is 600

but shown to be

below 600

Actual value is 403 but

shown to be below 400

Simplify Charts to Focus on the Main

Point

How Much Should I Simplify?

We need to strike a balance between over-ornamenting and

over-simplifying charts. Charts should be simplified to the point

where they are not distracting but can still convey the message

clearly.

Extremely Ornate Extremely Bare

Strike a

Balance

For More Complicated Data, Use Sparklines

to Ensure Clarity and Scalability

Break down multiple axes/series of data and show as

“Sparklines”, whereby a chart may be broken down and

displayed as a series of separate charts placed next to each

other.

Transfer Rate

Queue Current Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 1-Year

Sales 33% 25% 29% 35% 32%

Technical Support 34% 35% 36% 37% 38%

Retentions 14% 10% 9% 6% 11%

Billing 28% 20% 20% 35% 15%

General Info 72% 74% 79% 85% 65%

All Queues 36% 33% 35% 40% 32%

• Confusing To Read

• Need to Consult Legend

• Space Consuming

• Difficult to Analyze Especially When Scaled Down

• Detailed But Easy to Read

• No Need to Consult Legend

• Easily Scalable

• Easy to Spot Trends

Line Graph Sparklines

Color Reinforces Analysis

Only Use Color to Reinforce a Message

Use color to merely supplement/reinforce the message and never as

the main vehicle for delivering analysis. When printed in B/W, colors

can be indistinguishable; use shapes instead.

Red

=

Green

Color Critical to Analysis Analysis Washed Out in B/W

Analysis Fully Intact in B/W

The brain naturally wants to compare items of different color even when there isn’t anything to compare. Use simple color contrast to

draw the audience’s attention to specific items.

Multiple Colors but

Nothing Emphasized Color Used to Emphasize

Multiple Colors Confuse the Brain, Instead

Use Contrast to Emphasize

What Does This All Look Like In Action?

Findings Organized & Sequenced

Visible White Space

Simple & Easy to Read Chart that Supports the Tag

Line

Assertion-Evidence

Methodology

Consistent Theme

Uses Only Relevant Text

Use Color to Highlight Elements

Company Team

• Compendium of Data Visualization Rules

www.albertsuckow.com/tag/visual-communication/

• Edward Tufte – www.edwardtufte.com

• Perceptual Edge by Stephen Few – www.perceptualedge.com

• Data Visualization Best Practices by Power Frameworks

www.powerframeworks.com/best_practices

• Gallery of Best and Worst Statistical Graphics

www.datavis.ca/gallery/index.php

More Resources