Skip to Main Content

Data Visualization

A Guide for Creating Great Vissualizations

What are the steps to producing a data story?

undefined

In her series of books and online posts entitled Storytelling With Data, Cole Knaflic has identified a 6-step process to help users create a narrative with their data visualizations. These steps include:

  1. Understand the context.
  2. Choose an appropriate visual display
  3. Eliminate clutter
  4. Focus attention where you want it
  5. Think like a designer
  6. Tell a story

Know your audience

undefined

A visualization's complexity should reflect the medium where it is published and the target audience. This chart from the Urban Institute offers a useful reminder of the levels of complexity appropriate for different publishing formats.

Links to further resources