1. Narrative Visualization: Telling Stories with Data
Authors: Edward Segel and Jeffrey Heer
Tim Ahn
ANLY 503

2. Introduction Past Current
Static visualizations have been used to support storytelling
Diagrams
Charts
Text conveys the story, and the image provides supporting evidence or related details
Current
New visualization classes attempt to combine narratives with interactive graphics
Crafting “data stories” requires a diverse set of skills
“…melding the skills of computer science, statistics, artistic design and storytelling.” -The Economist

3. Related Work Narrative Structure Visual Narratives
People have tried to understand and formalize the elements of storytelling
Strategies vary among media and genre
Written – stream of consciousness
Film – split-screen sequences
Visual Narratives
Nuanced techniques for sequentially directing a viewer’s attention
Visual salience
Outliers among visual features such as color, size, and orientation
Storytelling with Data Visualization
The relationship between the two are rarely articulated clearly
Visualization systems have begun to incorporate storytelling into their design
GeoTime Stories – create annotated stories within visualizations
sense.us – create trails of visualization bookmarks
Tableau – review, collate, and export key points of their visual analysis

4. Case Studies of Narrative Visualization
Barry Bonds – historical comparisons; path of exploration accomplished through visual highlighting
Budget Forecasts – interactive; multi-messaging; narrative text communicated clearly in caption
Afghanistan – multiple tabs; same maps with different measurements; timeline slider; does not sufficiently guide reader (hard to draw meaningful conclusions from large amount of data)
Human Development Trends – surveys trends in global income and health; interactive; basic charts with changes in information made explicit
Minnesota Employment Explorer – interactive; state unemployment data; social interaction features to share observations; goal was to engage in sharing but failed; no tutorial; graphics disconnected from the narrative

5. Design Space Analysis Analysis of 58 visualizations
Journalism (71%)
Business (20%)
Visualization research (9%)
Design Space Dimensions
Three divisions of features: genre, visual narrative tactics, and narrative structure
Design Space Observations
Three important patterns stand out from the data
The clustering of different ordering structures
The consistency of interaction design
The under-utilization of narrative messaging
Genres of Narrative Visualization
Balancing Author-Driven and Reader-Driven Stories
Martini Glass Structure
Interactive Slideshow
Drill-Down Story