In business, there are three main reasons to visualise data: to Discover, to Inform, or to Educate.

It's a common misconception that a data story is synonymous with a data visual.

A common data storytelling mistake is designing your communication in the same way that you'd like to receive it–but you are not your audience.

I'm often asked how to stop others from using the numbers you publish to tell a different story than the one you intended.

Have you been invited to speak at an event?

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Or do you wish you were?

When creating a data storytelling visual, there might be times when there are multiple takeaways you'd like to add to the title–but try to refrain from doing so.

Data storytelling is a hard skill to master if you don’t understand what it is (or how to get started).

Data storytelling happens after data analysis - because it's hard to communicate data insights if the data hasn't been analysed. 

As a Data Storyteller, I often get asked what tools I use. People are surprised when I don’t list some of the big BI names. 

It’s a question that those communicating data should be asking themselves regularly: does my audience need a Dashboard or a Data story? 

Is your New Year’s resolution to write a book? In 2023, it was mine. This article details how I did it.

In the last 10 years, the Analyst role has evolved into a Data Advisor role. 

Even though the Data Storytelling field has evolved from Data Visualisation (and still has strong roots there), it doesn’t show the same symbiosis as Data Visualisation has to Data Analytics.

Graphs help show data patterns and connections, but what happens when an audience isn’t familiar with the data being presented? 

Images have the power to evoke emotion and compel people to act – so it makes sense to try and include emotive visual elements when communicating data.

The opponent-process theory could change how we talk about drug addiction. So, I wanted to make this high-level, scientific concept a little more accessible - and share my creative process with anyone interested.

If you’re thinking of starting a business of your own, here are a few thoughts based on my experience.

I hope this physical representation of data helps expand the idea of what a ‘data visualisation’ can be.

This is my story of how I went from being the shyest kid in the classroom to an internationally invited speaker.

This is my way of uncovering a story (or at least the elements of a good story) amongst the data noise.

Sounds simple enough... but there are two parts to this request: the writing of the story, followed by its telling. 

 The Analytics Cycle outlines the high-level process followed by Analysts to uncover data insights and ultimately add business value.

How effective are these red-green dashboards when viewed by someone who can’t differentiate between these colours?