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How Visualising Data Helps Us See
Designing Creative Content
We create pieces of content to earn attention
for our clients
Getting coverage requires either:
1. breaking news2. new insight
We tend to focus on:
1. breaking news2. new insight
New insight meansallowing people to see
something in a new way
This is where visualising data comes in
Simplifying the complex
Visualising data provides insight by
concerthotels.com/100-years-of-rock
wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org
We took a complex dataset
…and simplified it
concerthotels.com/100-years-of-rock
shortlisted for_______________________________________
featured in ___________________________________________
122,708 8,366 558
Simplifying things makes it easier to consume and draw insight
Putting things into context
Visualising data provides insight by
We aren’t good at wrapping our heads around big numbers
:(
On average, there are 60 million photos uploaded
to Instagram each day
Impressive stat,but pretty meaningless by itself
Let’s make it concrete!
photoworld.com/photos-on-the-web
Physical frames of reference allow us to “see” the size of
Instagram in a new way
hereistoday.com
Monday 19, October
Give insight by putting things into context
Fear not:Putting things into context isn’t
about fancy animations
Simple static images can do the job just as well
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14975549
howithappened.com
howithappened.com
Revealing patterns
Visualising data provides insight by
Can money buy happiness?
Data taken from Cabinet Office Wellbeing & Policy Report 2014
bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26671221
The BBC wrote an article about this
This was their insight
bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26671221
It’s hard to drawinsight from this
We wanted to domore with it
michaelpage.co.uk/minisite/salary-vs-happiness
Curve of best fit
Plotting the data and the curve allowed us to identify outliers
Outlying occupations
Outlying sectors
The interest is in the outliers, which were only identifiable
through visualisation
Another great example of revealing patterns and clusters…
nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/03/us/20110503-osama-response.html
Visualising the data brought the hidden patterns
and relationships to light
One big caveat
Any data can bevisualised
But not all datashould be!
You need to know where you’re adding value
Wow vs. Aha
You just listened to Wikipedia!
Listen to Wikipedia
listen.hatnote.com
The value is not to learn about Wikipedia
The value lies in the novelty of the execution and experience
This is “Wow”
listen.hatnote.com
“Isn’t this just lovely?”
“Well, this is mesmerising”
shows you something you’ve literally never seen before
Wow
Moving on to“Aha”
Data is easy to come by,but insight is not
priceonomics.com/the-hipster-music-index
It shares insight by applying a new meaning
to the two sets of data
huffingtonpost.com/benjamin-moore/overrated-underrated-movies_b_5319488.html
huffingtonpost.com/benjamin-moore/overrated-underrated-movies_b_5319488.html
overrated
huffingtonpost.com/benjamin-moore/overrated-underrated-movies_b_5319488.html
underrated
It’s about what they mean,not how they look
This is “Aha”
shows you something in a new light
Aha
“Wow” and “Aha” are not often as clear-cut
The Wow & Aha Spectrum
Wow Aha
Listen to Wikipedia
The Wow & Aha Spectrum
Wow Aha
Hipster Music IndexListen to Wikipedia
The Wow & Aha Spectrum
Wow Aha
100 Years of Rock
Listen to Wikipedia Hipster Music Index
The Wow & Aha Spectrum
Wow Aha
If you printed all the Instagram photos…
Listen to Wikipedia Hipster Music Index
100 Years of Rock
The Wow & Aha Spectrum
Wow Aha
Listen to Wikipedia Hipster Music Index
100 Years of Rock
If you printed all the Instagram photos…
Happiness vs.Salary
The Wow & Aha Spectrum
Wow Aha
Listen to Wikipedia Hipster Music Index
100 Years of Rock
If you printed all the Instagram photos…
Happiness vs.Salary
The Wow & Aha Spectrum
Wow Aha
Regardless of what value you choose to offer
Don’t make your audiencework for it
findproperly.co.uk/tube-map.php
Where’s the data?
Oh, didn’t even see that…
Still no actual prices!
…until you hover again
Don’t make your audience work!
thrillist.com/lifestyle/london/london-underground-rent-map
Thrillist made their own version
It’s a big hit
It succeeded wherethe other failed
Unnecessary friction
Reward doesn’t match
the effort required
Tried to do too much:
option-overload
Overcooked execution
Allows for quick scanning and
locatingdata points of interest
No learning curve
Reward surpasses
effort required
Simple and intuitive
It can be tempting to try to do too much at once
What’s the one thing you want to show?
Gender pay gap
V1.
V1.
Not showing theone thing we want it to
V2.
Better, but could still be improved
Pay gap made more obvious
Introduced visual metaphor
Ask yourself:What’s the one thing I
want to show?
And follow up with:Am I really showing this?
Sometimes you need to show people how to see it
“The annotation layer is the most important thing we do…
otherwise it’s a case of here it is, you go figure it out”
Amanda Cox, NYT Graphics Editor
Annotation layer=
labels, introductions, explanatory text, captions
Surely the visualisation itself is more important
than the annotationsanonymous sceptic
Indecipherable without annotations
nytimes.com/interactive/2014/06/05/upshot/how-the-recession-reshaped-the-economy-in-255-charts.html?_r=0
Annotations can help you deliver insight without making
your audience work for it
Recap
The value in visual content is in helping people see things they
couldn’t previously see by…
Simplifying the complex
Putting things in context
Revealing patterns
Know where you’re adding value
Listen to Wikipedia Hipster Music Index
100 Years of Rock
If you printed all the Instagram photos…
Happiness vs.Salary
Wow Aha
Don’t make youraudience do the work
That’s your job!
But above all else…
