Data Visualization as a Form of Storytelling

Data visualization has become a powerful tool for turning information into insight. It can bring patterns and anomalies in a data set to the surface, making them more easily detectible, and the findings can be presented in any number of ways. Most often displayed as charts or graphic video animations, data visualizations are fast becoming one of the leading forms of storytelling for the digital age.

For a quick snapshot of data visualization landscape, this video put together by the folks at visualizing.org does a nice job of highlighting the ways in which the major stories of 2011 have been told through visualization.

A Cautionary Note: The quality of visualizations published on the web varies, and neither the reliability of the data nor the way designers spin it should be taken uncritically. Given their appeal, they have also become a popular tool for link baiting.

That being said, the usefulness of visualizations cannot be denied, and their popularity suggests their presence on the web will only increase as a creative medium of choice.

If you want to take look at some great examples, they also put together an easy to navigate gallery with 27 visualizations from 2011. Click on the image below to check them out. Or, if you’re interested in digging more deeply, here are a couple of places to start:

an introduction to visualizing data by joel laumans (.pdf)
Visualizations of Data Visualization (infosthetics.com)