Credibility in visualizations

Data Storytelling Concepts

Joe Franklin

Senior Curriculum Manager, DataCamp

Strive to communicate

Trust between the data storyteller and the audience is a key
Informing someone is merely reporting something in a clinical, passive manner
Proper communication means the audience has complete comprehension of the message
Dual coding is an effective way to communicate

graphic displays a person communicating with her audience via video conference

Best practices

Consistency and a reputation for integrity are important to practice
Consider having a subject matter experts speak about specific visuals
Cite your information from credible sources

woman thinking carefully next to the phrase, Ask me Anything

Truncation without causation

Avoid truncating your Y-axis
This negates the advantages of a bar chart
If you must truncate, make a note on the document

¹ Dykes, Brent."Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative and Visuals," Wiley. 2020

At an appropriate interval

Inconsistent data intervals are to be avoided
Within a single axis, each interval should represent the same value
Simple charts are easy to understand charts and thus easier to trust
Only the first chart on the top shows the X-axis with consistent intervals

line chart on left shows consistent spacing to for each year while line chart on right shows different spacing by year resulting in a more drastic curve

¹ Few, Stephen. "Line Graphs and Irregular Intervals: An Incompatible Partnership"

Let's practice!

Data Storytelling Concepts