This document outlines an agenda for a workshop on using data to tell stories effectively. The workshop will include introductions, collective critique of data storytelling examples, presentations of case studies, an exercise to remix a data-driven story for different audiences and goals, and a wrap-up. The workshop encourages participants to consider their audience and goals in order to choose the best way to present data and accomplish what they want to achieve with their target audience. A variety of techniques for data storytelling will be presented and participants will work in groups to reimagine a story for a new context. The goal is to help people learn to work with and communicate data through different visual and narrative methods.

2. #DoGoodData
February 7, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Title:
Job Title, Company name
First & Last Name
Data Therapy: Telling Your Story Well
Research Scientist
MIT Center for Civic Media
@rahulbot
Rahul Bhargava

3. #DoGoodData
Agenda
1. Introductions
2. Collective Critique
3. Case Studies
4. Remixing a Story
5. Wrap-Up

4. Introduction

5. #DoGoodData
Data is an Asset…
improve
operations
spread the
message
bring people
together

6. 6
Telling Your Story Well
Asking
questions
Gathering
data
Finding a
story
Telling
your story
Trying it
out
Ask yourself about your audience and goals…
…and see if you accomplish your goals with your target audience

7. #DoGoodData
Group Therapy
• How are you telling stories
with data right now?
• What do you wish you
were doing?

8. 8
A suite of tools and activities for learning to work with data

9. Datatherapy.org

10. Collective Critique

11. 11
A Thing to Think With

12. 12
1. What’s the data?
2. What are the visual
representations of the data?
3. What is the one-sentence
story?
4. Is it well-told?

13. Examples

14. #DoGoodData
The Usual Inspirations are Polished
Tableau SoftwareVisual Explanations, Edward Tufte

15. #DoGoodData
A Richer Set of Inspirations
History Quilt, Elizabeth Peabody, 1856
Prudential Ribbons Experiment, 2014Food security data on a cucumber, Rahul Bhargava, 2014
Black Cloud, WWF & Ogilvy, 2007

16. #DoGoodData
A Tool Belt of Techniques
Personal Stories Data Sculptures
Maps & Creative Maps
Participatory Games
Charts & Creative Charts

17. Remix a Story

19. Another Thing to Think With

20. Audiences
• General public
• Farmers
• Consumers
• Restaurateurs
• Policy Makers
• ….

21. Goals
• Raise awareness
• Change to lower-water crops
• Buy lower-water groceries
• Offer lower-water meals
• Create incentives for lower water use
• …

22. Remix the Story
• Make a team of 3 or 4 people
• Pick an audience and a goal that makes sense for them
• Pick a tiny piece of the story that you think will accomplish
the goal
• Pick a technique to tell that story
• Grab markers and sketch out your story visually on the
whiteboard
You have 15 minutes – have fun and be creative!

23. Wrap Up

24. #DoGoodData
February 7, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Title:
Job Title, Company name
First & Last Name
Know your audience
and your goals before
deciding how to tell
your data-driven story

25. 25
A suite of tools and activities for learning to work with data

26. Datatherapy.org

27. Research Scientist
MIT Center for Civic Media
@rahulbot
Rahul Bhargava
Data Therapy: Telling Your Story Well