animating data

I had a nice conversation with Enrico Bertini and Moritz Stefaner last week for an upcoming Data Stories podcast episode. This post is spurred by a question that Moritz posed—it went something like this: "In your work, you show a lot of static graphics. What's your take on animation? Does it have a place in data storytelling?"

My answer is a resounding YES. We use a ton of animation in our workshops to illustrate how you can build a graph or story one component at a time. I didn't realize until Moritz asked the question in this way that this actually probably isn't obvious. Most of what we share on the blog (and all of what you see in the book) is static—or you end up scrolling (or flipping pages) to get from one view to the next, losing much of how the pieces are connected or build upon each other as you move through the content.

So I made a quick video to demonstrate through an example how we use frequently use animation at storytelling with data. 

When presenting live, you have a ton of opportunity to build a graph or a story piece by piece for your audience. Consider how you might take advantage of this!