verbalizing and explaining charts
Source: Knaflic, Cole. Storytelling with Data: Let's Practice!, Wiley, © 2019.
The above graph has flaws. I don’t think many would debate me on this. There are:
overlapping lines and bars;
dual axes;
too many colors;
unfamiliar acronyms; and,
inconsistent time ranges along the horizontal x-axis (the most problematic of all).
That said, I purposefully chose this example (excerpted from Let's Practice!) to help me prove a point: narrative outweighs the visual.
I’m confident that I could overcome some of these design challenges by effectively explaining the graph to someone else. Will it be a perfect data communication? No—but sometimes, we have to deal with less-than-ideal circumstances like time limitations, or not having control over our designs. Knowing how to verbalize a graph can be a practical solution when faced with these constraints.
I should caveat this by clarifying that my intention is not to say that we shouldn’t spend time on our visualizations. But too often, we focus only on the visual. We believe that a graph or a picture is worth a thousand words. Or maybe we assume that because we created the chart, we will automatically know how to talk through it. I am super guilty of this!
The fact is, what you say about your graphs matters—even more than the graph you use in a live presentation.
It turns out there’s a bit of an art to thoughtfully explaining visualizations. I’ll share with you a high-level four-step structure that you can use to talk through a graph, and then I’ll reveal how this structure works for the above example.
STEP 1: Start with the skeleton of the graph. Resist the urge to talk about the shape of the data immediately. Instead, introduce your audience to the visual by clarifying what information is displayed and verbalizing the graph and axis titles. This helps audiences who cannot see the text clearly, or who may not be as familiar with the written language on the graph.
STEP 2: Cover the critical metadata. I like to think of this as verbalizing the footnotes in your design. Are there definitions, date ranges, methodologies that need to be shared upfront? If so, say them out loud; otherwise, your audience may miss the opportunity for deeper understanding, or they may start searching for the answers in the footnotes and stop listening to you.
This part of the explanation should be relatively quick. If you spend too much time sounding like a glossary, your audience may grow bored and tune you out, so focus on the critical pieces. You can define and elaborate further later on.
STEP 3: Highlight what your audience should see. Once you’ve level-set your audience, it’s time to focus on the actual data. Describe the shape of your data and any key insights. This is your opportunity to guide your audience through how you think they should interpret the graph.
There is a reason why I’ve listed this third and not first. People easily gravitate towards starting their explanations with the data when presenting a chart, but that can be disorienting and abrupt—especially for an audience seeing the graph for the first time.
STEP 4: Conclude with the main takeaway. Now that you’ve explained how to read the chart and what you want your audience to notice, it’s time to take it home. What should your audience’s final thought be about your graph? If this is the end of your presentation, think about sharing a call to action, or summarize the main objective as your lasting impression.
Now let’s look at an example.
You can click the audio recording above the image to hear how I talk through this example. See if you can identify the four main sections listed above. After hearing the explanation, does the visual feel less overwhelming? At a minimum, do you have an idea of the purpose? If so, then you’ve experienced how a strong narrative can help overcome less-than-ideal visuals.
Source: Knaflic, Cole. Storytelling with Data: Let's Practice!, Wiley, © 2019.
Given the time and freedom, I’d want to address the flaws listed above and play with the design to reinforce my talking points. I could animate through the data, highlight where my audience should look via sparing use of color, or maybe use a different chart type altogether.
That is where the real magic can happen: when you pair a strong explanation with a clean and straightforward graph. In my experience, the narrative will always outweigh the visual, so if you only have a limited amount of time, consider spending that time thinking through the explanation, not the format.