You can probably think of many ways to summarize and visualize numeric data. How about text or audio information? That might require a bit more thought and creativity. This month, we challenge you to find some qualitative data and create a visual you think best displays the information.

We typically think about data visualization in the context of numbers and statistics, but not all data is quantitative in nature. Free-form survey responses, interview transcripts, and digital communications like e-mail correspondence and social media posts are all data, too. Qualitative information from conversations can provide richer insights into people’s thoughts and emotions, and presenting this data graphically can help identify themes, explain concepts, and make critical insights easier to remember.

Charts and graphs are often used to show quantitative values because numbers are easy to count and aggregate. However qualitative information is more challenging to manipulate and summarize, which makes many of our go-to visualizations less applicable.

One way to visualize text data—for instance, answers to a free-response survey—is to select illustrative quotes to communicate the overarching themes. Pairing quotes with summarized details can strengthen your message and incite action. Using diagrams to depict unstructured data is also an option.

Regardless of the approach you choose to present your qualitative information, the aspects of effective data storytelling remain the same—take care to frame your communication around the audience and focus attention on the key points.

The challenge

This month, use a qualitative data set of your choosing and visualize it in whatever way you think would be the most effective. If you need help finding a source, check out this list of publicly available data or this Twitter conversation for inspiration. Real-world work examples could also work, as long as you anonymize appropriately.

Share your creation in the SWD Community by Thursday, March 31st at 5PM PT. If there is any specific feedback or input that you would find helpful, include that detail in your commentary. Take some time to browse others’ submissions, too, and share your input via comments and datapoints over the course of the month.

Related resources

A few suggestions for visualizing qualitative information are mentioned above, and below are some additional related resources. If you are aware of other good ones, please share them in your submission commentary.

We can’t wait to see what you share!