My presentation about (data)visualisations during Apps for Ghent 2012. My main goal was to emphasize the force of a story and the possible abuse of data.

1. This is my 10-minute
presentation during Apps
for Ghent 2012 (dutch)
www.appsforghent.be
Hi, ik ben Andries - @dretio

2. Co-founder “Bits of Love”, een digitale
studio.
I started showing some
visualisations from our
www.bitsoflove.be studio

3. Some more visualisations
from
www.smalltownheroes.be,
a second screen for TV
company.
... en “Small Town Heroes”.
Wij maken 2nd screens apps voor TV.

4. Play “connecting the dots”
with your children if you
want them to become
dataviz people ;)
Connecting the dots, my first love.

5. Reading the stats, my second.
Strategy games are the
perfect blend of Project
Management, Statistics
and Visualisations with a
strategy sauce on top.
That’s why I love them all.

6. Stories, my third.
These days we forget
about the importance of
stories and storytelling.
Not the marketing lingo,
but the real everyday stuff.

7. With my limited time,
I skipped some important
topics like : crappy
infographics...
Niet over ... vorm

8. ..The rich history of
visualisations..
Niet over ... history

9. ..The physical & psycho
aspects around
visualisations..
Niet over ... psychology

10. .. and the future of
dataviz. This example is
located on the airport of
Zürich and is awesome.
Niet over ... the future of dataviz Observation Deck B

11. But.. about using the force wisely
I really want to talk about
powerful visualisations by
means of storytelling &
knowledge of the subject.

12. In my opinion this
visualisation won gold at
Malofiej12 because it uses
great story mechanics.
De basis van een goeie visualisatie is een
verhaal & kennis van het onderwerp

13. How do journalists react
to this “open data/
sources” thing?
Wat doe je met 1000 pagina’s confidentiële
documenten?

14. Some make a Wordle out
of 1000 pages with great
information, to conclude
the word “REPORTS” has
a lot of occurences...
Fastcompany Wikileaks visualisation

15. Others make great stories
like this viz by NYT, based
on the same documents
NYT Wikileaks visualisation

16. Data without context has no meaning. Data needs a background, a narrative that
sucks the user mentally into the world of the data.
Narratives are fundamental in human reasoning and give humans the ability to
assign meaning to their experiences (Laurillard 1998; Dickey 2006). Applications,
whether games or data visualizations, have to incorporate a narrative in order to
reach its full potential. According to Brown and Cairns (2004), it is the narrative
that separates an engagement-application from an immersion-application. The
more immersion the higher amounts of time, effort and attention an user will
invest in the application. By integrating a narrative, or letting the data make up a
story, the user will be much more invested, emotionally and mentally. The
narrative functions as the motor.
Here I make the link
between games & data
visualisations, and the
necessity of a narrative to
reach “full potential”

17. Another great example by
The Guardian
We moeten verhalen vertellen

18. We moeten verhalen vertellen
Another by NYT

19. These are very special
visualisations you can find
in the book “Zachte Atlas
van Nederland”. It’s
awesome & full of stories.
Inspiratie : comics

20. Even when they are fake,
movies & ads & arts can
help us to create great
visualisation stories.
Inspiratie : ads

21. Warning : do not always
trust designers. This
article in Smashing
Magazine was a bloody
shame. Basic charts are
good!
Vertrouw niet altijd designers :)

22. It’s a dog in a park - I had
some fun here with the
audience :)
Heatmap : zee of land ?

23. Warning : do not always
Vertrouw je ogen niet trust designers. These
guys multiplied the wrong
variables in their circles..

24. Vertrouw je ogen niet .. with this result.
I think we should learn to
see these mistakes.

25. This is the famous
“Facebook break-ups”
example. I want to show the
importance of “contextual &
cultural knowledge” for
finding stories
De basis van een goeie visualisatie is een verhaal &
kennis van het onderwerp

26. Now, including the western
holidays scheme.
De basis van een goeie visualisatie is een verhaal &
kennis van het onderwerp

27. Gebied A Gebied B
10% werklozen met een uitkering 30% werklozen met een uitkering
I ended with an example
how to manipulate “open
data” for a “political agenda”.
First we take 1 source to
show “the lazy region”.
90%
70%
De “actieve” bevolking regio Gent - Eeklo

28. Gebied A Gebied B
10% werklozen met een uitkering 30% werklozen met een uitkering
40% uitkeringen van het OCMW 10% uitkering van het OCMW
As “an expert”, I know we
have to look for additional
data (contextual
knowledge!). So I added a
second source to define
“active people”, shifting the
90% 50% map.
70% 40%
De “actieve” bevolking regio Gent - Eeklo

29. Gebied A Gebied B
10% werklozen met een uitkering 30% werklozen met een uitkering
40% uitkeringen van het OCMW 10% uitkering van het OCMW
10% ouder dan 65 jaar 60% ouder dan 65 jaar
Another “expert” adds
another important fact :
people > 65 years have
different stats.
This means adding a 3rd
source for “active”, resulting
90% 50% 40%
in a 3rd new map.
70% 40% 100%
De “actieve” bevolking regio Gent - Eeklo

30. data => interpretatie => visualisatie/
kennis onderwerp verhaal
So my message for this
crowd of open data fans
was : try to find stories, and
handle your data with care.
(this slide should be more
complex :)

31. Laat ons dus zoeken naar :
Journalisten
Producers
Experts in het vak
Verhalenvertellers
Die van onze data verhalen maken,
die veel impact hebben op onze samenleving
I think our Open Data
community needs more
storytellers, experts,
journalists,.. and less “app
makers” ;)

32. Tnx !
andries@bitsoflove.be
@dretio
www.bitsoflove.be
www.smalltownheroes.be

33. References
http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/10/word-clouds-considered-harmful/
http://www.albertoantoniazzi.com/
Belgische voorbeelden : Deredactie.be & DS - Bart De Neve
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest-interactive-timeline
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/08/27/us/preparations-for-hurricane-irene-and-reports-of-
damage.html
http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/
http://www.appsforghent.be