CLASSWORK 1:
1. The difference between data visualizations before- and after- applying the data
storytelling technique. How to communicate the findings to various audiences? Talk
about six key lessons related to storytelling with data that the author mentioned in this
section
a. According to the Introduction, the book teaches readers how to apply key
lessons and real business examples to transform visuals. After applying
storytelling techniques, visuals become clearer, less cluttered, and more
focused on the message. They are also designed with audience, needs, tone,
and context in mind, resulting in more effective communication. Before
applying these techniques, visuals are often cluttered, unfocused, and
simply display data rather than communicating meaning.
b. The author emphasizes the importance of defining context by answering
three questions:
Who is the audience?
What do you need them to know or do?
How will you communicate, including mechanism and tone?
Understanding situational context helps reduce rework and ensures the
visual fits the needs and expectations of each audience group.
c. Six key lessons mentioned in the Introduction
The six major lessons (listed in the chapter summaries and referenced in the
intro) are:
Understand the context
Choose an effective visual
Eliminate clutter
Focus your audience’s attention
Think like a designer
Tell a story
2. Spend 10 minutes to scan Chapter 1: The importance of context and share one content
that impressed you most in this chapter
One of the most impressive ideas is the emphasis on clearly defining Who, What,
How before creating any graph. You must know who the audience is, what you
want them to know or do, and how you will communicate that message. The
chapter also introduces the “3-minute story” and the idea of forming a clear Big
Idea, which helps distill the message into one concise statement.
3. Spend 10 minutes to scan Chapter 2: Choosing an effective visual and answer the
question: How many types of graph are covered in this chapter? Which types are you
familiar with and which are not?
The chapter covers the following visual types:
Simple text
Table
Heatmap
Scatterplot
Line graph
Slopegraph
Vertical bar chart
Vertical stacked bar chart
Waterfall chart
Horizontal bar chart
Horizontal stacked bar chart
Square area graph
And visuals to avoid: pie charts, donut charts, and 3D charts
4. Spend 15 minutes to scan Chapter 3: Clutter is your enemy! and summarize several
ways to declutter
Chapter 3 provides a step-by-step decluttering process:
1. Remove chart border: Eliminate outer borders to keep visuals clean.
2. Remove gridlines: Reduce or remove grids to avoid distraction.
3. Remove data markers: Use markers only when necessary for clarity.
4. Clean up axis labels: Simplify and align labels for readability.
5. Label data directly: Place labels on data instead of using legends.
6. Leverage consistent color: Apply colors consistently to highlight key
points.
7. Apply Gestalt principles: Organize visuals using perception rules
(proximity,
similarity, continuity).
8. Leverage alignment and white space: Use alignment and spacing to
create a
neat layout.
9. Use contrast strategically: Apply contrast to draw attention to the
most
important data.
CLASSWORK 2:
1. When should you use simple texts, tables or graphs?
Use simple text when you need to present small numbers or a very short
statement clearly.
Use tables when you need to communicate multiple numbers at once,
especially when precise values matter.
Use graphs when you want to show patterns, relationships, or differences
visually so the audience can understand them quickly.
2. Heatmap is a type of table with what different characteristics?
A heatmap is described as a table enhanced with color to highlight patterns and
make comparisons easier.
The underlying structure is still a table, but color encoding shows variation across
the values.
3. What is the difference between charts, graphs, diagrams, and maps?
Graph: visual that plots quantitative data (e.g., bar, line, slopegraph).
Chart: a broader category of visuals, including graphs, tables, and diagrams.
Diagram: a visual that explains a process or structure (not focused on numeric
values).
Map: a visual showing spatial/ geographic relationships.
1. What four main types of charts do the author use most frequently in her
work?
Tables
Heatmaps
Graphs (bars, lines, slopegraphs)
Square area graphs
1. According to the author, when should we use points (scatterplot), lines (line
graph, slopegraph), bars, and areas?
Points (scatterplot)
Use when you need to show the relationship between two variables.
Lines (line graph, slopegraph)
Use when you want to show movement or change over time.
Bars
Use when comparing categories or discrete items.
Areas
Use when showing cumulative totals or when you want to emphasize the
magnitude of an aggregated value.
1. Why do we need a zero baseline when drawing bar charts?
The author states that bar charts must start at zero because the length of the bar
encodes the value.
If the baseline is not zero, it distorts the visual comparison and can mislead the
audience.
1. In this chapter, the author lists some specific graph types and elements that
we should avoid: pie charts, donut charts, 3D, and secondary y axes. Do
you agree with the author? If not, then please give your opinion.
What the author says:
She advises avoiding these because:
Pie & donut charts make it difficult to compare angles and areas.
3D charts distort perception and hide true values.
Secondary axes confuse interpretation and can make comparisons unreliable.
Your opinion (example you can submit):
“Yes, I agree with the author. All these elements add unnecessary cognitive load and
often make data harder to interpret. Bar or line charts communicate information more
clearly and allow more accurate comparisons.”
SITUATION 3:
When your dataset is entirely text, you can still craft a meaningful story by converting
text into structured and visual-friendly data. The key is to extract themes or recurring
ideas — for example emotions, concerns, actions, or relationships — across many entries.
Then you can group and categorize those themes (e.g. by topic, by actor, by time period)
and count or aggregate them to see which themes appear most often or how they change
over time. Finally, using visuals — such as clustered plots, bubble charts or other
aggregated-data charts — you present these counts and patterns so that the reader can
immediately see major trends without reading every single text. That way, even though
the original data is all words, the story becomes clear, comparable, and insightful.
In “The Pudding”’s “30 Years of American Anxieties”, the authors gathered over 20,000
letters sent to the advice column Dear Abby, analyzed their contents to identify recurring
concerns (such as sex, religion, LGBTQ issues), then used clustering techniques (plus
keywords) to group similar letters into themes — and visualized them so readers could
explore how social anxieties evolved over decades. The Pudding+1 Similarly, in
“FlowingData’s” “Counting Happiness and Where it Comes From” project, researchers
collected 100,000 short text descriptions of “happy moments” from 10,000 participants,
parsed each sentence into subject-verb-object, counted how often each type appeared, and
turned those counts into visuals that show what kinds of events or interactions most often
bring people happiness. FlowingData+1 These two cases illustrate clearly: even if your
data is just text, with careful extraction, categorization, aggregation and visualization —
plus preserving original human voices when needed — you can still tell a powerful story.