Jock Mackinlay, PhD, Robert Kosara, PhD, Michelle Wallace

Data Storytelling

Using visualization to share the

human impact of numbers

The universe is made of stories, not atoms.Muriel Rukeyser (19131980)

Storytelling is a cornerstone of the human experience. The universe may be full of atoms,
but its through stories that we truly construct our world. From Greek mythology to the Bible
to television series like Cosmos, stories have been shaping our experience on Earth for as
long as weve lived on it.

A key purpose of storytelling is not just understanding the world but changing it. After
all, why would we study the world if we didnt want to know how we canand should
influence it?

Though many elements of stories have remained the same throughout history, we have
developed better tools and mediums for telling them, such as printed books, movies, and
comics. This has changed storytelling stylesand perhaps most importantly, the impact of
those storiesover the millennia.

But can stories be told with data, as well as with images and words? Thats what this
papers about.

Table of Contents
The Tales We Tell.................................................................................................................................................3
Why We Tell Stories...........................................................................................................................................4
Storytelling through the Ages..........................................................................................................................6
Story Points................................................................................................................................................................7
When to Tell a Story...........................................................................................................................................9
Storytelling to the People...............................................................................................................................10
About the Authors.............................................................................................................................................12

The Tales We Tell

A little drama makes a big impact

Which do you prefer: raw, unbiased data, or an intriguing tale? It may seem
unfair, butwhen it comes to understanding the world, at leastyour brain
has an unequivocal preference for stories.
Consider the number 131,824. Thats how many 4.0-plus-magnitude earthquakes

Stories take advantage

of human cognition. They
build connections and
context around facts
in order to make them
more memorable.

weve detected since 1973. This dashboard shows their distribution around the world.
Merriam-Webster defines an earthquake as a shaking or trembling of the earth
that is volcanic or tectonic in origin. But its hard to think about earthquakes
without imagining the ground shaking beneath your own feet. By relating to the
concept, you can understand it better.
On Friday, March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of

Earthquakes: Are they are on rise?

Thoku, Japan, resulting in a catastrophic tsunami. As The New York Times

Thousands of
earthquakes are
detected each year

About two each year

The megaquakes are

Megaquake: The

Megaquake: The

More and more

Most earthquakes

qualifyOn
as "major
what
drawnp.m. Tokyo
Indian Ocean
quake theJapan
quake of
earthquakes
are
areroar
being detected in
reported,
Friday,attention
athas
2:46
time,
quake
struck.being
First
came
thethe
earthquakes"
in 2004.
2011.
detected
Pacific Rim

But major
earthquakes
happening m

and rumble of the temblor, shaking skyscrapers, toppling furniture and buckling
highways.
Then
waves
as was
high
as 30 feet
rushed
shore,
whisking
away
The
2011 quake off
the coast
of Thoku
a magnitude
9.0 (Mw)
underseaonto
megathrust
earthquake.
It was the
most cars
powerful
known earthquake ever to have hit Japan, and the 5th most powerful earthquake in the world.
and carrying blazing buildings toward factories, fields and highways.

Earthquake Date Time

1/1/2004 to 2/26/2014

Magnitude
8 to 9.1

Region of the World

All

16

See this story come together here.

earthquakes select

Magnitude 9.0 near the east coast of Honshu, Japan

Magnitude
6.0

While facts and data form the backbone of this story2:46 p.m., 30 feet highits
the flow of the story that ties them all together. Stories also add embellishments
that make data more memorable. Words like roar and shaking add drama to
the facts, making them easier to relate to.
Data tells you whats happening. Stories tell you why it matters.

8.0

Why We Tell Stories

The importance of understanding events from beginning to end

What, exactly, makes a story? While weve been telling them since the beginning
of history, we didnt look at their structure until about 335 BC. Thats when Aristotle
claimed that all stories have a beginning, middle, and end.
While this might seem like common sense, it was a pretty big leap at the time.
If you follow an event from start to finish, you begin to understand why it unfolded
that way.
The flow of a story helps us spot causal connections. Getting to the root cause of
an issue can be tricky, but our brains are hardwired to find connections between
events. If you turn them into a well-structured story, it can be easier to spot an
underlying causeand then to share your understanding of that cause.
For instance, teacher turnover has been a problem in Austin, Texas for a decade.
Austins turnover rate has been higher than the national average for all but one of
the past ten years, and by 2013 it had reached 22.3 percent.

U.S. avg.

In August of that year, a former teacher from J.E. Pearce Middle School in East
Austinan area with one of the highest poverty rates in the citypublished his
long-untold story on Salon.com.
In 2002, the year I started teaching at Pearce, he explains, many of the faculty
had been hand-selected to revive the struggling school. When he entered
Pearce, he was determined to do whatever it took to help these kids overcome
classism and racism and escape poverty.

But within two years, he had quit. Why? Despite his qualifications and efforts,
in the end he came to believe they were in vain. His experiences led him to
conclude that povertyand not teacher qualitywas the root cause that really
needed to be addressed.
As human beings, were constantly receiving information about the world around
us. The amount of sunlight hitting your eye, the level of ambient noise in your
current locationthese are all data points that tell you something about the
current state of the world.
Since you receive each piece of data at a specific time, you automatically fill in
the missing information between each moment. Its something our brains have
evolved to do exceptionally well: We stitch data points together to turn them into
a cohesive, step-by-step story and decide how to act. Sometimes, we do this too
well. We identify patterns and causes that arent really there.

This chart shows the

teacher-turnover rate at
Pearce Middle School
over the past decade.

School name

Avg. Turnover rate

School type

10.0

60.0

22.0

Teachers
40.0
Mendez

39

Middle school

60
80

20.0
0.0
60.0

40.0
Pearce

Middle school
20.0
0.0
60.0

40.0
Reagan

High school
20.0
0.0
2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

If the leaders of Austins school system looked at this data in a meeting, each
of them might walk away with a different story about whats causing this rate to
increase. Each would write that story based on his or her individual experiences.
With that story in mind, they would each walk away from the meeting with
separate ideas about how to act next.
But what if the data told a complete story? What if it was told in a clear sequence,
step-by-step from beginning to end? And what if everyone left that meeting
believing in the same storya story founded in data? Could the students in
Austins school system get to their own happy ending, and faster?
John Savage wanted to influence change by becoming a teacher. But now, he
does that by telling stories. As a journalist, he shares information in a relevant,
sequential way so that readers can see important connections between facts. But
what if he used data visualizations to help tell those stories?
Data tells you whats happening, and stories tell you why. When you put them
together, great change is possible.

Storytelling through the Ages

Evolving tools for influential tales

The Austin school districts story hasnt been resolved yet, but one thing is clear:
Theres nothing like a compelling plot to make people care. And since the days of
Aristotle, weve delved deeper into the structure of storiesand learned its not just
about the beginning, middle, and end. A good story also has an arc.
A clear flow turns a collection of facts into a compelling narrative. It glues them

Logical sequence
or narrative
Question
or problem

Conclusion or
resolution

together into a structure that makes sense. And the rising action of a story arc
makes it more engaging and memorable.
Thats why weve been telling stories for so long. They are excellent tools for
passing knowledge from one person to another. And theyre exceptionally good
at getting a point across.

A story arc consists of rising

action and conflict, presented
logically and fluently to lead to
a conclusion.

In 1854, Dr. John Snow was an epidemiologist in London, a city in the clutches of
a cholera outbreak. Dr. Snow had a hunch about how cholera was being spread and
how it could be stopped, but he needed a compelling way to tell this story to the
people who were making the decisions. So he came up with a new way to tell a data
story: he plotted each death on a map of the city.

When he showed his map to the citys leaders, they immediately understood what the
problem was: an infected water pump in an area with no sewage system. Since most
of the deaths occurred near that pump, they decided to replace its handle. Germ theory
was developed less than a decade later.
The tools we use to share visual stories are only getting better with time. Just a few
centuries have brought us from hand-drawn visualizationslike John Snows mapto
movies and computer graphics. Humans continue to build innovative ways to tell powerful
stories. Tableaus Story Points feature is the next evolution of storytelling with data.

Story Points

Telling and discovering stories with the same tool

Story Points provide a framework for arranging data visualizations sequentially,
so that you can tell stories with a beginning, middle and endeven with large
and complex data sets. With Story Points, you can tell stories with data in the
same tool you use to analyze data, and your presentation tool stays connected
to your data.
Heres an example of how Story Points works:
More than 131,000 earthquakes have been detected worldwide since 1973. Weve
also seen many recent high-impact quakes, like the one that struck near Thoku,
Japan in 2011. But is the number of quakes around the world actually increasing?

At the top of this visual, a series of annotations (shown above) guide viewers
through their exploration. By clicking through these annotationslike pages in a
booka series of interactive visualizations appear.
This story begins at the global level, and then focuses in on some of the larger
quakes weve recently seen. After surveying areas such as Japan, it turns to
overall trends of earthquake detection.
Immediately, a trend pops out of the visual. More earthquakes are being detected
than ever before, but most of the increase is actually coming from lower-magnitude
quakes. It seems that earthquakes are not on the rise; rather, weve improved our
methods for detecting them.
Of course, this does nothing to lessen the human impact of larger quakes. But
when youre looking at a complex data setwhether in a research lab, a board
room, or somewhere elseyou need to be able to decide how youll act upon it.

Earthquakes: Are they are on rise?

Earthquakes: Are they are on rise?

Thousands of
earthquakes are
detected each year

About two each year

qualify as "major
earthquakes"

The megaquakes are

what has drawn
attention

Megaquake: The
Indian Ocean quake
in 2004.

Thousands of
About two each year
The megaquakes are
Megaquake: The
earthquakes are
qualify as "major
what has drawn
Indian Ocean quake
Megaquake: detected
The
Most earthquakes
eachMore
yearand more
earthquakes"
attention But major
in 2004.
Japan quake of
earthquakes are
are being detected in
earthquakes are not
happening more oft..
2011.
being detected
the Pacific Rim

Earthquakes:
Are they
are on rise?
Most earthquakes
But major

Megaquake: The
Japan quake of
2011.

More and more

earthquakes are
Thousands
being
detectedof

earthquakes are
detected each year

are being detected in

About
two Rim
each year
the
Pacific
qualify as "major
earthquakes"

earthquakes are not

The
megaquakes
happening
more are
oft..
what has drawn
attention

Megaquake: The
Indian Ocean quake
in 2004.

Megaquake: The
Japan quake of
2011.

More and more

earthquakes are
being detected

Most earthquakes
are being detected in
the Pacific Rim

Earthquake Date Time

The 2011 quake off the coast of Thoku was a magnitude 9.0 (Mw) undersea megathrust earthquake. It was the most powerful
1/1/2004 to 2/26/2014
Earthquake
Datehit
Time
knownmagnitude
earthquake
to have
Japan, and the 5th most powerful earthquake in the world.
A big reason people are more aware of earthquakes are the recent "mega-quakes". These quakes are those whose
is ever
The 2011 quake off the coast of Thoku was a magnitude 9.0 (Mw) undersea megathrust earthquake. It was the most powerful
1/1/2004 to 2/26/2014
known earthquake ever to have hit Japan, and the 5th most powerful earthquake in the world.
greater than 8.0 and they often cause significant damage and lose of live.
Magnitude
8 to 9.1

Magnitude
8 to 9.1

16

earthquakes selected

Magnitude
6.0

earthquakes selected

Magnitude 9.0 near the east coast of Honshu, Japan

Magnitude 9.0 near the east coast of Honshu, Japan

8.0

Region of the World

All

16

16

earthquakes selected

Magnitude
6.0

Magnitude
8 to 9.1

Region of the World

All

Region of the World

All

Magnitude
6.0

8.0

But major
earthquakes are not
happening more oft..

Earthquake Date Time

1/1/2004 to 2/26/2014

8.0

This story was built using visualizations connected directly to the data source.
As earthquakes continue to be detected around the world, the visualizations in the
story will update to include the new data.
Stories help you understand whats going on beneath the surface. From start
to finish, they walk you through a series of events so that you can see whats
causing them to happen.
The data tells you whats happening, but the story guides you to an understanding
of why. And once you understand that cause, you can decide how to act.

Earthquakes: Are they are on rise?

Thousands of
earthquakes are
detected each year

About two each year

qualify as "major
earthquakes"

The megaquakes are

what has drawn
attention

Megaquake: The
Indian Ocean quake
in 2004.

Megaquake: The
Japan quake of
2011.

More and more

earthquakes are
being detected

Most earthquakes
are being detected in
the Pacific Rim

But major
earthquakes are not
happening more oft..

Magnitude
4 to 9.1

16K
15K
14K
13K

Since 1973 there has been a steady increase in

the number of earthquakes being recorded with
a particularly strong increase in 2003 to 2005.

12K

Number of earthquakes

11K
10K
9K
8K
7K
6K
5K
4K
3K
2K
1K
2013

1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012

0K

Earthquakes: Are they are on rise?

Thousands of
earthquakes are
detected each year

About two each year

qualify as "major
earthquakes"

The megaquakes are

what has drawn
attention

Megaquake: The
Indian Ocean quake
in 2004.

Megaquake: The
Japan quake of
2011.

More and more

earthquakes are
being detected

Most earthquakes
are being detected in
the Pacific Rim

Magnitude
5 to 9.1

2000

Region of the World

APAC
EMEA
North & South Am..

1800

1600

1400

1200

1000

800

600

400

200
0
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013

Number of earthquakes

But major
earthquakes are not
happening more oft..

When to Tell a Story

Dashboards versus data stories

Data stories may be groundbreaking, but theyre nothing new. John Snows cholera
map makes that clear. So why cant we just use dashboards to tell data stories?

M alaria af f ect s over half t he world populat ion, t he map below shows t he cases
and deat hs due t o M alaria f or each count ry. Concent rat ed around t he equat er
Sub-Saharan Af rica has t he largest problem.

We can.

Highlight af f ect ed count ries by

number of cases or deat hs
Cases

Just as Dr. Snow adapted a versatile mediumpaper, pen, and inkto share
a data story, so too can dashboards be shaped into compelling visual stories.
Total Worldwide Cases : 207,420,000

However, theyre already pretty darn good at what theyre usually designed for.
Lets take a look.

This visualization, by Matt Francis

of the Wellcome Trust Sanger
Institute, shows cases of malaria
around the world. Once you see
whats going onthat malaria
is mainly striking Sub-Saharan
Africachances are you want to
know why. And then you want to
tell that story.

When it comes to monitoring your datakeeping its daily pulsean interactive

dashboard is a great tool. And if you notice a change or problem in your data, you
can use a dashboard to investigate the cause. But when you need to communicate
your findings to otherswhen you need to convince them to take actionyou
need to show them why.
By putting data in a sequence, you can help viewers understand the context
and make useful connections between each point. Francis uses a series of
visualizations to guide readers through a thought process in a focused, userfriendly way.

...t hat means over 1700 children, t he equivalent of 32 school buses, will die f rom

In 2013 an est imat ed 627,000 people, 90% of t hem children under 5 died f rom
What could you spend $10 on?
malaria
everyonsingle
M alaria, t hat s almost t he ent ire populat ion
of Washingt
DC... day, t hat s one f or every minut e of every day
Item

City

Ticket t o t he M ovies

Det roit
Bost on
Seat t le

3 gallons of gas

Denver

Long Last ing Insect icidal Net

Washingt on

One mont h subscript ion t o rdio

Deat hs f rom M alaria

Port land

Pharrel Williams New Album

Oklahoma Cit y

5 Dunkin Donut s Cof f ees

Las Vegas
Kansas Cit y

10 KFC Hot Wings

At lant a
0K

50K

100K

150K

200K

250K

300K

350K
400K
Population

450K

500K

550K

600K

650K

700K

$1.00

$2.00

$3.00

$4.00

$5.00

$6.00

$7.00

Dashboards tell you whats happening, but stories explain why.

$8.00

$9.00

$10.00 $11.00

10

Storytelling to the People

How to be a game-changer with data

What if youre not the one making decisions with data? In 1854, John Snow
believed that water was spreading cholera in London, but needed to convince
the citys leaders too.
Likewise, the former teacher John Savagewho recently wrote about Texas
struggling schoolshas a major hunch about whats causing their problems.
Could he do what Dr. Snow did in 1854: follow his instincts, dive into the data,
and tell a life-changing story with it?
Savages story impacts teachers all over the east side of Austin, Texas. And if

Austin's
Teacher
Problem
you look at
regionalTurnover
data, its clear
that Austins east side struggles more than
Austin's
teacher
Teacher turnover is a
its
(wealthier)
west.
turnover rate has
problem across
been above the nati..

Austin, although the..

The problem is
particularly actue at
some schools.

Salon.com published
a piece called "I
taught at the worst s..

"At Reagan, 19 of
teachers were giving
lessons in subjects f..

A struggle between
teachers and a
principal drove high ..

In 2014 the S
wrote,
"Multimillion-d

Use the slider to see rate..

2013

Reach program schools

NO

YES

Teachers
6
50
100
161

Avg. Turnover rate

10.0

Savage also alludes to recovery efforts in Austins schools. Did they work?
About six years after he left Pearce, an article in the Austin American-Statesman
reported on a new study that claimed teacher quality was higher in the west than
in the eastand that at Reagan High School in Northeast Austin, 19 percent of
teachers were giving lessons in subjects for which they were not certified. It went
on to describe an incentive program aimed at improving teacher performance.

22.0

11

But Savage believes its poverty that needs to be addressed, not teacher
performance. And the turnover rate at Reagan only went up after that article
was published.

School name

Avg. Turnover rate

School type

10.0

60.0

22.0

Teachers
40.0
Mendez

39

Middle school

60
80

20.0
0.0
60.0

40.0
Pearce

Middle school
20.0
0.0
60.0

40.0
Reagan

High school
20.0
0.0
2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

About three years later, the Statesman reported that millions of dollars spent
on teacher incentives had done little to fix the problem. State data would show
teacher turnover to be higher than ever before.
By telling this whole storyfrom the emotional impact its had on real people to
the data that points to the true causea single person could change the game for
teachers and students across Austin.
From improving public education to preventing disease and better understanding
natural disasters, data stories have unlimited potential. What would happen if
there was an explosion of authorship around the world? Imagine the impact of
billions of people telling their stories with numbers.
Stories have always been for everyone. Since ancient times, weve been using
stories to conserve and pass on information. With game-changing inventions like
the printing press, widespread access to information has become a reality. Were
also seeing an explosion of authorship around the world today.
With a data story, hundreds of millions of rows can be distilled into a single
narrative. By following that narrative, its much easier to understand whats going
on beneath the surface. The data can tell you whats happening, and a story can
elucidate the cause.
Perhaps most importantly, though, stories motivate action. And in todays world of
information overload, its crucial to be able to make informed, actionable decisions
with all of your data.

12

About the Authors

Jock Mackinlay
Jock Mackinlay is Tableaus Vice President of Visual Analysis. At Stanford
University, he pioneered the automatic design of graphical presentations of
relational information. He joined Xerox PARC in 1986, where he collaborated
with the User Interface Research group to develop many novel applications
of computer graphics for information access, coining the term information
visualization. Much of the fruits of this research can be seen in his book,
Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think. Jock has a PhD
in computer science from Stanford University.

Robert Kosara
Robert Kosara is a researcher in Tableaus Visual Analysis group. Before
he joined Tableau in 2012, he was a professor of computer science at UNC
Charlotte. Robert has created visualization techniques like parallel sets and
performed research into the perceptual and cognitive basics of visualization.
Recently, his research has focused on how to communicate data using tools
from visualization, and how storytelling can be adapted to incorporate data,
interaction, and visualization.

Michelle Wallace
Michelle Wallace is a product marketer at Tableau Software, where she tells
stories about how thought-leaders around the world are making an impact
with data. She holds a BA in English from Western Washington University with
a minor in astronomy. Prior to Tableau, Michelle was a magazine writer who
covered local interests and histories around the United States.

13

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