Visual Storytelling In Technology Design To Simplify Concepts

Stop treating design case studies like documentation. Start treating them like movies. The best design case studies I've reviewed follow a visual-first narrative: - Start with the money shot: Show the final product in context, hero images that make an impact - Set the scene: Visual problem statement showing the before state - Build tension: Key challenges visualized through early explorations - Show the journey: Process shots that highlight pivotal decisions - Reveal the payoff: Results and impact through before/after comparisons Keep text minimal. Let visuals do 80% of the storytelling. Your portfolio should feel like a gallery walk, not a reading assignment. For early-career designers: - Document everything while designing - Capture work-in-progress screenshots - Take photos of whiteboard sessions - Record user testing sessions A great case study shows the story of change - from chaos to clarity, from problem to solution. Make that transformation visible.

Yesterday, I published a new blog post (https://lnkd.in/gh9Yj-xU) that examines what data storytelling lessons we can learn from comic books. Why comic books? From a visual storytelling perspective, data stories have more in common with comic books than other storytelling mediums. They’re both static, sequential narratives that tell their stories using a balanced combination of words and visuals. In this post, I’d like to focus on the use of compression and decompression in comic books and how you can use them to control the pacing of our data stories. COMPRESSION ➡ ⬅️ Like a data story, a comic book doesn’t cover every facet of the entire narrative. It provides meaningful glimpses into the most important and entertaining parts that move the story forward. Looking at the three comic book panels on the left, you’re introduced to the superhero’s alter ego. He hears a call for help and begins changing into his superhero gear. Then, we see the hero running to respond to the plea for help. What’s missing? The mundane or repetitive bits that don’t matter to the story. 👉 Do we need to see him take out the garbage? No. 👉 Do we need to see him put on his cape? No. 👉 Do we need to see him checking a spam text message on his phone before running to help? No. Likewise, the data scenes don’t need to show every possible slice or detail of the data, especially if they’re irrelevant to your key takeaways or messages. DECOMPRESSION ⬅ ➡ In comic books, the opposite approach of decompression pacing is also used strategically. A decompressed approach spreads a key moment in the story across multiple similar panels with few accompanying words. This approach adds more weight to small but significant moments in the story to enhance the overall emotion and tension. The three comic book panels on the right progressively focus on the superhero and end with a close-up of her determined expression. At times in data storytelling, you may want to use a decompression approach to slow down and unpack an essential part of your story that is crucial to your audience’s understanding. For example, you may spend more time on a key dataset by focusing on different clusters of results in a scatterplot—one at a time, not all at once. While you’ll mainly use a compression approach, a decompression approach may be useful for pacing key parts of your story. If you'd like to learn more data storytelling skills like this, check out my book: https://lnkd.in/gzs2EZb 🔽 🔽 🔽 🔽 🔽 Craving more of my data storytelling, analytics, and data culture content? Sign up for my brand new newsletter today: https://lnkd.in/gRNMYJQ7

🎯 "If your data visualization needs explanation, it’s not good enough." I saw this recently, and while it sounds great, I respectfully disagree. A lot of people assume that once a dashboard looks sleek, it will tell the full story. But the truth is visuals alone don’t drive actions 📌 The foundation of effective data storytelling includes: ✔️ Data ✔️ Visuals ✔️ Narrative In fact, at the point of building a beautifully designed, insight-rich dashboard, you still risk persuading your stakeholders unless those visuals are wrapped in a compelling narrative. Until you’ve established the flow of your data story, focusing on visualization is only a distraction. 🚩 Let me walk you through my 4-Step Model for building powerful data storytelling narratives ✅️ 1. Identify Your Aha Moment Start by identifying the key insight that forms the core of your data story — the “Aha!” moment that matters. 📍Example: “Our key projects are delayed by 100–120 days.” this is vague, because if fails to answer the critical question; So What??? When you explain that this delay will incur an extra $1.2m in idle labor and equipment cost that wasn't budgeted, now you have an Aha moment ✅ 2. Find Your Beginning (The Hook) Once you know the end point (your Aha!), find the right entry point, your hook. Stakeholders don’t care about the number of queries you ran or how long your model took to train. They want clarity, not complexity. 📍Example: Instead of starting with technical jargon Start like this: “Every month we’re losing over ₦15M in opportunity costs due to project delays.” Now that’s a hook — it speaks directly to business value. ✅ 3. Select the Rising Phase This is where your story builds the bridge between your hook and Aha moment. Think of this as the evidence journey. key insights that stack toward your big reveal. 📍Example: We mapped the rising insights like this: 1️⃣ Delays were concentrated in just 3 departments. 2️⃣ Each delay was traced back to approval bottlenecks. 3️⃣ 78% of those delays could be prevented by automating vendor review workflows. Suddenly, the 100–120 day delay made sense, it had causes, and fixes.. ✅ 4. End with Empowerment Your data story must end with clear guidance: What should your audience do now? How does this insight lead to action? 📍 Example: We didn’t just say “fix the delay.” We proposed a pilot automation in the Procurement Department. Estimated savings? ₦5M in Q1 alone. And yes, please leave time for discussion and Q&A. If you're starting your data journey, join our training program which blends technical and soft skills helping you become a proficient data analyst Apply Now for 30% Discount Offer https://lnkd.in/dJNdqkhQ