Respect the Audience (or, the TEDapalooza post)

I've been thinking a lot about visual communication recently, and communication in general. Maybe that's because the organization where I work is preparing to implement intranet dashboards for our fundraisers to help them track their goals and progress. Or maybe it's because I'm preparing to give a PowerPoint presentation to a large audience in a few months, and part of that presentation covers the various ways to establish effective communication between Prospect Researchers (us behind-the-scenes folks) and frontline fundraisers, and also between fundraisers and potential donors.

Or maybe I'm thinking about visual communication because I'm taking a class in Data Analysis and our topic this week has been the many forms of visual representation that can be used to present various types of of data.

One of our class-assigned "readings" was actually a TED Talk by Hans Rosling. You may have seen the video already, as I had, although it didn't, at least the first time I saw it several years ago, have the impact it's had on me now.

This time around, I was struck by several points, such as:

• Visualization isn't always an end in itself. Sometimes it can be a means to an end. Sometimes it can be a beginning - a way to start thinking about deeper or more complex issues.
• Simply animating a visualization - making it move against time or other dimensions - can breathe emotional life into what would otherwise be a static chart or graph.
• Mr. Rosling employs storytelling throughout his presentation, but does so at a population-by-population level, instead of an individual-by-individual level. The human mind likes to be told a story. It likes to empathize. We, as humans, are naturally influenced by narrative. Even though the stories in his Talk deal with populations and statistics, Mr. Rosling's storytelling is extremely effective.

Statistics can lie, of course. Everybody knows that. The critical thinkers among us, every time we read the Washington Post or The Nation, try to consider what might be influencing any statistics or visuals we see. The data sources are important, for instance. Are they primary sources, or secondary, or worse? Timeliness and accuracy of the data are important, too. Of utmost importance is the selection and presentation of the data. Have any facts been omitted? Has the context been fully rendered and disclosed?

Narratives, or stories, can also lie, and can do so more effectively than mere statistics. Facebook and the internet at large are full of one-off, tear-inducing (or anger-inducing) articles about individuals that have been insulted or victimized in some way. But even if the story is true, and illustrates an issue perfectly, it doesn't take much Googling to find an equally true story illustrating the other side equally as well. We live in a minefield of competing narratives.

In his book "Against Empathy," Paul Bloom argues that it makes more sense for us to look at issues from a higher level. "The concern about empathy is not that it's consequences are always bad ... It's that its negatives outweigh its positives." It's too easy to be deceived, he means, by a heart-wrenching photograph and a plea for action. Acting only on empathy, we often make bad decisions.

But this is where the audience comes in. And the storyteller, too, whether she be a DataViz wizard or a sappy romantic who prefers to sing sad songs of lost love.

Sometimes the audience needs only a snapshot (for instance, a Fundraiser needing to know his goals). Sometimes the audience needs an overview, over time (a Research Analyst, needing to see the correlation between his work and overall gift revenue). And sometimes the audience truly wants to be told a story (a potential donor, perhaps, looking for a worthy recipient of a charitable gift).

We, as the storytellers or visualizers, must learn to accommodate the needs of the audience, but also not discredit ourselves in the process. We should tell a story, if that's what's needed, but we must also support the story with strong data. And, as audience members - which all of us are in one way or another - we must demand more than a sad picture or a sappy song, or take a pretty chart at face value.

In thinking about my upcoming PowerPoint presentation to that large audience I mentioned earlier, I'd like to try to emulate what Mr. Rosling accomplishes in his TED Talk. I'd like to illustrate my points on a population-by-population level, drilling down to individual narratives only when it's needed to illustrate a larger point ... drilling down only when it's supported by a larger, valid, timely, unbiased set of facts.

That's all for this week.

Bonus content: For those of my classmates interested in the psychology of PowerPoint, here's one last TED Talk that nicely recaps many of the things we've covered in our class this past week (simplicity, clarity of communication, unclutteredness, one-screen dashboards, etc.):

Sources for this post

TED Talks:

Dave Lieber, "The Power of Storytelling to Change the World"

David JP Phillips, "How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint"

Hans Rosling, "The Best Stats You've Ever Seen"

Book:

Paul Bloom, Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion