Sitting down with Glen Rabie, CEO at Yellowfin, this week on DataXpresso we discuss data democratization and how the concept fits alongside storytelling as a philosophy behind Yellowfin’s product and success.
Find further articles and recommendations below on building a data environment your business will love to use.
Listen to DataXpresso episode 22 here.
Author and futurist Bernard Marr provided a solid definition of data democratization what now seems like aeons ago in 2017. His simple explanation has stood the test of time and is largely how people interpret the term today.
“Data democratization means that everybody has access to data and there are no gatekeepers that create a bottleneck at the gateway to the data. It requires that we accompany the access with an easy way for people to understand the data so that they can use it to expedite decision-making and uncover opportunities for an organization. The goal is to have anybody use data at any time to make decisions with no barriers to access or understanding.”
Data storytelling – a key component of Yellowfin
The conversation with Glen Rabie covered the philosophy behind the company and its products, and included how the data storytelling capabilities of Yellowfin aim to empower customers to tell stories with their data more effectively. This is in line with the vendor’s focus on ‘data consumption’ – serving answers to everybody across the business and not aiming solely at data analysts. Learn more here.
Why data storytellers will define the next decade
As data democratization continues to forge its path in organizations, it’s important that people across businesses have access to the right knowledge and skills that enable them to use the data to their advantage. While some tools make it easy to find answers and share these insights with a broader audience, data literacy is crucial in helping the wider workforce to use data on a daily basis. Data storytelling plays an important role in driving data usage in organizations. Read more on Forbes.
Bring storytelling to the fore of your data visualisations
Both analysis and visualization are essential elements for developing data stories that can be shared. While a business user may only need a simple answer to their question, analysts often want to dig deeper, test their hypotheses and find insights they can share with the business. Iva Divic at boobook shares practical steps for creating effective data stories for both audiences. Read her suggestions here.
Data stories to inspire you
Bruises — The Data We Don’t See
Girogia Lupi is a world renowned Loading...data visualization designer and artist, sharing her talent through inspiring data stories. Lupi says she aims to use “data as a tool to better understand human nature”. In her work ‘Bruises’ she tells the story of her friend’s child who suffers from an auto-immune disease, which Giorgia visualizes (with quite beautiful results) here.
Violence and Abuse in Little Red Riding Hood
Using five different versions of the story of Little Red Riding Hood, Krisztina Szűcs created a visualization that compares these versions to the original by the Grimm brothers, identifying differences and similarities along the way. Explore this data story.
How Music Entered the Digital Era
Alexander Vassilev takes us through a short but beautifully designed data story about music and how the delivery and consumption of music has changed over the last 45 or more years. Explore his interactive dashboard.
Try it for yourself
3 tips for Storytelling with Data
In a conversation with Tableau’s evangelist Andy Cotgreave, Cole Knaflic from storytellingwithdata.com shares her three tips for getting started. It all starts with stepping away from your screen. Ready to try it for yourself? Check out her top three tips here.
Observe, Collect, Draw: A visual journal
Use this visual journal to discover the patterns in your daily life. Take a playful approach to drawing data, get better at observing your environment and fuel your creativity.