How to make a visualized “data story” work

It’s all in how you dress it up

If someone had put my head in a vice and tightened until I promised to tell a “data story” mainly with visualization, I would have let them go on tightening — until a few days ago. Now I have a strategy to exit the vice intact. I will pass it on to you, dear reader.

But first, let me summarize my standard rant: “Data stories” as commonly understood are m…