The Geographic Data Service (GeoDS) and the UCL Social Data Institute (UCL SODA) are proud to launch the Data Storytelling Toolkit.
The toolkit outlines and exemplifies main building blocks for data storytelling including:
- creating an audience profile for a data story
- main elements of a data story
- usefulness of outliers for inspiring/crafting data stories
Parts [1] and [2] of the toolkit are based on Dykes (2020).
In demonstrating the main elements of a data story, the toolkit utilises a data story example from the Data After Dark project led by UCL Social Data Institute and UCL Urban Laboratory. The project was supported by the Mayor of London. It received support, advice and funding from UCL Innovation & Enterprise. Driven by both quantitative and qualitative data and evidence, the project sheds new light on night workers’ experiences and working conditions, providing actionable insights to support policymaking.
The Project
The toolkit comes as part of Data Storytelling for Digital Research Infrastructure, a three-year UKRI-funded project that addresses skills as one of the strategic priorities of UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure. The toolkit is an open-access supplementary learning material that can serve as a companion for ongoing data storytelling efforts for researchers who have experience with data storytelling and / or for those who have attended UCL SODA’s Concept and Practice of Data Storytelling and Python for Data Storytelling workshops, which also form part of Data Storytelling for Digital Research Infrastructure.
The People behind the Toolkit
Reem Khurshid is a Data Journalist at the Geographic Data Service based in the UCL Department of Geography. Her work focuses on illuminating the power of data to improve lives, through visual storytelling approaches that engage and inform audiences on a range of social and economic challenges. She has previously worked at Dawn, Pakistan’s largest English-language newspaper, as a writer, editor, cartoonist and illustrator, and has been a contributor at AJ Labs at Al Jazeera English; the Education, Justice and Memory network, and more.
Igor Tkalec is an Associate Professor (Teaching) in Social Data Science at UCL’s SODA and Department of Geography with a background in political economy. Igor’s research interests intersect political economy, social policy, and research methods with an emphasis on data science. He currently leads UCL SODA’s Data Storytelling Workshops: The Concept and Practice of Data Storytelling and Python for Data Storytelling.