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Good stories always have heroes, even data stories. So who is the hero in your story?

So technically, a story is just a sequence of events. And you can layout a sequence of events without the use of characters. But thinking of your stories, and telling them, through the eyes of characters (especially a good protagonist) can really elevate the quality.

So how do you do that with data stories? That’s what we’ll discuss in today’s post.

For a little extra context, a couple of weeks ago I put out a course waitlist wondering what my readers really wanted to learn related to data design. And out of all the topics I listed, data storytelling rose to the top. So as I dive down the rabbit hole that is storytelling, preparing for a course to be launched (perhaps in May?), I thought I would share some basic methods here on the blog.

The Hero’s Journey and Us

The hero’s journey is a really common story template that has been adapted to meet all sorts of needs from literature to script writing to business planning. We won’t dive in too deep at this moment, but it does give us a good starting point for talking about the hero (a.k.a. our main protagonist).

Out of all the various character archetypes you could include in a story, a hero is almost certainly the most important.

But who is the hero in a story about a program’s performance? Is it the program? Is it the board or leadership? Is it a member of the program staff? Is it a funding recipient? Is it the ultimate beneficiary?

Honestly, you can center any of these as the hero of your stories. But some points of view will definitely give you more compelling stories than others.

Centering the Organization as the Hero [Don’t Do This]

For some reason I feel like this has become the default. Which is unfortunate.

Organization heroes make for pretty dull stories.

Let’s look at how the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences centers itself in its web page copy and reports. Here is an example from the web page.

Driving Innovation through Research. IES invests in high-quality research that sparks innovative solutions to real-world challenges in education.

Who is the hero? Clearly it’s IES that’s doing the investing that is leading to innovation.

This kind of language gets continued on the “About Us” page. Look at the number of sentences that start with we.

Okay, now let’s dive into their latest Biennial Report to Congress.

IES is a leader throughout the world in advocating for-and achieving-advances in rigorous applied and basic education research and development. This biennial report is an opportunity to highlight some of the accomplishments of the Institute as well as highlight the foundation that has been built to propel IES into the future.

Who is the hero? Clearly it’s the Institute.

This kind of centering becomes a habit that starts from the top and then permeates through an entire organization. It’s one of those “mindless centering of self” kind of things that we all tend to do.

Centering Beneficiaries and Direct Service Providers as Heroes [Consider This]

UNICEF offers us an alternative example in how to think about organizational storytelling.

Here is the current top of the “What we do” page.

While the language does do some centering of the organization it quickly switches perspective. The text adds a new character, “children.”

By saying “Every child has the right to grow up in a safe and inclusive environment,” the child becomes the central figure (which then gets repeated throughout the page). UNICEF becomes the mentor, or guide, that supports the child’s journey.

Who is the hero? On the about page, I would suggest the hero is the child.

Perhaps you might think that’s a stretch. So let’s take a dive into one of UNICEF’s flagship reports. The State of the World’s Children 2023.

The first few stories center children.

In Yemen, 7-year-old Hind has grown up in a country where health services have been deeply affected by conflict. But a team of committed health workers, whose mission it is to protect their community, reach children like her with life-saving vaccines.

In Pakistan, 4-year-old Iman received her polio vaccine. Her grandmother was initially hesitant to get her immunized. But thanks to the dedication of a health worker, who helped the family access health services, trust was built and Iman was vaccinated.

Who is the hero? The Children.

These are stories that show each child’s journey towards getting vaccinated. Health workers are heroic figures that appear in these specific stories, but not as the central figure.

This approach changes as the report goes on (there are many stories included in this report). We move from centering children to centering health workers. And it becomes clear that the organization is not centering itself in any of these stories, we can only assume that they had some role in the background.

Marìa Ortencia Catucuago is a community health worker in Ecuador. She cares for the indigenous Turucucho community, nestled in the foothills of the north-eastern highlands. In addition to her work engaging the community on the importance of vaccines, she tends to a dairy farm and delivers milk. “I feel passionate about helping others,” she says. “I want all the children in my community to grow up healthy, happy and with the same opportunities.”

For Ghada Ali Obaid, vaccinating children is not a job. It’s a calling. She dashes through the Dar Sa’ad Medical Compound in Yemen, counselling mothers about the benefits of immunization and takes to the road to reach children who might otherwise miss out. Ghada’s husband, Ehab, takes time off from his job as a taxi driver to bring her to more remote areas. “I encourage her to show up every day because she is so passionate, and she has my full respect,” Ehab says.

Who is the Hero? The Health Workers

How will you apply this lesson to your own reporting stories?

Who do you center when you write a report?

How often do you treat an organization as if it were a person? Would it be better to center individual project staff members in some of your stories? Could you center some of the program’s direct beneficiaries?

Card sorting is a user experience research method useful in discovering how people organize and prioritize different topics.

The method is pretty simple. You start with a set of topics on notecards or sticky notes. Then you ask your research participant to organize those cards in a way that makes sense to them.

At least that’s the basics, there are all sorts of card sort variations (open, closed, hybrid, moderated, unmoderated) which has been covered on the web in lots of detail. Here are a couple of good sources if you want an in-depth method guide.

• Card Sorting: The Ultimate Guide (in 2024) – Interaction Design Foundation
• Card Sorting: Uncover Users’ Mental Models for Better Information Architecture – Nielsen Norman Group

Card sorting can be used for more than just user interface and web design.

A lot of the guides you’ll find on the web are written to show you how to use card sorting for information architecture. And it is a really good method for discovering where people would expect to find certain pieces of information on a website.

But there are definitely all sorts of different situations where are a card sort could be a really useful research method. Off the top of my head, here are just a few potential uses for researchers and evaluators.

Card sorting to prioritize reporting information.

Are you trying to create a short visual report but don’t know what information should be included or not included? Why not try a card sort with different potential section headings?

Card sorting to determine survey response items.

If you have a really important survey, testing your questions with real survey respondents can provide a lot of insight. Taking it one step further, you can also card sort different response items to see which are most important for inclusion. Or you can card sort the actual survey questions, to determine which questions might provide the best insights.

Card sorting to organize outcomes and activities.

Understanding some of the importance between different program elements, activities, and outcomes could also be discovered through card sorting.

Why you should consider leading a moderated card sort.

Moderated card sorting involves a researcher being present in the room while the user participates in the card sort. The researcher will encourage the participant to think aloud during the process and probe into why they are making certain choices.

dscount People Nerds – Card Sorting

Card sorting can provide a lot more insight than just the order and groupings of different topics. By asking participants to think aloud, you can get a ton of added insight into their thought process.

Bonus: Card sorting is a visual qualitative method.

A lot of data people struggle with visualizing qualitative data. Which is not surprising because many “qualitative data visualization” methods involve quantifying the data first.

Card sorting is a visual method. At the beginning and end of the sort you have a natural visual artifact that can be used when illustrating your qualitative reports. Just take a picture (or if you are leading the card sort virtually, take a screenshot).

Unlike most stock photos, process pictures of visual methods are highly relevant and easy to use illustrations.

How to lead a Card Sort using Canva and Zoom.

There are a bunch of virtual tools that can used to lead a card sort. But here is a simple approach using Zoom and Canva.

1. Start a Zoom meeting and share your screen (optional)

This is totally optional, but running a card sort in Zoom (or other video meeting tool) will give you the ability to share your screen and record the process.

2. Create a Whiteboard in Canva

In Canva, go to create a design and choose “Whiteboard.”

3. Add sticky notes.

If you already have the topics you want your participant to organize, go ahead and create sticky notes to share them. There is a Canva shortcut, just click “s” and a sticky note will appear.

4. Change sticky note colors (optional)

The default sticky note is yellow, but you can always change the colors by selecting the sticky notes and clicking on the color button at the top left of the page.

5. Add organizing text blocks.

Here is another Canva shortcut. If you hit the “t” button on your computer a text block will appear. You can use these to include labels on the page.

6. Invite your participant to the Canva file.

You can share your canva document directly with your participant. You just need to click share and then send a “Collaboration link” that anyone can edit.

7. Your participant does not need a Canva account to engage with the document.

By sharing an open link, your participant can just open the link in a web browser. They will be able to interact with the design without signing up or logging into a Canva account. They will just show up in the Canva document as a generic user.

8. Let your participant move the sticky notes around the page and ask them to talk through the process.

Your user will be able to move sticky notes around, change sticky note colors, and even add new sticky notes. It’s just up to you to show them how.

9. Sticky notes can be stacked.

The sticky notes can definitely be stacked. By right clicking on a sticky note you can access the layer menu (which will allow your participant to move a sticky note forward or backward in a pile). Whiteboards are also infinite in Canva, so they can always just order the sticky notes up and down the page or left to right.

Since you are both in the document at the same time, you can always help the participant move items around as they direct the process.

10. Want to use the same sticky notes over and over again?

During the Canva setup process, after you have your sticky notes set, go ahead and make a copy of the design file. Do this for as many interviews as you want to lead. This way you’ll have a visual record for each.

This post is part of a new series on specific design methods. Card sorts are just one of many potentially useful user experience design methods I suggest to researchers and evaluators. If you’re interested in learning more UX design methods, visit my diydatadesign course catalog and look for UX Design 101.