Book Image

Data Storytelling with Google Looker Studio

By : Sireesha Pulipati
Book Image

Data Storytelling with Google Looker Studio

By: Sireesha Pulipati

Overview of this book

Presenting data visually makes it easier for organizations and individuals to interpret and analyze information. Looker Studio is an easy-to-use, collaborative tool that enables you to transform your data into engaging visualizations. This allows you to build and share dashboards that help monitor key performance indicators, identify patterns, and generate insights to ultimately drive decisions and actions. Data Storytelling with Looker Studio begins by laying out the foundational design principles and guidelines that are essential to creating accurate, effective, and compelling data visualizations. Next, you’ll delve into features and capabilities of Looker Studio – from basic to advanced – and explore their application with examples. The subsequent chapters walk you through building dashboards with a structured three-stage process called the 3D approach using real-world examples that’ll help you understand the various design and implementation considerations. This approach involves determining the objectives and needs of the dashboard, designing its key components and layout, and developing each element of the dashboard. By the end of this book, you will have a solid understanding of the storytelling approach and be able to create data stories of your own using Looker Studio.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Part 1 – Data Storytelling Concepts
5
Part 2 – Looker Studio Features and Capabilities
10
Part 3 – Building Data Stories with Looker Studio

Understanding data storytelling

Simply put, data storytelling means telling a story using data. According to Brent Dykes, author of the bestselling book Effective Data Storytelling, data storytelling is the skillful amalgamation of data, narrative, and visuals.

Why tell a story? Stories are an integral part of our lives and are the most natural way we consume and retain information. Compared to straightforward facts and messages, stories are memorable, impressionable, relatable, and persuasive. Stories appeal to the humanness of the audience. Stories often help in communicating a complex concept or message more effectively. This is evident through the prevalence and effectiveness of parables, fables, and other forms of stories throughout human history.

Structuring a data story

Stories can be told in different ways and can have different purposes. Some have a moral or a lesson to teach, some report events, while others just entertain. In the simplest sense, a story has a...