Paint a picture with your data

Data doesn’t have to be a plethora of digits stretched across an Excel spreadsheet; it can be transformed into colorful imagery or visualizations and still achieve its purpose—sometimes even more effectively than just numbers on a screen ever could. Data represents statistics that measure everything from revenue growth to employee engagement to weather patterns. It’s everywhere you turn. Although the numbers may be tedious to analyze, there is greater meaning to derive from those statistics and what they tell you. The key to making the numbers more appealing is to paint a picture with your data.

According to Pearson Prentice Hall, 65% of the population are visual learners. This statistic represents that most people comprehend information better with a visual aid. Another way of learning that is becoming increasingly popular is microlearning, which is a modern learning strategy that delivers content in small bursts. Therefore, to make data more appealing and easily digestible, it is vital to transform an Excel spreadsheet to a colorful visual. For instance, the information laying on a spreadsheet can become a chart, graph, animation, or infographic.
Infographics are a great tool to paint a picture with your data while using imagery and appealing to microlearning. This visual aid can represent the story of data from the beginning to the future. The 2017 global data management playbook is a brilliant example of how utilizing infographics can make data more visually appealing and comprehendible to the reader.

The 2017 global data management playbook tells the story of the importance of data. Beginning with the “game rules”, the story begins with a brief explanation why quality data is vital, and continues by providing visual statistics and information on how to play the game with data. The story ends with “plays to expect in 2017.” While predicting the future of data can be difficult, the playbook forecasts expectations for 2017 based on results from the global survey Experian conducts. There is a reason why this infographic has been viewed more than 1500 times, and it is because this playbook paints an easy-to-understand and relatable picture utilizing the relevant data in a visually compelling and easily digestible format.

Check out the data-filled playbook infographic! See the playbook

Infographics and other visual aids make data interesting. Infographics are a great tool to paint a data- filled picture with because they tell a Sparknotes version of a story; the reader gets the most important notes in a quickly and easily. Charts, graphs, animations, videos, and symbolism are other great visual aids that can be used within an infographic or on their own. These are all ways to paint a picture with complex numbers and tell stories with your data.

Before you tell your data’s story, you should make sure it is accurate and reliable. Experian can help you achieve data you can trust.

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