Throughout the first week at the data school, we’ve learnt that the most important word in consulting is why. These three simple letters (worth 12 points), allow us to gain further insight into both datasets and client intentions, providing much needed context to otherwise uninterpretable information. My first post discussed speaking in a formal setting and over the past week I’ve been left wondering – why? What is the importance of presentation when dashboards are as detailed and interactive as they are now? Could we create visualizations in so much detail that there would no longer be a need for anyone to present them? Could we simply hand over a viz to a client and have them be able to gain all the relevant information just by reading?
From what I can gather, the biggest thing a presenter can do to add value to a presentation is to navigate the user to relevant information. I use the word navigate because I’d like to provide an analogy to help demonstrate this using - you guessed it - navigation. Let’s think of a strong dashboard as a detailed map and a dashboard with a presenter as satnav. The map has all the relevant information and could look eye-catching, but to drive from point a to point b, a driver would have to stop at some point to take a second look at the map (unless said driver happens to have photographic memory etc.) Now let’s look at the satnav, whereby the picture on the screen is the dashboard and the voice is a presenter. In this case there’s no need to pause to look at the screen, since the voice provides directions whilst the screen acts as a visual reference (something like ‘take the third exit,’ would be the equivalent of saying ‘look at graph x and see trends a, b and c’). Using a Satnav is preferred as it allows for a shorter travel time with fewer pauses and a smoother drive, and the same can be said for a presenter. As well as this, unlike a map/dashboard, a Satnav/presenter will also have a help function and is therefore able to answer questions regarding the subject.
We’ve all heard the phrase 'actions speak louder than words.' This remains true when conversing in a more formal setting. Research has shown that non-verbal communication plays a larger role in conversation than verbal communication. For reference, verbal communication is referring solely to the words that are said whilst non-verbal communication is everything else (e.g., The tone of voice, body language and eye contact etc.) This time we’ll create a hypothetical client meeting and discuss a couple of non-verbal cues to get a better understanding of how the meeting would differ if we substituted a presenter for a text box. We were discussing signposting earlier, so let’s consider pointing as our first form of non-verbal communication. Simply put, pointing from one area to the next is a very efficient way of guiding a client through a dashboard and whilst similar signposting could be done with arrows or ordering on a page etc., these create other issues. Specifically, arrows take up space on a dashboard and ordering of graphs from left to right reduces our ability to be creative. Another simple example is with tone e.g. Using a monotone voice to suggest negativity (losses) versus a varied tone to suggest positivity (profit). Again, this could be substituted with red/green colourings but using both in conjunction can help reinforce a message (also consistent use of red/green can cause problems with colour-blindness).
http://library.tuit.uz/knigiPDF/Ebsco/8-1106.pdf provides more information on verbal and non-verbal communication for those interested.
Do bear in mind that this is all just hypothetical - I know my dashboards aren't at the level yet where I could make effective presentations without speaking. With that being said, this is just the tip of the iceberg for benefits of presenting your content yourself, and if you're after more ideas, do have a look at my previous post which includes some tips on presenting.