Implementing Your Data Story

Options for Implementation

Option 1: Fully realized data story
- (a) With static data visualizations — e.g.,
  - a slide show
  - an infographic
  - a document (journalistic story)
  - a web page (e.g., on a WordPress.com site)
- (b) With dynamic or interactive data visualizations
  - hosted on an online service such as ArgGIS StoryMaps, Tableau Public, Flourish,etc.
  - or “embedded” from such services in a web page
Option 2: Partly realized data story with mockup designs for what cannot be implemented (Mock up the data story design in a document or slides; and add instructions/documentation on how things are supposed to look and behave) — for example:
- a complex scrolly story
- a video story (with script and storyboard)

See Grading Rubric for a detailed view of how the instructors will be evaluating the projects.

Presentations on the team project occur in the course’s last class.

Submit this assignment by no later than the end of the following Monday on the course Canvas site here in a form appropriate for the nature of your project (e.g., as a document containing a URL, a PDF of the project, etc.). Remember to provide instructors with the permissions needed to view and comment on any online materials that require sharing permissions (“commenter” permissions in Google Drive, for example).

Only one member of a team needs to submit this assignment (which is a “group assignment” in Canvas).

Tips on Team Project

Prompt for the team projects on the Schedule page
Grading Rubric for Team Projects (also linked from the Schedule page)

Some tips:

Awareness of your audience
- Create your context (overview) and shape your “voice” for your specific audience.
- Provide brief glosses (or provide links) for any of the following:
  - scholarly or technical terms
  - specialized domain discourse
  - terms that are specific to the U.S. or assume localized knowledge (typical example: “K-12 education”).
    - Also, avoid putting dates in the format of “3/3/2022” due to international differences in date formatting. (Use an explicit format on first mention–e.g., “March 3, 2022” or “3 March 2022”)
Managing your audience’s attention
- What do you want the reader to focus on first in a data story scene, and where do you want the reader’s attention next to move?
- Can you provide design or visual cues to provide consistency, focus, and direction?
- Be cautious of data story scenes (e.g., individual slides) that are too busy with text or that have too many ideas (related ideas, sub-ideas).
Finishing up
- It’s a good idea for a team to have a triage meeting near the end of a project to decide on:
  - where to concentrate your final burst of work;
  - what needs to be cut from the project.
- Assign someone on the team to be a “critic” of the project, suggesing what “must do” improvements have to be made.
- Assign someone to be the final editor. The editor focuses on:
  - correcting and standardizing writing style and visua formatting;
  - streamlining and improving prose.
- Be sure you have a process for everyone to sign-off on the project before submitting it. Appoint someone to be the person who does the actual submission on Canvas.

Presentations on Last Day of Course

Order of presentations (randomizer):
Team 2 Team 3 Team 1 Team 4
10 minutes long
Have a plan for:
- A lead-off presenter, and other presenters as you wish.
- How to take us through your data story. For example, after going sequentially through the story do you want to go back and focus on any parts or issues?
Do a rehearsal if possible.

Final Assignment (Solo Assignment #4)

Description of essay assignment on the Schedule page

Due March 21: Solo Assignment 4 — Essay About Project

20% of final grade

Each member of a team individually writes a three-page essay (approximately 900 words) that reflects critically on their team’s data narrative project. “Critically” means that the essay should identify both the strengths and problems of the specific data narrative, and possibly also those of data narratives in general.

The essay can begin with, or include, a description of the student’s team project and its essential message. But it must go beyond that to think critically about what works well and what doesn’t in the data narrative or in data narratives generally.

Conclude the essay with a paragraph offering a utopian vision of what the ideal version of the team data narrative would add if you had all the time and resources you needed.

Address the essay to a hypothetical general audience and not just “insiders” to our class who already know all the necessary context or information aobut your project. Include notes that cite any sources, borrowings, or quotations.

This is a solo writing assignment. Of course, teams will have already discussed their data narrative project together. But each team member must write an essay individually without borrowing directly from anyone else’s writing. It is fine, however, to draw on collective team discussion that has already occurred so long as there is a clear footnote or endnote crediting the team (e.g., “This idea comes from our team discussion,” or, “I borrow with variation an idea that came up in our team discussion”).

Grading Rubric

Submit the essay as a Word or PDF file through the course Canvas site here.

Class Business