Writing Code Is the Easy Part: Lessons from Creating a Public-Facing Dashboard

• Activity Number: 107 - Storytelling with Dynamic Interactive Data Visualizations
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Monday, August 9, 2021 : 1:30 PM to 3:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Graphics
• Author(s): Nola du Toit* and Edward Mulrow
• Companies: NORC at the University of Chicago and NORC at the University of Chicago
• Keywords: Interactive; COVID; Graphics; Data story

Abstract

We address the different roles involved in telling a compelling data story. These roles include the subject matter expert, the visualization expert, the graphic designer, statistician, programmer, and writer. Working together, these different roles can produce a successful data interactive. However, while they each bring their own skills and training to the table, there are also obstacles to having so many people on the team. We draw upon our recent experience in creating an interactive graphic on COVID-19 data to expand upon this process.