Telling Data-Driven Stories

Through data assumptions are validated. From data findings are drawn. And, with data stories can be told. By combining information, knowledge, context, and emotion into a narration, we are able to create a cognitive experience that goes far beyond the study of statistics. The question is, how can we combine these two, seemingly opposite types of information containers to something engaging and entertaining? This presentation shows concrete examples of how to tell those stories to the recipient not only as a chronological sequence of facts. Data-driven stories invite the audience to go deeper and explore worlds of facts. Thus, we transform our normal audience, passively listening to the narrator, into active participants, who join the narrator on the quest of finding insights hidden in the data. Benjamin Wiederkehr will share the perspective of a designer on how interactive visualizations play a central role in such data-driven stories. He will show how we can push the boundaries of the digital medium to weave together the factual with the emotional.

Benjamin Wiederkehr
Interaction Designer, Interactive Things

Benjamin Wiederkehr is an Interaction Designer with a focus on information visualization and interface design. With his work, he explores opportunities to innovate through the combination of design and technology, to simplify complex data in order to raise awareness, as well as to tell stories with an open intent and meaningful impact. He is founding partner and managing director of Interactive Things, a Swiss design studio specialized in data-driven tools and experiences. Together with his team, Benjamin helps clients including the United Nations, World Economic Forum, National Geographic or Al Jazeera to establish engaging and emotional interactions between them and their audience. Their work has been exhibited in Indiana, Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, London, and Barcelona and it has been awarded with the European Newspaper Award, GEN Data Journalism Award, and the Grimme Online Award.