Visualizing What Needs to Be Communicated:

What the Four Types Are and What to Use

Importance

Scott Berinato states in “Visualizations That Really Work” that visual communication to explain data is a required skill every marketer must have. In order to make decisions driven by complex data, which can be hefty in volume and velocity, one must be able to see it clearly in visuals. This applies for more than statistics and numbers but also concepts like patterns and flow.

He warns; however, about “click and viz” which means to rush ahead without forethought of application to create visualizations for the sake of having one. It can be convenient, albeit sometimes ineffective and overall, not good for the project at the end of the day.

Know First

Berinato details four types of visualizations for data to make clarifying the data easier. He first asks you to consider two things for the purpose.

1.     Is the data conceptual or data-driven?

a.     What do you have?

2.     Are you declaring something or exploring something?

a.     What are you doing?

The Four Types

1.     Idea Illustration – Explain ideas and processes easily, consultant preferred

2.     Idea Generation – Generate, solve, and discover ideas, problems, and strategies (collab friendly)

3.     Visual Discovery – Used to test/find patterns and make complex data easier to comprehend

4.     Everyday Dataviz – Simple, declarative, data-driven visuals that lead to discussion for quick communication

Recommendation

A writer should consider using everyday dataviz because it would help them communicate with agents, publishers, and their target audiences. It is useful in branding and marketing as sales and performance can be tracked on the more popular graphs like bar, pie, and line. The simple but clear transcription of information would be useful in presentations and creating information charts for personal marketing needs - such as popular genres and demographics for a way to break into new markets.