The Basics of Data Storytelling
Let’s continue with Step 2 – Identify the points you want to emphasize from your data. There are so many charts swirling around us, but many of them can be simply bucketed into 5 categories:
- COMPONENT COMPARE
- ITEM COMPARE
- TIME SERIES COMPARE
- FREQUENCY (DISTRIBUTION) COMPARE
- CORRELATION COMPARE
The Day-to-Day Life Examples of Component Comparison
Let’s start with the first one – COMPONENT COMPARE.
To easily illustrate from day to day life what does Component Compare mean are the next examples:
HOUSE HOLD BUDGETING
When tracking expenses, you calculate what percentage of your monthly income is spent on groceries, rent, or utilities. For example, if your RENT is $800 and your total income is $2,000, then Rent is 40% of your income. This helps you see which expense takes up the most significant part of your budget.
NUTRITION VALUES ON PRODUCTS
Food packaging often shows the percentage of the daily recommended intake a serving provides. If a snack contains 5g of fat, and the recommended daily limit is 50g, then that snack provides 10% of your daily fat intake. This is a direct component (fat in the snack) compared to the total (recommended daily fat).
SCHOOL GRADES
When calculating final grades, the test is worth 50% of your overall grade, homework is 30%, and participation is 20%. Each component is a percentage of the total grade, illustrating how much each part contributes to your final result.
SHOPPING DISCOUNTS
If a store offers 25% off on a $100 item, the discount amount is $25. This is a component compared to the total price of $100. The percentage tells you what part of the total price you save.
THE SUMMARY OF THE DAILY EXAMPLES
Summary
Anytime your story uses words such as % of Total, Share, components, includes, etc., you can be almost sure that you will use charts in the COMPONENT COMPARE section.
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