Blog Post #6: Data Storytelling
After watching "The Fallen of World War II," what techniques did you notice being used to facilitate the story being told? Did you find these effective/ineffective, and why?
The Fallen of WWII presents information in visual means laid on top of audio presentation, providing a multimedia perspective for the information. Charts, structures, and timelines are utilized to visualize the sheer volumes of the casualties from WWII. The presentations of the variance between the Eastern Front deaths and Western Front deaths, although early in the video, was easily one of the most powerful visuals for me.
The visual comparison of deaths of Nazi German forces on the Eastern Front compared to Russian forces is (~6:40) is nearly impossible to comprehend, but the visual tally provided gives a semblance of the sheer volume. The data information presented here is of the amounts where the audience will need some form of aid to comprehend the amounts being described and included, and I feel the visualizations provided did this well.
The use of the timelines and overlaying information was a strong visual presentation of the information. As Dykes references in his article, Halloran’s video strongly utilizes visualized information to engage the audience and to inform, but also to persuade – the persuasion simply being how massive the number of lives taken during WWII.
“When you package up your insights as a data story, you build a bridge for your data to the influential, emotional side of the brain.”
Having worked with Adobe AfterEffects for a bit of time, the animations and data visualizations in this video are beautifully done, and something that are not at all quick to complete (especially for being made in 2016!). Recognizing the effort behind the visual data presentation, I find this example of data storytelling to be incredibly effective because it allows the audience to comprehend the information in audiological, visual, and interactive means.
