Data Storytelling with Excel (Self-Paced)

Module 1: The Importance of Context

• Learn the difference between exploratory and explanatory analysis.
• Understand your audience and what they need from your data.
• Ask the right questions before building any visualization.
• Use the 3-Minute Story and Big Idea techniques to distill your message.
• Plan your visual narrative through storyboarding.
• Ensure your data is clean and reliable before you begin.

Module 2: Choosing an Effective Visual

• Match your data relationships to the right visualization type.
• Know when simple text or tables work better than charts.
• Use bar charts and bullet charts for comparisons.
• Show trends with line charts, slopegraphs, and sparklines.
• Display composition with stacked bars, waterfall charts, and treemaps.
• Avoid 3D effects, misleading dual-axis charts, and overly complex visuals.

Module 3: Clutter is Your Enemy

• Recognize that your audience has limited mental processing capacity.
• Identify clutter like unnecessary borders, gridlines, and decorative elements.
• Apply Gestalt principles to create visual groupings and order.
• Use alignment and white space strategically.
• Systematically remove elements that don't contribute to understanding.
• See before-and-after examples that demonstrate the power of simplification.

Module 4: Focus Your Audience's Attention

• Understand how memory affects the way people process visuals.
• Use preattentive attributes like color, size, and position to grab attention instantly.
• Apply the gray baseline technique to make key data stand out.
• Create visual hierarchy through size and placement.
• Design with color accessibility in mind for all viewers.
• Direct attention strategically in both text and graphs.

Module 5: Think Like a Designer

• Make charts intuitive by leveraging familiar visual conventions.
• Design for accessibility with proper contrast, font sizes, and alt text.
• Build trust and credibility through visual appeal.
• Ensure your work gets seen and used by considering your audience's environment.
• Explore how Excel's AI features can assist your design process.
• Maintain consistency and professionalism across all your visualizations.

Module 6: Dissecting Model Visuals

• Analyze an annotated line graph with forecast elements.
• Examine strategic use of positive and negative values in stacked bars.
• Study a before-and-after slopegraph comparison.
• Review a decluttered dashboard panel with clear visual hierarchy.
• Identify the principles that make these visualizations effective.
• Discuss ethical considerations and how to avoid misleading your audience.

Module 7: Lessons in Storytelling

• Discover why our brains are wired to respond to narrative.
• Structure your data story with a clear setup, conflict, and resolution.
• Build tension through the sequence of your visualizations.
• Reinforce key messages through repetition across different channels.
• Ensure your story flows logically from start to finish.
• End with impact and a clear call to action.

Module 8: Pulling It All Together

• Walk through a complete 7-step data storytelling workflow.
• Integrate context, chart selection, decluttering, attention, design, and narrative.
• Complete a capstone exercise using a provided dataset.
• Review common pitfalls to avoid in your own work.
• Receive resources for continued learning including books, tools, and communities.
• Explore next steps like Power Query, interactive dashboards, and advanced features.