How to Tell a Data Story

My Process for Creating Data Visualizations

Jesse Ruiz (she/they)
9 min readAug 5, 2024
Photo by Isaac Smith on Unsplash

What is your process for creating a data visualization?

In my experience, it depends on many factors but there are general considerations to ensure thorough and effective data storytelling. I frame my own process as a series of questions that each reflects complex topics such as process and information gathering, data modeling, exploratory data analysis, statistical analysis, design and user experience/interaction, as well as data visualization. Given that there is no “one-size-fits-all” rule in data visualization, I made this article as generalized as possible. Different industries may require adjustments or other (additional) considerations.

Here are the questions to ask when creating a data visualization end-to-end:

1. What is the data?

2. Who is the data/report for?

3. Where does the data come from and where do you store it?

4. Is the data accurate and true?

5. What is the data telling you?

6. What does the data look like?

7. What works and doesn’t work?

8. How do you maintain this data visualization or how does someone else maintain it?

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