Abstract

Storytelling has been a useful tool to communicate information and knowledge over time. Using visualizations to tell a story with data helps make the information more concise and memorable. Read this article through the 'User Engagement' section to explore the overall benefits of using data to tell stories that help the author break through the clutter and persuade people to action.

Throughout history, storytelling has been an effective way of conveying information and knowledge. In the field of visualization, storytelling is rapidly gaining momentum and evolving cutting-edge techniques that enhance understanding. Many communities have commented on the importance of storytelling in data visualization. Storytellers tend to be integrating complex visualizations into their narratives in growing numbers. In this paper, we present a survey of storytelling literature in visualization and present an overview of the common and important elements in storytelling visualization. We also describe the challenges in this field as well as a novel classification of the literature on storytelling in visualization. Our classification scheme highlights the open and unsolved problems in this field as well as the more mature storytelling sub-fields. The benefits offer a concise overview and a starting point into this rapidly evolving research trend and provide a deeper understanding of this topic.
Keywords: storytelling; narrative; information visualization; scientific visualization

Source: Chao Tong, Richard Roberts, Rita Borgo, Sean Walton, Robert S. Laramee, Kodzo Wegba, Aidong Lu, Yun Wang, Huamin Qu, Qiong Luo, and Xiaojuan Ma, https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/9/3/65/htm
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