Persuasive Storytelling

Content Creation:
Design

A two-hour workshop featuring presentations from three information designers and graphics editors. The presenters cover key insights from persuasion science and how we can leverage storytelling and data visualization to maximize our impact. This workshop is part of the Visualizing Science webinar series, and it took place on November 10, 2022.

Program: Bill Shander Data-Driven Decision-Making is Bull****, And What to Do About It

Jen Christiansen Telling Stories With—and About—Graphics

Eleanor Lutz Illustrating Science With Bright Colors and Animation

Bill Shander is an information designer, helping clients turn their data into compelling visual and often interactive experiences. He teaches data storytelling, information design and data visualization on LinkedIn Learning, at the University of Vermont, and in workshops around the world. Clients include the World Bank, Starbucks, multiple U.S. Government agencies, Big Four firms, and many more household names across a spectrum of industries.

Jen Christiansen is author of Building Science Graphics: An Illustrated Guide to Communicating Science through Diagrams and Visualizations (CRC Press) and a senior graphics editor at Scientific American, where she art directs and produces illustrated explanatory diagrams and data visualizations. She began at Scientific American in 1996, then moved to National Geographic; she spent four years as a freelance science communicator, and then returned to Scientific American in 2007. She writes and presents on topics ranging from reconciling her love for art and science, to her quest to learn more about the pulsar chart on Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album cover. (photo credit: Liz Tormes)

Eleanor Lutz is an information designer working at The New York Times. She holds a Ph.D. in data science and biology from the University of Washington, where she studied how mosquito larvae swim around their environment. Most days at work, Eleanor designs charts, makes maps, and illustrates anything from giant rocket ships to tiny cicadas.