An Interview with Happy Thinking People on Data Visualisation and Storytelling.
Bringing data to life is essential for insights actionability; visualisation and storytelling are proven ways of doing that.
But how does it work in practice – how do creatives working within market research crack the briefs, small and large? Tips, tricks, protocols, procedures, budgets?
Research World talked to the visualising creatives from Happy Thinking People (H/T/P)– Arne Schippmann and Sven Malaschewski – together with project director Janine Katzberg.
They covered a broad range of themes – from the basics of ensuring good raw material, using AI, managing costs, briefing participants for maximum clarity as well as authenticity and more.
Plus, the impact digital has had on the “bring-it-to-life” challenge of course.
————————————————-
Research World : First up: why is visualisation so important at H/T/P?
Janine: For research to really earn the name “insights “, it’s important to go beyond covering all the bases of quality, reliability, validity etc. Inspiration is key in many ways – how we bring outcomes to life, stimulate clients to see things differently, stir them into taking action.
Storytelling and visualisation play a central role in that process – especially in qualitative.
Visualisation has become increasingly important for us over the past 10 – 15 years, probably mirroring changes in society, Social Media, Instagram, TikTok etc. And pictures definitely work – they’re sticky. Clients remember debriefs much longer if they have seen or heard for themselves what their customers say rather than reading a quotation, or a written report.
And how to you go about creating a great visualisation or storytelling in research – what’s the creative perspective?
Arne: Well, a proper briefing really does help, whatever the scope of the project – should be a given, but sometimes people forget.
Getting as much information up front as possible, sucking it all in really helps the creative process – what’s the message, who’s the audience, what are the expectations?
Getting involved at a very late stage in the process isn’t helpful – or motivating. We’re creatives, not magicians – so conjuring up something cool out of thin air is a pipe dream.
What makes for a great briefing?
Arne: We need a script – not the full client report, which is normally too detailed. A workable script captures the essence of “the plot”, from beginning to end, organised in a logical manner where each section or chapter leads to the next.
Ideally the finished film or whatever should tell a story without much or any explanation, without too many words. Think about TED Talks – great presenters don’t rely on text at all. It’s about storytelling, and minimising distractions from the person talking.
Sven: On the briefing thing – we often ask ourselves up front: how would I tell the story to someone who knew absolutely nothing about the project?
That forces us to think very clearly in terms of an intuitive storyline that’s easy to understand, from beginning to end. And yes, that can include twists and turns in the middle as the story unfolds. If I have all that sorted in my brain, then I can start thinking about an execution.
Arne’s also right – you’ve got to know lots of so-called mandatories, formats, audience details, any special requirements from a cultural perspective, do’s and don’ts. Basic maybe – but essential.
What’s the project management perspective?
Janine: The project manager has multiple hats on, managing the fieldwork, liaising with the client, interviewing, so it’s already pretty full on. And yes, that’s one more thing to think about – figuring how we best capture what kind of material.
Digital qual has helped in some ways – participants seem more relaxed in their own homes, no strange researchers or clients to host.
But we have to make sure they’re briefed on the basics of filming – things like backlighting, speaking clearly. Authenticity is great – but only if you can see and hear properly what’s being said or shown. It’s mainly not too much of a problem, all sorts of people seem to have become good at selfies, and using their phone to do mini-instafilms.
But of course, we don’t want people to project, to act for the camera, so it’s a balance.
How has the switch to 100% digital research impacted on visualisation?
Janine: Not hugely. If we’re running a digital Design Thinking workshop, the job of the idea scribbler isn’t much different to how it used to work face-to-face. She or he just hops between digital break-out rooms – simple.
Sven: Digital downloads help save a lot of time and effort – it’s all there for us pretty much immediately.
Arne: With international projects the upside is even clearer. Back in the day when researchers used to fly all over the world, it would take them a while to get the material back to us here in Berlin. Often the downloading or uploading process took ages because the broadband wasn’t quick enough.
Now we have everything really fast. Not to mention the environmental benefits of no-travel.
This article was first published in German on the online portal marktforschung.de in May 2021: “Den ‘Make-it-look-great’-Knopf gibt’s auf unserer Tastatur leider immer noch nicht…”
