Did You Get Your Copy of "From Data to Stories" Yet?

Ace storytellers and data humanists Ramya Mylavarapu and Richie Lionell of Gramener have recently come out with their book, From Data to Stories, published by Wiley.

"This book is for anyone who loves a good story", says Richie, "You talk to analysts. They spend a lot of time coming up with algorithms to extract useful results. Unfortunately, they find it challenging to communicate these results in an impactful way.

Data comics can help simplify the insights to a vast audience. It humanizes the data. Once you get insights from data, what are you supposed to do? How do you put it into a simple storyline? How do you go ahead and create a simple comic story? This is what this book focuses on."

About the book

The book is part graphic novel and part guide for data storytellers who want to use comics as a medium of communication for their audience. The first part comprises a graphic novel whose fictional events closely follow the 2019 World Cup.

The match scorecards are visualized ball-by-ball and communicated in a comic format. The book's second part serves as a guide for beginners eager to share data stories through comics.

How did the idea of a book on data stories germinate?

From Data to Stories can trace its genesis to a discussion on a one-page poster between Naveen Gattu, the COO of Gramener, and the creators of the book. This blossomed into a book on cricket, comics, and data crunching.

In 2015, Richie & Ramya created their first ball-by-ball ODI cricket scorecard. In 2016, they adopted comic characters into their storytelling process. The ODI Cricket World Cup of 2019 presented a unique opportunity to publish this book.

The book has broken new ground in data storytelling

The graphic novel follows a sequence of fictional events during the 2019 Cricket World Cup. The match scorecards are visualized in a comic format and conveyed to the reader ball-by-ball.

Weary of dashboards and reports that failed to connect with the audience, Ramya and Richie took to data comic storytelling in 2016. They have not looked back since.

The creators used Comicgen, a Gramener product, to bring their comic characters to life. Comicgen helps professionals, as well as amateur artists, tell their stories using comic characters. You can visit the Comicgen page and craft compelling comic narratives even if you don't possess significant artistic skills.

What are the experts saying?

Andy Kirk, Data Visualization Author, and Educator, says about the book, "Through the charming visual treatment, it transforms potentially dry statistical facts into a visceral form that stirs the emotions of joy and excitement, hope and despair."

"It is not just an art, and it is not just science, but it is fascinating, a lot of fun, and I love the humor and passion with which Ramya & Richie have told their story", says Joy Bhattacharjya, cricket analyst, Cricbuzz.

Paul Laughlin, the founder of Laughlin Consultancy Ltd., feels that, though the cricket and human stories are engaging, this book is so much more. "The approach outlined here could also be used to bring otherwise dull or repetitive data to life. I can think of Financial Services businesses, Retailers, or Government departments where this could breathe fresh life into tired dashboards….", says Paul.

"For me, a key insight is that comics indicate simplicity, and could help to break down some of the psychological barriers that prevent people from engaging with data visualizations...", says David Millard, Ph.D., University of Southampton, who enjoyed going through the book and loved the conceit of using cricket as the vehicle, "I also really appreciated the linking of comic poetics with the infographics, which seems like it could be extremely effective."

Neil Cohn, Ph.D., Tilburg University, thinks that the book is a fun introduction to using comics for presenting data. Says Neil, "It's a nice demonstration and advocacy of using comics for science communication."

"A superb use of Cricket as a teaching method...", observes Arunabha Sengupta, cricket historian & author, "...It is an excellent effort that should be useful to anyone who wants to tell an engaging story with data in an insightful manner."

Simon Taufel, the famous former cricket umpire who was also a member of the ICC elite umpire panel, says, "…the comic format used in this book makes what some people think is a dry topic (data) more impactful and appealing."

From Data to Stories is one of the hot new releases on Amazon India right now. Get your copy today!

Gramener Inc.
Address: 2 Research Way, Princeton, NJ 08540
Press Contact: Sayantan Dasgupta, Director of Demand Generation
Email: marketing@gramener.com
Phone: US: +1 609 594 5874 | IN: +91 995 865 0463

Gramener is a design-led data science company that helps solve complex business problems with compelling data stories using insights and a low-code analytics platform. We help enterprises large and small with data insights and storytelling by leveraging Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Automated Analysis, and Visual Intelligence using modern charts and narratives. With our low-code PaaS platform - Gramex, we rapidly build industry-specific advanced custom Data/AI apps. Our services & technology have been recognized by Gartner and have won several awards. To know more about Gramener's work, please check the solutions page. For any business inquiries or assistance with our offerings, feel free to reach out at contact@gramener.com.

This release was published on openPR.