Introduction
Understanding your audience through audience engagement analytics is crucial to creating effective AI-driven data visualizations. Without this understanding, you might craft visually appealing dashboards that don't resonate with your end users.
After all, what's the point of having the most accurate data if it doesn't connect with the people consuming it? You'll only generate frustration and disappointment in your audience, who won't grasp the value you were trying to provide.
No matter how skilled you are at analyzing data, if you don't capture the motivations and perspectives of your audience, you're lost. Your findings won't emotionally resonate (like reading the crime section at 7 in the morning), nor will they influence decisions or change behaviours.
In summary, knowing your audience is crucial for telling relevant stories through data. Otherwise, you won't achieve the desired impact.
Why is it important to understand your audience?
Understanding your audience is crucial for creating an emotional, not just rational, connection. We are emotional beings trying to rationalize these feelings. Keep this in mind. I invite you to hide behind a plant at the exit of a political event and listen to what the attendees say: 'They conveyed trust, seem like someone who knows what they want, I feel safe with this leader, etc.
Data alone can give you information, but it doesn't tell you how that information impacts people, what it means to them, or how it makes them feel.
When you know your audience's interests, values, and challenges, you can tailor your data and analysis to resonate more deeply. Instead of merely presenting information (and having them check their Instagram on their phone), you're telling a story your audience can relate to and get involved with. That is, you motivate them through their emotion, leading to a sense of identification and prompting action.
This creates a stronger and more memorable connection than mere statistics or facts. Your goal should be to communicate data and to do so in a way that moves your audience, inspires them, and drives them to action.
First, reach the right hemisphere so that it continues through the left (heart and mind).
Limitations of using only data
Data alone, without any additional context, has significant limitations. We can see patterns in the data, but we need the pieces to complete the puzzle of why users behave in a certain way.
Data doesn't reveal crucial information about the users' motivations, values, prior knowledge, and emotional context. Knowing that a group of users spends an average of 5 minutes on a page doesn't tell us whether they found what they were looking for if they understood the information, or how they felt using it.
With only data, you're seeing the tip of the iceberg. To create truly meaningful user experiences, we must go beyond the numbers and connect with our audience on a deeper level.
This is where Data Storytelling AI becomes a game-changer.
Leveraging AI-Driven Data Storytelling for Enhanced BI User Experiences
Often, we don't have all the information we'd like about our audience. Yes, you present your beautiful briefing with your well-researched questions, but the reality isn't perfect: either they're ambiguous, embarrassed, or don't answer because they're busy.
But, dear reader, this doesn't have to limit us if we know how to leverage the power of AI.
The advent of language models like GPT-4 represents a quantum leap, thanks to its ability to generate coherent and relevant text from limited data. GPT-4 was trained with massive datasets and advanced machine-learning techniques. This allows it to extrapolate even from snippets of information, extracting deep relationships and patterns.
We can leverage GPT-4's ability to compensate for our audience's lack of detailed briefing. By creating a prompt summarising the available information, GPT-4 can infer and expand on critical traits such as interests, needs, technical knowledge, values, and emotions.
Thus, AI becomes our ally in truly understanding our audience, even under limited initial conditions. And this deep understanding is vital to creating data visualizations and narratives that genuinely connect.
Creating the prompt
To create an effective prompt that reveals what your audience wants to see, it's vital to encompass all available information. This includes elements like:
The company/product's existing website and content.
Past reports and presentations.
Industry news and updates.
Target customer demographic profile.
Any relevant data about the project context.
The prompt should ask critical questions that allow us to understand the audience better, such as:
What are the interests and topics that you believe excite this demographic group?
What problems or needs might your audience be trying to solve with your product/service?
How would you describe your audience's technical knowledge level, and how should we adapt our language?
What values and emotional motivations guide your audience's purchasing decisions?
By integrating these elements into a well-structured prompt, we use all available information so that AI can infer and reveal key patterns about what our audience wants to see.
Below, you will find a boilerplate prompt including the points previously discussed; within each bracket [ ], you should fill in the available information.
You can visit the prompt in ChatGPT using this link: Rolex AI prompt example by Sara Rodriguez (openai.com)
AI Prompt boilerplate
"With the goal of establishing a deep emotional and cognitive connection with our audience through Data Storytelling, complete the following spaces with the available information about your audience and the context of your project.
This information will guide the process of generating insights and data narratives tailored to the needs and preferences of your audience.
1. Project Description and Main Objective: [ WRITE HERE a brief description of the project/data storytelling]/ [Main objective you aim to achieve with your audience]
2. Available Information:
- Website and existing contents: [WRITE HERE details of the website and relevant contents: mision, vision and values could be a good example]
- News and sector updates: [ WRITE HERE recent news or relevant trends]
- Target customer demographic profile: [ WRITE HERE key demographic characteristics]
- Relevant data about the project context: [ WRITE HERE any other relevant data]
3. Key Questions to Understand the Audience:
- Interests and Exciting Topics: What interests and topics do you believe excite this demographic group? [WRITE HERE]
- Problems and Needs: What problems or needs do you think your audience is trying to solve with your product/service? [WRITE HERE]
- Technical Knowledge Level: How would you describe the technical knowledge level of your audience, and how should we adapt our language? [WRITE HERE]
- Values and Emotional Motivations: What values and emotional motivations do you think to guide your audience's purchasing decisions? [WRITE HERE]
Use the answers to inform and guide the creation of your data visualizations and narratives. The goal is to effectively and emotionally connect with your audience, inspiring action and commitment."
Chat GPT Prompt example: a Digital Marketing BI Dashboard for Rolex
Chat GPT Response example
Effective Data Storytelling
It's not just about making data "friendly" or "understandable"; it's about making each piece of information resonate personally with your audience. Each data point must connect with the interests, needs, knowledge, and values of the people you're targeting.
This is why combining Artificial Intelligence and our human interpretation is powerful for creating compelling data narratives. AI can process large amounts of information to understand your target audience better.
But we, humans, have the empathy and creativity needed to turn those findings into stories that truly reach people's hearts.
Together, humans and intelligent machines can harness Data Storytelling AI to craft narratives that inform, inspire action, and deepen audience engagement. We can go beyond just presenting data towards creating a meaningful message that resonates with every member of our audience.
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