If we’re going by opinions, let’s use mine. Otherwise, let’s look at the data.
I would like to believe that in the coming years a new job title will become as commonplace as ‘Social Media Strategist’ or ‘UX Designer’ has. I want to employ a Data Expressionist.
Why do we need Data Expressionists?
Fast Fact: In the UK, a handful of children die each year by accidentally hanging themselves in the pull-cords of blinds.
It’s an utterly terrifying idea. It’s up there with being abducted on the street at night or getting shot at by a deranged high school student.
Thing is, I have never gasped in fear and anger at a blind cord, nor gotten scared riding my motorbike to work each day (which, after looking at the numbers is completely mental). I do, however, get worried when my little 5'3 girlfriend walks home by herself at night. It feels a clear and present danger.
The loudest fear wins. But going by the numbers is something for geeks and ‘life hackers’ and people that - gosh darnit - just aren’t very good at being human, right?
Charity & emotive matters
I head up a project called Clarity.io, which is all about getting young people hyped about impact philanthropy. It’s ‘bang-for-buck’ giving, about creating the most social good per dollar given.
We don’t care how much the CEO is paid or how snazzy the tech is; we want the best solutions to the biggest problems in the poorest countries. And we want the data to back it up.
The problem is that it’s really freakin’ boring.
Delivering impact isn’t sexy. Donors want their money going towards building schools and saving puppies - never mind that the kids are too busy vomiting from treatable intestinal worms to go to school and the worst offences against animals aren’t anything to do with puppies.
De-worming kids, at 50c a pop, isn’t a sexy idea. It’s hard to sell. The problem and its solutions are difficult to communicate quickly.
Humans struggle to care about people outside their “monkey group”, so charities understandably fall into emotionally manipulative marketing campaigns covered in pictures of crying african babies.
Sadly, audiences are complicit. We respond. Charities keep doing it.
Can we fix it?
Obviously it’s a difficult problem, it’s nestled in that funny grey area twixt data and humanity. It’s too squishy for the computer scientists and too heady for the pure creatives.
But we’re getting better.
The rising prevalence of infographics, animated charts and even the stats in football games point towards a growing desire amongst the population to live data-driven lives.
It can be motivating.
We track our jogging on RunKeeper, level up our language on Duolingo and employ motivation scientists to gamify our productivity.
Let’s create a new role in traditional business
If the best way to predict the future is to invent it, then let’s demand a legion of data expressionists, canny folk who can see the data and truly understand the art of speaking directly to a person’s heart.
It’s somewhere between classical business intelligence, data science, visualisation, writing, mapping, art and comms.
Let’s help people to do it, teach it, prove it’s desired in market. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Let’s figure it out. Because until we get good at understanding, desiring and trusting the data, we’ll continue to rely on opinion.
The kids who need de-worming pills, not schools, will thank you. :)
Further reading:
- A TED video showing the best stats you’ve ever seen
- A kick-arse group from NY working on data expression
- A web-app for creating interactive infographics online
- A marketplace for creating infographics
- A map shows where the rich people at, via tweets
- A tweet-powered music video by Brightly
