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Congratulations to the Winners of the “Timeline Storyteller” Contest!

Headshot of article author Mariana Benjamin

Congratulations to the winners of the Timeline Storyteller contest!

Last month, we asked you to show us creative uses for the Timeline Storyteller custom visual for Power BI, and you delivered some amazing contest submissions!

Each entry was reviewed by both the Microsoft Data Journalism Team and the Microsoft Researchers who created the Timeline Storyteller feature. Check out the winning submission and two runners-up!

Microsoft believes in enabling better data-driven storytelling, through access to tools like Power BI (which provides out-of-the-box analytics and visualization capabilities) and programs like the Microsoft Data Journalism Program (which works with journalists and media organizations to provide training, guidance, and custom support for data storytelling efforts with Power BI).

Timeline Storyteller Winning Submission:

Congratulations to Devin Knight for being the grand prize winner! The judges agree that the TV Network Ratings report was a fun use of the Timeline Storyteller feature that was easy to engage with and had clear annotations and an understandable storyline.

 

The runners up were:

Tropical Cyclones, by Mike Honey (judge’s note: nice intro and topical subject matter!)

WWI Bombing Operations – Thor Data Set, by Yana Berkovich (judge’s note: interesting topic and data set!)

Timeline Storyteller offers a unique interactive experience by combining a wide array of design choices across timeline representation, scale and layout with modern techniques for presenting, annotating, and interacting with the data. It enables people to present different aspects of their data using different dimensions while providing controls for filtering, highlighting, and animated transitions, all which promote a more cohesive and engaging storytelling experience. This custom visual is just another great example of the growing library of custom visuals for Power BI available in the Office Store. To learn more about Timeline Storyteller and the research that informed its creation, read our blog post from September here.

 

We are seeing a lot of excitement and interest in the Timeline Storyteller, given that interactive, data-rich stories are in high demand now more than ever. We also understand the need to be able to quickly and easily create unique data stories that inform, educate, and engage audiences. Microsoft has been leaning in on an effort to help journalists with this by providing training and guidance on using Power BI to find their story through its modeling and data exploration capabilities, and to tell their story by creating interactive visualizations. With Timeline Storyteller, journalists can now visualize a sequence of events in a compelling way using the extensive palette of design options included in the custom visual. Plus, with Power BI publish to web functionality, journalists can easily publish their interactive timeline stories to their website, reaching an unlimited number of readers with the scale of the Microsoft cloud.

 

To learn more about the Microsoft Data Journalism Program, click here or e-mail us with questions.