As the Stanford paper says, "data stories appear to be most effective "when they have constrained interaction "at various checkpoints within a narrative, "allowing the user to explore the data "without veering too far from the intended narrative." In other words, they're not exploration tools, but rather, narrative experiences that provide context and direction, not just a pile of numbers and charts.
Contents of a Great-Story
The beginning sets the context for what we're about to hear, the middle explains what's going on, allowing us to wander and explore the universe of ideas being presented and get introduced to any anxieties that need resolving as part of the story, and the conclusion, hopefully, resolves those anxieties, teaching us how to solve problems and what transformation characters have to go through to do so. This logical flow is almost the only form a great story can take.
Finding the story in Data
Outline your story
Sketching the content
Flow-Diagram
Personalization
Progressive Depth
Stories make an emotional connection in a way a collection of facts really can never do and data stories are extra compelling as they mix the evolutionary imperative of stories, with the important factor of an element that we need to make great decisions.
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