Data Visualization 101: A Basic Guidance
In my earlier Visualization: Understated or Overrated? post I mentioned that sometimes people pass on the benefits of using data visualizations because they lack education in the subject. It might seem too daunting a task to commit to learning more about data visuals. You might think: I need to attend a conference, or a training, pay $$$ for that, etc. Not at all. An individual research and self-studies are even likelier to make you an in-depth expert as compared to formally attending conferences and/or trainings.
I can suggest 3 reliable options to learn the basics of data visualization, depending on how much time you are ready to invest into those studies. The more, the better, of course. Remember, you don’t need to sign up for classes, nor get loans for studies, nor pay for a training or a conference. There’s no time-boxing. All you need is a genuine desire to learn plus some time.
Option #1. Over Medium
Study all the 12 books on data visualization from this list. The list is thoughtfully compiled and annotated, and I give it a big “like”. Take notes when reading. I call this approach “over medium” because you will not only get hold of the dataviz concepts and principles, but also see why these principles have evolved the way they did.
Option #2. Over Easy
The second option would be to study just 3 books from the list. Why these three? The books cover some key principles and concepts, and when you get a hold of the basics, you’ll be able to make sense of data visuals fairly confidently. Sometimes we spend a lot of time poking around and looking for a good bottomline book on some subject. You don’t need to spend time poking and probing. All the poking has already been done by experts, and all you’ve got to do is to pick up the condensed knowledge:
1. Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps by Jacques Bertin
2. Visualizing Data by William S. Cleveland
3. Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward R. Tufte
Option #3. Easy
Study just 2 articles. You can even print them out on a color printer, and put on a wall as posters. These articles are valuable not only for their verbal contents, but for the visuals as well.
1. Patterns for Information Visualization. This image represents a mind map of the article.
There are soo many nice visuals here. This article provides an engaging introduction to visual encoding by showing how it helps to present data in a meaningful way.
Practice Watching
To train your eye and to develop a taste for data visualizations, it’s worth checking out on the infographics collections such as this one. Speaking of payment for studies, take a look at this visualization which features the dynamics of Student Debt of Colleges and Universities Across the USA.
To recap, any of these 3 self-study options will get you started as an expert in data visualization!
Related:
This story is based on an earlier article.
