Visualization

Interesting and excellent real world examples

• The Stories Behind a Line
• Australia as 100 people: You can make something like this with d3 and the potato project.
• Marrying Later, Staying Single Longer

How to select the appropriate chart type

Many people have created many useful tools for selecting the correct chart type for a given dataset or question. The Financial Times has an excellent diagram that shows what kind of charts are appropriate for which kinds of data you have:

• The Financial Times’s “Visual Vocabulary” (PDF poster and interactive website)

Here are some other fantastic resources too:

• The Data Visualisation Catalogue: Descriptions, explanations, examples, and tools for creating 60 different types of visualizations.
• The Data Viz Project: Descriptions and examples for 150 different types of visualizations. Also allows you to search by data shape and chart function (comparison, correlation, distribution, geographical, part to whole, trend over time, etc.).
• From Data to Viz: A decision tree for dozens of chart types with links to R and Python code.
• 11 Ways to Visualize Changes Over Time - A Guide: A few examples of time-specific visualizations
• The Chartmaker Directory: Examples of how to create 51 different types of visualizations in 31 different software packages, including Excel, Tableau, and R.
• R Graph Catalog: R code for 124 ggplot graphs.
• Emery’s Essentials: Descriptions and examples of 26 different chart types.

General resources

• Storytelling with Data: Blog and site full of resources by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic.
• Ann K. Emery’s blog: Blog and tutorials by Ann Emery.
• Evergreen Data: Helful resources by Stephanie Evergreen.
• PolicyViz: Regular podcast and site full of helpful resources by Jon Schwabisch.
• Visualising Data: Fantastic collection of visualization resources, articles, and tutorials by Andy Kirk.
• Info We Trust: Detailed explorations of visualizations by RJ Andrews, including a beautiful visual history of the field.
• FlowingData: Blog by Nathan Yau.
• Information is Beautiful: Blog by David McCandless.
• Junk Charts: Blog by Kaiser Fung.
• WTF Visualizations: Visualizations that make you ask “wtf?”
• The Data Visualization Checklist: A helpful set of criteria for grading the effectiveness of a graphic.
• Data Literacy Starter Kit: Compilation of resources to become data literate by Laura Calloway.
• Seeing Data: A series of research projects about perceptions and visualizations.

Visualization in Excel

• How to Build Data Visualizations in Excel: Detailed tutorials for creating 14 different visualizations in Excel.
• Ann Emery’s tutorials: Fantastic series of tutorials for creating charts in Excel.

Visualization in Tableau

Because it is focused entirely on visualization (and because it’s a well-supported commercial product), Tableau has a phenomenal library of tutorials and training videos. There’s a helpful collections of videos here, as well.