Data Visualization

DC #techlady Hackathon 2016

Brittany Fong  | @bfongdata

Why data viz?

Data Viz Tools

PowerBI

A History of Data Visualization

1844 The New York Daily Tribune

1895 The Times

1968 New York Times

2012 Five Thirty Eight

2016 The Upshot

1900 Chicago Tribune

2013 Periscopic

1929 The Baltimore Sun

2015 The Washington Post

1901 The Chicago Tribune

2016 NFL Game Center

2016 Five Thirty Eight

Question

Data
Audience
Creation

Building a data viz

Start with a question

What is the purpose/goal of the visualization?  

What questions are the visualizations going to answer?

How should people feel?

What data do you have?

Is there a unique identifier?

What level of detail is the data at?

Do you need to bring in additional data/tables?

What is the quality of the data?

Cater to your audience

What level of detail do they want to see?

How complex can the visualizations be?

Create a sketch

Pull out a pencil and paper to get the ideas flowing

How will the visualization be viewed? (mobile, print, web)

Data Visualization Best Practices

Why are best practices important?

So we don't end up here!

viz.wtf

Ease of Understanding

Make the visualization as easy as possible to read and understand

Axes

Keep axes clear and consistent

Avoid skipping numbers and Always start from 0

Color

Accessibility - Color Blind (508 Compliant) and make sure your colors have enough contrast (black and white print out)

Clear Labels

Titles, sub-titles, axes, legends, data source, outliers (if necessary)

Try the 30 second test

Context

How do I know if this number is good or bad?  I need some sort of reference.

vs

Keep it simple

Don't add colors when it's not necessary

If it doesn't help explain the visual get rid of it

Don't add too many labels

Check your work

Does the visualization logically make sense?  If you must use a pie chart it better add up to 100%

Use the right graph

Jon Schwabish's Graphic Continuum

What can I do?

Style Guides with Brand compliant color palettes

Data Visualization Resources

Color palettes

pinterest.com

colorbrewer2.org

color.adobe.com

vischeck.com

Data wrangling

Data viz examples and information

• Dear Data (dear-data.com)

• Makeover Monday (http://www.makeovermonday.co.uk/)

• Flowing Data (flowingdata.com)

• The Functional Art (http://www.thefunctionalart.com/)

• Storytelling with Data (http://www.storytellingwithdata.com/gallery/)