Data visualisation in science

& science communication

December 12 2017

Maarten Lambrechts

Data visualization in Sociology

LESSONS FROM DATA JOURNALISM

A little bit of history

"As knowledge increases amongst mankind, and transactions multiply, it becomes more and more desirable to abbreviate and facilitate the modes of conveying information from one person to another, and from one individual to the many."
        

William Playfair, 1786

"Everything that can be expressed in numbers can be represented by lines."
        

John Playfair

Explanatory Data Visualization

I

Party Oct 2010 Sep 2012 May 2013 Oct 2013
N-VA 28,2 36,3 32,1 27,9
CD&V 17,6 18,5 17,4 19
SP.A 14,9 14,5 14,7 13,4
VB 12,6 9,5 10,6 10,6
VLD 14 10,7 10,1 13,8
Groen 7,1 7,9 9,5 10
LDD 3,7 1,3 0,4 1,3
PVDA 5 5 2,5 3,9
Other 2 1,2 2,6 0,1

Lessons from data journalism

 

1. Respect the basics

2. Show distributions

Avoid the Zones of Invisibility & Irrelevance

 

The annotation layer is the most important thing we do. Otherwise it's a case of here it is, you go figure it out.

Amanda Cox

New York Times

5. Tell the story

with a good title

(a little bit of) color

annotations

6. One chart, one message

...and no double axes

7. Tailor your charts

to the medium

to the audience

8. Embrace xenographics

9. Consider interactive visualization

To explain

To put the data in the hands of the user

Exploratory Data Visualisation

II

x1 y1 x2 y2 x3 y3 x4 y4
10 10 10 8 8.04 9.14 7.46 6.58
8 8 8 8 6.95 8.14 6.77 5.76
13 13 13 8 7.58 8.74 12.74 7.71
9 9 9 8 8.81 8.77 7.11 8.84
11 11 11 8 8.33 9.26 7.81 8.47
14 14 14 8 9.96 8.10 8.84 7.04
6 6 6 8 7.24 6.13 6.08 5.25
4 4 4 19 4.26 3.10 5.39 12.50
12 12 12 8 10.84 9.13 8.15 5.56
7 7 7 8 4.82 7.26 6.42 7.91
5 5 5 8 5.68 4.74 5.73 6.89

Exploring Belgian census data in Tableau Public

Where to move to meet rich singles?

Github repo: git.io/vb0u0

Html doc: git.io/vb0uP

Thank you!

www.maartenlambrechts.com

@maartenzam

Data visualization in science and sociology

By maartenzam

Data visualization in science and sociology

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