Data Visualization Tips and Tricks

Course details

Data Visualization Tips and Tricks is a series of standalone lessons on how to do data viz the right way, every time. Presented by award-winning data visualization expert (and Tableau-designated "Zen Master") Matt Francis, this software-agnostic course is designed for experienced data scientists and analytics specialists and serves as a must-have bank of knowledge and best practices. Learn how to choose the right visualization for your data, and answer the 5 key questions you should ask yourself at the beginning of every project. Topics include understanding the relationships between data sets, making comparisons, charting relationships, visualizing data distributions, creating maps, and—most valuably—knowing when to use which types of graphs and charts. Matt also teaches you how to understand what others are doing with their own visualizations, ask informed questions, and look with a critical eye at the work of others.

Learning objectives
Explain the importance of data visualization.
Determine when an infographic or an exploratory dashboard would be most appropriate.
Identify the elements of a Gantt chart.
Recall the characteristics of four kinds of distribution.
Recognize the drawbacks of using a pie chart.
Explain when to use a symbol map.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - The tips and tricks to data visualization
02 - What you should know
03 - Exercise files

1. The Rules of Effective Data Visualization

04 - Why visualize data
05 - What kind of visualization should you make

2. Comparing Data Sets

06 - Visualize comparisons in data
07 - Bar charts across categories
08 - Line charts over time
09 - Sparklines for important events
10 - Gantt charts and time difference
11 - Treemaps for long tail data
12 - Highlight tables and heat maps
13 - Slope charts for changes between dates
14 - Optimize dashboard layout with small multiples

3. Data Relationships

15 - Visualize relationships in data
16 - Compare multiple variables within scatter plots

4. Distributions with Your Dataset

17 - Visualize data distributions
18 - Histograms for a single measure
19 - Box plots for multiple dimensions

5. Compositions of Data

20 - Visualize data composition
21 - Improve the use of pie charts
22 - Stacked bar charts
23 - 100 stacked bars
24 - Stacked area chart
25 - 100 stacked area chart

6. Geographic Data

26 - Visualize geographic data
27 - When to map geographic data
28 - Compare filled maps and symbol maps
29 - Alternative techniques with tilemaps

Conclusion

30 - Next steps for more data visualization

Data Visualization Tips and Tricks

Authors

Matt Francis