Lark Birdsong's List: Data Visualization

The problem isn't with statistical tests themselves but with what we do before and after we run them. First, we count if we can, but counting depends a great deal on previous assumptions about categorization. Consider, for example, the number of homeless people in Philadelphia, or the number of battered women in Atlanta, or the number of suicides in Denver. Is someone homeless if he's unemployed and living with his brother's family temporarily? Do we require that a women self-identify as battered to count her as such? If a person starts drinking day in and day out after a cancer diagnosis and dies from acute cirrhosis, did he kill himself?\n\n

"This site presents add-ins, templates, standalone software and resources that assist in building models, performing analysis, distributing models to other people, compliance, and managing spreadsheet information systems and spreadsheet model assets. "

"Most people don't know what actually goes into a good infographic. There's a lot more to it than just the design. There's research, analysis, and fact-checking that you have to do long before you open Illustrator."

"Big information graphics have been around for a long time. They've come in the form of maps, visualization, art, signs, etc. That was all on paper though. In the past couple of years, humongous, gigantic, and often really long infographics have found their way onto the computer screen, through blogs and news sites. Some are great. Some really suck. The volume is booming for both."

"Charts and graphs have found their way into news, presentations, and comics, with users from art to design to statistics. The design principles for these data graphics will vary depending on what you're using it for. Making something for a presentation? You'll want to keep it extremely simple and avoid using a lot of text. Designing a graphic for a newspaper? You'll have to deal with size constraints and try to explain the important parts of your graphic."

"David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut -- and it may just change the way we see the world."

"I have to admit. Data checking is definitely my least favorite part of graph-making. I mean, when someone, a group, or a service provides you with a bunch of data, it should be up to them to make sure all of their data is legit, goshdarnit. But this is what good graph-makers do. After all, reliable builders don't use shoddy cement for a house's foundation. You don't use shoddy data to build your data graphic. "

"So how do we make sure readers can decode our encodings? We explain what they mean with labels, legends, and keys. Which one you choose will vary depending on the situation. For example, if you have bubbles on a map, you could have some scaled bubbles with number labels to provide scale. If you use a color scale, provide a key for what each color means, or you can directly label things if there is enough space and not too many categories."

"If you've ever created an interactive graphic or anything else that requires that you feed in data, you will love this barebones data conversion tool by Shan Carter. Copy and paste data from Excel, which I feel like I've done a billion times, and then take your pick from Actionscript, JSON, XML, and Ruby. Simple, but a potential time saver."

"You can get pretty far with data graphics with just limited statistical knowledge, but if you want to take your skills, resume, and portfolio to the next level, you should learn standard data practices. "

"​The Google Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand. You don't have to be a data expert to navigate between different views, make your own comparisons, and share your findings. "

thread on classes one might consider to learn how to visual data

"A few people have asked me this question just this past week. I usually point them to this thread in the forums. Any other suggestions?"

"At New Media Days 2010, New York Times graphics editor Amanda Cox talks data graphics, finding a balance between storytelling and straight facts, and working at the graphics desk. Listen and learn in the video below (or you might want to bookmark since it's about an hour long)."

You know when you’ve been doing something for a long time and it gets ingrained? For me, that’s infographics. I’ve created a lot of chartage over the last 20 years.

The Anatomy Of An Infographic: 5 Steps To Create A Powerful Visua

visualize data tool