Data Visualization
University of Illinois
Whether being used to customize advertising to millions of website visitors or streamline inventory ordering at a small restaurant, data is becoming more integral to success. Too often, we’re not sure how use data to find answers to the questions that will make us more successful in what we do. In this course, you will discover what data is and think about what questions you have that can be answered by the data – even if you’ve never thought about data before. Based on existing data, you will learn to develop a research question, describe the variables and their relationships, calculate basic statistics, and present your results clearly. By the end of the course, you will be able to use powerful data analysis tools – either SAS or Python – to manage and visualize your data, including how to deal with missing data, variable groups, and graphs. Throughout the course, you will share your progress with others to gain valuable feedback, while also learning how your peers use data to answer their own questions.
More resources on Data Visualization
PolicyViz
Jon Schwabish interviews researchers, designers, and analysts about presenting data clearly, covering chart choice, color, annotation, and slide design. Episodes mix craft-level technique with the working habits organizations need to turn analysis into communication people actually read.
flowingdata.com
FlowingData is a data visualization blog that teaches how to tell stories with data, featuring tutorials, design tips, case studies, and a gallery of real-world charts, dashboards, and infographics.
data-to-viz.com
Data-to-Viz is a practical reference and gallery of data visualization techniques, offering clear explanations of many chart types, best-use scenarios, and visual examples to illustrate effective data storytelling.
Flourish
Browser-based tool for building animated and interactive charts, maps and scrollytelling stories from spreadsheet data using preset templates, with no coding needed. Publishing and embedding are free on public projects.
Datawrapper
Web tool used widely in newsrooms to turn spreadsheet data into publication-quality charts, maps and tables. You paste data, pick a chart type, refine labels and colors, then embed the responsive result.
Observable
A reactive JavaScript notebook platform for exploratory data work, where cells re-run automatically as inputs change. Useful for prototyping D3 and Plot visualizations, sharing runnable code, and studying published notebooks from the visualization community.