Telling stories with data
DATA
Qualitative / Quantitative
Viz can be awesome!
Explorers / Dashboards
"Dataview" / Stepper graphics
Everybody loves data viz
"While text is frequently presented to students for critique, diagrams and data visualisations are overwhelmingly used simply as a medium of displaying final results."
John Burn-Murdoch, "Why you should never trust a data visualisation"
“Do you know where your data come from?”
CHECK THE METHOD
Checklist for a new dataset
- Count the the records
- Confirm numbers add up
- Look for what’s missing
- Examine the "shape" of the data
Bias is everywhere
including your own analysis
- Colors, scales and axes
- Sample selection
- Small sample size!
What is shown and not shown in the data?
What are the pros and cons of your method?
NYT chart types
The Data Visualisation Catalogue
MAPS
“Do not use a map to compare quantities or volume, unless geography is relevant to the message.”
Dona M. Wong
The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information GraphicsChoropleth
“A type of heat map with areas shaded by a variable.”
Kyle Kim
Heroes of viz
Edward Tufte
Alberto Cairo
"Functional art" tells a story
Giorgia Lupi
Always be scrapin'
- ImportHTML in Google Spreadsheets
- import.io?
- Tabula for PDFs
- Program your own!
Humanizing data
Humanizing data
TOOLS ARE COOL
but
STORIES ARE THE COOLEST
NUMBERS ARE BORING
for most people
USED EXCEL
BREAKING NEWS DATA CHALLENGE
bls.gov
Email screenshots!