Data VisualizationWhat’s the purpose?

Max Galka @galka_max

Metrocosm.comBlueshift.io

FOIAMapper.com

To communicate numbers (duh!)

Why visualize data?

The Single Largest Tax on Poor Families: the Lottery? Metrocosm

But that’s not the end of the story…

Communicate numbers?

Make sense of complex data?(view animated version)

Why visualize data?

GEOS-5 Nature Run, NASA

Communicate numbers? Make sense of complex data?

Entertainment / marketing?

Why visualize data?

How Fantasy Football Sacks Productivity

Communicate numbers?Make sense of complex data? Entertainment / marketing?

Why visualize data?

Incarceration Rates in Developed Countries, Metrocosm

Present a persuasive argument?

Communicate numbers?Make sense of complex data? Entertainment / marketing?

Present a persuasive argument?Tell a story? (view animated version)

Why visualize data?

Visualizing the Great Migration, Metrocosm

• The average x value is 9 for each dataset• The average y value is 7.50 for each dataset• The variance for x is 11 and the variance for y is 4.12• The correlation between x and y is 0.816 for each

dataset• A linear regression for each dataset follows the

equation y = 0.5x + 3

Anscombe’s Quartet, Francis Anscombe

Data visualization: a medium for communicating numbers

• The average x value is 9 for each dataset• The average y value is 7.50 for each dataset• The variance for x is 11 and the variance for y is 4.12• The correlation between x and y is 0.816 for each

dataset• A linear regression for each dataset follows the

equation y = 0.5x + 3

Anscombe’s Quartet, Francis Anscombe

Data visualization: a medium for communicating numbers

The Fall and Rise of Inequality, NPR: Planet Money

Data visualization: a medium for communicating numbers

(view animated version)

Iraq’s Bloody Toll, South China Morning Post

Data visualization: make a persuasive argument (influence)

10 Years of Fatal Traffic Crashes, Metrocosm

Data visualization: make statistics more human

(view animated version)

One Year of U.S. Gun Deaths, Periscopic

Data visualization: make statistics more human

(view animated version)

#trumpviz, Mushon Zer-Aviv (@mushon)

Data visualization: pattern recognition

John Snow’s London Cholera Map, 1854

Data visualization: pattern recognition

Data visualization: make sense of complex data (actionable insight)

Introducing Pound: Process for Optimizing and Understanding Network Diffusion, Buzzfeed

The History of World Cities, Metrocosm

Data visualization: tell a story

(view animated version)

Resources

Data visualization tools(in this order)• JavaScript (d3.js, three.js, leaflet.js)

• GIS (QGIS)

• Mapbox, CARTO

• Python

• R

• Blueshift.io (sign up for the private beta!)

Books• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward Tufte

• The Functional Art, Alberto Cairo

• Interaction of Color, Josef Albers

Questions