Overview

0.1 Objectives

By the end of this workshop, you should be able to:

  • Explain when, and why, to use a data visualization
  • Describe common features of “good” data visualizations
  • Identify principles of visual perception and aesthetics that can be used to make effective and expressive plots
  • Compare the features and utility of various plot types
  • Critically review a plot to meet responsible data science standards
  • Know where to go for more resources on making accessible and equitable data visualizations

0.2 Prerequisites

This workshop is intended for researchers who are actively working with data. It covers material in a tool-agnostic way, with the intent that researchers may use it to improve their visualizations regardless of the software they use. While we will not be covering how to create plots with graphical software, the DataLab offers other workshops on this topic:

Additionally, our research toolkits offer other suggestions for creating visualizations in the data science domain.

0.3 About This Reader

This reader provides additional background information as a reference for learners to better understand and practice the concepts that instructors will introduce during the live workshop session. To that end, the reader will persist at this URL after the workshop.