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Session 9: Data Visualization

Susanne Heydecke edited this page Dec 9, 2022 · 14 revisions

Date: Thursday, November 24, 2016, 16h00 (UK time)

Session coordinators: Jonathan Blaney, Sarah Milligan (Institute of Historical Research) and Jane Winters (School of Advanced Study)

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/vxrrjmT8mig

Outline

  • Introduction (5 mins, Jane)
  • Critiquing visualisation (20 mins, Jane, Jonathan, Sarah)
  • Visualizing data with Tableau Public (10 mins, Sarah)
  • Outline of other tools (20 mins, Jonathan)
  • Visualisation issues (5 mins, Jane)
  • The exercise (5 mins, Gabby)

Required reading

Further readings

  • Yau, N. (2013). Data points: Visualization that means something. United States: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Tufte, E.R. (2001). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. 2nd edn. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphic Press.
  • Seeing Data (2016). Developing Visualisation Literacy. Available: http://seeingdata.org/developingvisualisationliteracy/

Essay title

tba

Practical exercise

  1. Using either one of the datasets you created for the data modelling or structuring exercises in the last few weeks, or a geographic dataset from earlier in the semester, or another dataset of your own or from the sample data below, load at least two tables of data in Tableau Public, and see what default settings and datatypes are suggested by the app.
  2. Try to match some fields and produce two or three different visualizations, making notes of the informative and persuasive aspects of each.
  3. Now modify any datatypes that were not recognized by default, and see if you can improve any other settings to achieve more appropriate visualizations.
  4. Experiment with several variations, and finally choose two visualizations to export and share with the class.
  5. Prepare a short report on the pros and cons of your two visualizations, and give suggestions for improvements. Compare with the outcomes of other students' work.

Sample data

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