This is the first lesson of the Data Visualization Beyond the Tutorial course.
In this unit, we will ask seemingly simple questions: what, why and how. This unit will allow us: me, the teacher and you, the students, to set up a common language, and to understand what this course is about. You will also see some interesting examples and use cases.
We will start with the “what”, by seeing some motivational examples; continue to the “why” data visualization works; switch to the question of “what is the right approach” and finally, will end up with a quick overview of the “how” — how to produce good and effective data visuals.
Don’t skip the assignment. Submit it here.
Reading list
- No, You Don’t Have the Attention Span of a Goldfish this blog post describes the process of urban legend spread and debunking.
- Evaluation of Artery Visualizations for Heart Disease Diagnosis. This is the paper from that I mentioned in the promo video and in this lesson. It’s a good example of empirical research in the field of data visualization.
- How Deceptive are Deceptive Visualizations?: An Empirical Analysis of Common Distortion Techniques. The title speaks for itself.
Boris Gorelik 