Better Data Visualizations

Now more than ever, content must be visual if it is to travel far. Readers everywhere are overwhelmed with a flow of data, news, and text. Visuals can cut through the noise and make it easier for readers to recognise and recall information. Yet many researchers were never taught how to present their work visually.

Better Data Visualizations details essential strategies to create more effective data visualisations. Jonathan Schwabish walks readers through the steps of creating better graphs and how to move beyond simple line, bar, and pie charts. Through more than five hundred examples, he demonstrates the do's and don'ts of data visualisation, the principles of visual perception, and how to make subjective style decisions around a chart's design.

Schwabish surveys more than eighty visualisation types, from histograms to horizon charts, ridgeline plots to choropleth maps, and explains how each has its place in the visual toolkit. It might seem intimidating, but everyone can learn how to create compelling, effective data visualisations. This book will guide you as you define your audience and goals, choose the graph that best fits your data, and clearly communicate your message.