Julie Steele - Designing Data Visualizations

Copyright 2011 Julie Steele and Noah Iliinsky

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This book is organized into two major parts, which can loosely be thought of as practical theoretical foundations and applied suggestions, respectively.

In , we discuss different kinds of visualization (including infographics and visual art) and explore the influences at work in each one. The goal is to help you become a more savvy consumer of visualizations, as well as a more organized thinker when creating your own visual work.

In , we introduce some ways of classifying and describing different styles of visualization, so that you can begin to think about and describe what youre designing.

In , we introduce the three fundamental influences to the visualization productthe designer, the reader, and the dataand describe how each should shape what is eventually created.

In , we apply these concepts to the design process. The goal is to help you think in a linear way about how to select and apply appropriate encodings for your data.

In , we focus on getting to a clear understanding of your goalsand defining the requisite supporting dataso that you can implement them most effectively.

In , we lay out heuristics for understanding the shape of your data and choosing compatible visual properties and structures with which to encode it.

In , we dive deep into the property of spatial position axes and placement one of the most important properties youll need to select. We also discuss using different visualization structures.

In , we look at best practices and offer specific suggestions for encoding many specific different data types with visual properties. We also present warnings against common pitfalls and dark patterns.

Finally, the Appendices are full of resources and references meant to help you put your skills into practice and expand your knowledge beyond this volume.

contains a list of tools to help you get started, as well as a suggested reading list to expand your knowledge and understanding of design concepts.

is a list of the questions and decisions youll confront as part of the design process. We hope youll read the entire book, and then use this section as a refresher whenever you design a new visualization.

In this book, well use some specific terms to describe your data and visual encodings. Here is a handy glossary for quick reference.