Communicating Visually, Using Data

Picture1I’ve long been a fan of data visualization, dating back to my days in the Imager lab at UBC, which had a research area in that subject. I’ve realized that my approach to “telling stories visually with data” includes a lot of knowledge that isn’t common in the transportation world, and I decided share what I know.
Drawing from the Internet, here’s a basic collection of content that gives a good introduction to how to communicate visually, using data. It’s even more compelling if you have my running commentary alongside… batteries not included.

  1. Telling Compelling Stories with Numbers
  2. Graphical Integrity
    • Edward Tufte slides (selected slides; original here)
  3. The Human Visual System
  4. Colour
  5. Tabular data
  6. Maps
  7. Closing Thoughts & References
    • Examples
    • Tufte, “Graphical Displays Should…” & Pantoliano
    • Tufte, “Principles of Graphical Excellence”
    • Kelleher & Wagener – Ten Guidelines

I haven’t covered one area in here: the basic principles of graphic design. But these are more widely known and can be learned in normal courses.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *