One of the most influential data visualization books—updated with new techniques, technologies, and examples Visualize This demonstrates how to explain data visually, so that you can present and communicate information in a way that is appealing and easy to understand. Today, there is a continuous flow of data available to answer almost any question. Thoughtful charts, maps, and analysis can help us make sense of this data. But the data does not speak for itself. As leading data expert Nathan Yau explains in this book, graphics provide little value unless they are built upon a firm understanding of the data behind them. Visualize This teaches you a data-first approach from a practical point of view. You'll start by exploring what your data has to say, and then you'll design visualizations that are both remarkable and meaningful. With this book, you'll discover what tools are available to you without becoming overwhelmed with options. You'll be exposed to a variety of software and code and jump right into real-world datasets so that you can learn visualization by doing. You'll learn to ask and answer questions with data, so that you can make charts that are both beautiful and useful. Visualize This also provides you with opportunities to apply what you learn to your own data. This completely updated, full-color second edition: Presents a unique approach to visualizing and telling stories with data, from data visualization expert Nathan Yau Offers step-by-step tutorials and practical design tips for creating statistical graphics, geographical maps, and information design Details tools that can be used to visualize data graphics for reports, presentations, and stories, for the web or for print, with major updates for the latest R packages, Python libraries, JavaScript libraries, illustration software, and point-and-click applications Contains numerous examples and descriptions of patterns and outliers and explains how to show them Information designers, analysts, journalists, statisticians, data scientists—as well as anyone studying for careers in these fields—will gain a valuable background in the concepts and techniques of data visualization, thanks to this legendary book.

A fresh look at visualization from the author of Visualize This Whether it's statistical charts, geographic maps, or the snappy graphical statistics you see on your favorite news sites, the art of data graphics or visualization is fast becoming a movement of its own. In Data Points: Visualization That Means Something, author Nathan Yau presents an intriguing complement to his bestseller Visualize This, this time focusing on the graphics side of data analysis. Using examples from art, design, business, statistics, cartography, and online media, he explores both standard-and not so standard-concepts and ideas about illustrating data. Shares intriguing ideas from Nathan Yau, author of Visualize This and creator of flowingdata.com, with over 66,000 subscribers Focuses on visualization, data graphics that help viewers see trends and patterns they might not otherwise see in a table Includes examples from the author's own illustrations, as well as from professionals in statistics, art, design, business, computer science, cartography, and more Examines standard rules across all visualization applications, then explores when and where you can break those rules Create visualizations that register at all levels, with Data Points: Visualization That Means Something.

Practical data design tips from a data visualization expert of the modern age Data doesn't decrease; it is ever-increasing and can be overwhelming to organize in a way that makes sense to its intended audience. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could actually visualize data in such a way that we could maximize its potential and tell a story in a clear, concise manner? Thanks to the creative genius of Nathan Yau, we can. With this full-color book, data visualization guru and author Nathan Yau uses step-by-step tutorials to show you how to visualize and tell stories with data. He explains how to gather, parse, and format data and then design high quality graphics that help you explore and present patterns, outliers, and relationships. Presents a unique approach to visualizing and telling stories with data, from a data visualization expert and the creator of flowingdata.com, Nathan Yau Offers step-by-step tutorials and practical design tips for creating statistical graphics, geographical maps, and information design to find meaning in the numbers Details tools that can be used to visualize data-native graphics for the Web, such as ActionScript, Flash libraries, PHP, and JavaScript and tools to design graphics for print, such as R and Illustrator Contains numerous examples and descriptions of patterns and outliers and explains how to show them Visualize This demonstrates how to explain data visually so that you can present your information in a way that is easy to understand and appealing.