Visualize This is a practical guide on visualization and how to approach real-world data.

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About

A book by Nathan Yau who writes for FlowingData, Visualize This is a practical guide on visualization and how to approach real-world data. The book is published by Wiley and is available on Amazon and other major online booksellers.

Ch. 1 — Telling Stories with Data

Ch. 2 — Handling Data

Ch. 3 — Choosing Tools to Visualize Data

Ch. 4 — Visualizing Patterns over Time

Ch. 5 — Visualizing Proportions

Ch. 6 — Visualizing Relationships

Ch. 7 — Spotting Differences

Ch. 8 — Visualizing Spatial Relationships

Ch. 9 — Designing with a Purpose

There are lots of books on visualization that describe best practices and design concepts, but what do you do when it comes time for you to actually make something?

If you don't know how to use the software in front of you, the abstract isn't all that useful. And with growing amounts of data, it's becoming more important to be able to make sense of and communicate with it all.

In Visualize This, Nathan Yau teaches you how to create graphics that tell stories with real data, and you'll have fun in the process. Learn to make statistical graphics in R, design in Illustrator, and create interactive graphics in JavaScript and Flash & Actionscript.

Yau draws from his experience as a graduate student in statistics and his work with major news organizations for an engaging, data-first approach. After all, visualization is about the data it's based on.

Chapters group examples and tutorials by data type and take you through the process of data exploration and analysis, to visuals, and finally, to a graphic that is fit for publication for print and online.

Read the book cover-to-cover, or keep it on your desk as a reference for your data projects. Pages are in full color with tons of graphics to inspire and to help you learn visually.

What others are saying...

"Is Visualize This worth reading? Yes. It’s a clearly written, elegantly designed resource, presumably intended for designers and students who want to create effective data visualizations. But it’s also a timely and helpful guide for anyone, from corporate executives to scientists, journalists to consumers, who want to understand how and why good data visualizations work." — Reena Jana, SmartPlanet

"Visually stimulating, intellectually illuminating and creatively compelling, Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics is equal parts practical vocabulary for an essential modern language and conceptual testament to the power of data visualization as a new form of journalism and a powerful storytelling medium." — Maria Popova, The Atlantic

"Nathan Yau is a rare bread that gets the balance between academia and reality. I work with data in the digital analytics space and am constantly looking for ways to make my work more fun, enjoyable, and understandable to my audiences. This book will help you get there. It's well written, very clear, and filled with true practicality." — Marc, Amazon Review