Even though there is an art to visualization design, it stands to reason that this is a skill that can be taught / learned. I remember going to campus visits with my daughter, and hearing about a textbook considered to be a timeless classic - teaching students how to draw. What a concept - I guess I had always imagined an innate, magic ability (that I, of course, never had). Then again, musicians start learning to read and write music…
Just a little more theory and background on Data Visualization, to eat up the rest of your weekend. Unlike the McCandless video, this video will take some time investment - but well worth it, if you want to charge your batteries on this topic. (via Flowing Data) From earlier this year, Martin Wattenberg gives a talk on data and visualization. Some interesting points: Data visualizations work well with large data sets Interesting insight comes from borrowing ideas from different knowledge…
"Data Visualization" has been an extremely active and popular topic for a few years - we can use Google's Timeline search feature to see the growth in interest since 1980: That local high in July of this year was due in no small part to David McCandless' Information is Beautiful talk at TED this past summer. It appeared in my RSS stream here, here, and here, so I got the hint, spent 18 minutes watching it, and got suitably jazzed…
Previously ... creating opportunities for insight ... The short answer, as you know, is that it's impossible to tell you how to be insightful and imaginative in a single blog post. All I can do is point you in the general direction, and (hopefully) ignite a little spark. What's the Goal? and, Where to Begin? I previously talked about the growing calls for effective data visualizations; we have access to all this great information, and there are insights in there…