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Data Visualization: Design Sources

Resources to support data visualization

Learn about Good Design by Looking at Good Design

Easily Viewed

Manuel Lima, Visual Complexity, http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/ .

This site is a resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. Lima is author of Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information (2011), The Book of Trees: Visualizing Branches of Knowledge  (2014), and The Book of Circles: Visualizing Spheres of Knowledge (2017).

Nathan Yau, FlowingData, http://flowingdata.com/ .

This site explores how statisticians, designers, data scientists, and others use analysis, visualization, and exploration to understand data and ourselves.

David McCandless, Information is Beautiful, https://informationisbeautiful.net/ .

This site is dedicated to helping you make clearer, more informed decisions about the world. All visualizations are based on facts & data: constantly updated, revised & revisioned.

Martin Watterman, Data Visualization: Art, Media, Science, http://www.bewitched.com/

This is the man who said, “Visualization is a gateway drug to statistics.” Watterman is a co-leader of Google's "Big Picture" data visualization group, part of the Google Brain team.

Edward Tufte’s tribute to  Megan Jaegerman. https://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0002w4
Jaegerman worked at the New York Times from 1990 to 1998.

WTF Visualizations. http://viz.wtf/ . This site is full of visualizations that make no sense.

Requires More Digging
Robert Kosara, Eager Eyes. https://eagereyes.org/
Robert Kosara’s place to reflect on the world of information visualization and visual communication of data.

FiveThirtyEight, https://fivethirtyeight.com/ ,
Contains data visualizations of subjects in politics, culture, sports, science and health.

Jer Thorp, https://jerthorp.glitch.me/
Thorp is an artist, writer and teacher living in New York City. He is best known for designing the algorithm to place the nearly 3,000 names on the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan. Jer was the New York Times' first Data Artist in Residence, is a National Geographic Explorer, and in 2017 and 2018 served as the Innovator in Residence at the Library of Congress. Jer is one of the world's foremost data artists, and is a leading voice for the ethical use of big data.

Summaries

Heer, Jeffrey,  Michael Bostock, and Vadim Ogievetsky. “A Tour through the Visualization Zoo:

A survey of powerful visualization techniques, from the obvious to the obscure.” Graphics 8, no. 5 (2010). https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1805128

Good summary of types of visualizations.

Visualization Universe, http://visualizationuniverse.com/
Contains Charts, Books, and Tools.

Excellent graphical depiction of chart typologies.

Classics

Select Reading List 
All authors listed have websites.

Katy Börner (2010) Atlas of Science: Visualizing What We Know

Katy Börner (2015) Atlas of Knowledge: Anyone Can Map

Katy Börner and David Polley (2014) Visual Insights: A Practical Guide to Making Sense of Data

Alberto Cairo (2013) The Functional Art

Stephanie D. H. Evergreen (2017) Effective Data Visualization: The Right Chart for the Right Data

Andy Kirk (2016) Data Visualization: A Handbook for Data Driven Design

Manuel Lima (2011) Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information

Manuel Lima (2014) The Book of Trees: Visualizing Branches of Knowledge

Manuel Lima (2017) The Book of Circles: Visualizing Spheres of Knowledge

David McCandless (2009) Information is Beautiful

David McCandless (2014) Knowledge is Beautiful

Isabel Meirelles (2013) Design for Information

Edward Tufte (1990) Envisioning Information

Edward Tufte (1997) Visual Explanations

Edward Tufte (2001) The Visual Display of Quantitative Information