From the course: Learning Data Visualization

The essence of data visualization

From the course: Learning Data Visualization

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The essence of data visualization

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- [Bill] Welcome and thank you for joining me in this course, Learning Data Visualization. I created this course originally in 2014 and I'm really excited to relaunch this fully updated version. I'm Bill Shander. I've been doing data visualization for almost 30 years and I've been teaching it here on LinkedIn Learning and at the University of Vermont and in private workshops for over 10 years. I love data, I love storytelling, and I love design. I'm passionate about this work. And that'll be clear as you go through this course with me. My main goal here is to shift your mindset when it comes to data visualization, a skill most of us were never taught in any formal way. You'll come out of this course with a deep appreciation for why data visualization is critical in today's world, what makes a good data visualization, how to come up with the right ideas for an effective visualization, how to pick the right visualization type, how to design it based on our understanding of human visual perception and research-based best practices, and how to think about many of the little detailed decisions along the way that make the real difference between some lame chart cranked out thoughtlessly at a button click versus a visualization that enables real insights and actions on the part of your audience. So this is about theory, yes, how to think about this important work. But this is also a practical course. You'll learn specific changes you can make in your visuals so starting today, your work will be more effective. So join me, get into an analytical and creative frame of mind because this work requires both. By the way, during this course, we won't be touching a computer almost at all. As you'll see, almost every visual you'll see here is just a sketch of a visualization because the most important thing to learn when you're just starting in data visualization is how to come up with the right ideas. And sketching is the way to do that. More on this later. And let's get started.

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