Art of Data Visualisation

Letting the Facts Speak for Themselves. The purpose of this course is to teach delegates how to present their facts in the most compelling manner. Familiarity with Key Principles, borrowed from the Worlds of Art and Modern Design, will allow delegates to present results in more compelling ways thus influencing their audience more effectively.                          

Description

  • Understand how art becomes an essential component and why incorporating beauty is important.
  • Be clear why some visual work and some don’t.
  • Be comfortable with the six simple steps in the visualisation cycle.
  • Create more compelling presentations.

Learning objectives

  • Learn how art is an essential part of the science practice.
  • Understand why some visuals delight the eye and others disturb it.
  • Learn the six simple steps in the visualisation cycle.
  • Understand how to transform interactions with decision-makers for the better.
  • Know why incorporating beauty into visualisation benefits everyone.

Topics

There are 4 key components each covered with a presentation on the principles reinforced with a practical exercise:

1.1 Beauty v Utility

1.2 Good Intentions

1.3 Art is important

1.4 Exercise: How much art is enough


2.1 Learning the Skills

2.2 Composition and Frameworks

2.3 Data journalism – stories with pictures

2.4 Exercise: Combining art and Science to tell the story


3.1 The Visualisation Process

3.2 Insight is the key

3.3 Visual Challenges

3.4 Exercise: learning how to tell the story


4.1 Putting it into Practice

4.2 Freedom and discipline

4.3 Style and emotion

4.4 Whiteboard: Opportunities and Challenges

Audience

Anyone who wants to understand why and how “art” is meaningful in a scientific context.

Course format

  • PowerPoint presentation to introduce the topics including illustrative examples from different sectors
  • Case studies based on ‘real world’ problems
  • Practical sessions using Microsoft Excel MS PowerPoint
  • Group discussion/work to explore the topics in more detail
  • Bring questions from your own work to embed your learning

Related courses

Science of Data Visualisation

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Meet the tutor

Ian Taylor

Ian co-founded FlyingBinary in 2009 to deliver state of the art data management and visualisation tools and techniques. FlyingBinary is a web science company that changes the world with deep tech, and is one of the original 250 companies in Tech City, the world’s #1 Digital Hub.

Collaborating with a leading journalist, Ian co-founded the data journalism industry that connects 34 million citizens across the web, and delivers accessible data insights using Tableau, Plotly and D3 JavaScript tools. Ian architects data pipeline tools using Python, and has also created the Teccarto range of products that deliver advanced geospatial data capabilities for the leading data visualisation tool, Tableau.

Ian speaks internationally and teaches on Python, data wrangling, management and visualisation and using these tools for creating clear, impactful and influencing insights for users at all levels.