Data Visualization II

Alice McGrath

February 27, 2025

Agenda

  1. Data visualization workflow
  2. Activity using RawGraphs
  3. On your own

How do you make a data viz?

Get data

  • Collect it
  • Find a dataset
  • Clean and organize it
  • Get to know the context and effects of the data collection process

Analyze data

  • What types of data do you have?
  • How many variables do you have? How do your variables relate to each other?
  • What questions can your dataset answer? What stories can it tell?

What types of data do you have?

Numeric | categoric | geographic | temporal |relationships

How many variables do you have? How do your variables relate to each other?

quantities/distribution | correlation | part of a whole | change over time | connections

What questions can you answer?

What stories can you tell?

Design visualizations

What will you show?

  • All variables? Relationships between variables?
  • Summaries? Every data point?

What graph types would be most effective?

  • Useful resource: From Data to Viz
  • Use your imagination! Draw your visualization on paper.

Communication

  • What methods can you use to highlight your variables?
  • How can you make the results visually compelling and engaging?
  • How can you make them more accessible?

Storytelling

  • What should viewers take away from your visualization?
  • What kind of contextual information is needed for them to understand it?

Data Viz with RawGraphs

parks linegraph

Visitors to US National Parks by year, 1979-2023

Getting started

  • Download the data here: National parks annual data
  • Save it to a folder on your computer that you’ll be able to find later
  • Upload the dataset to WTF CSV to see some basic info about it
  • What types of data do we have?

V1: RawGraphs line graph

  • Navigate to RawGraphs.io
  • Click ‘Use it Now’
  • Upload the parks dataset
  • Make sure the data in each row is categorized correctly
  • Scroll down to ‘Choose a Chart’ and select ‘Line Chart’
  • Drag ‘Year’ onto the X axis
  • Drag ‘RecreationVisits’ onto the Y axis
  • Look at the result. What do you notice?
  • Now drag ‘ParkName’ onto ‘Lines’
  • Try dragging things onto ‘Color’ and ‘Series’ and try swapping out other categories for ‘Lines’
  • When you have something you are satisfied with, scroll down to ‘export’. Choose either .svg or .png
  • Save this in the same folder as your csv.

On your own

  • In pairs, create 2-3 other graphs to show different things with the original dataset or a stacked dataset.
  • Save 2 graphs and post them to the Moodle Forum for today
  • Tips
    • Use the RawGraphs documentation for more detail on particular charts.
    • Create at least one graph that shows hierarchies.
  • Optional: try out Park visits by month, which also includes data on camping and other categories.

V3: Draw your data

  • In your pairs, draw visual representations of the National Parks data using paper and markers
  • Design them however you like
  • Aim to create two different versions

Discussion

  • Share out your visualizations and explain your vision.
  • What did you find interesting or difficult about this process?
  • What context or additional data would you want to bring in if you were building a data story or data essay?

Resources