The tips I give to people starting in dataviz
Five suggestions to improve your data visualisation game
Law. Finance. Journalism. Astronomy. Business. Design. Engineering. Research.
These are just some of the domains data visualisation specialists initially come from. Most people in the field today have previous experience in other areas. On the one hand, this makes our community exciting and enriching to interact with. But on the other, it’s also a bit of a scary transition for those of us just starting out!
When I first got obsessed with data visualisation, I wrote an article for Nightingale with my best learning tips. While today I cringe at some of the charts I proudly displayed in the piece at the time, I believe the advice at its core is still solid. So to keep up with this week’s theme of early career development, let’s take another stab at those five tips for newly minted dataviz designers and developers.*
*Even if you’re not new to the field, I think you’ll still find some of these tips interesting.
Consume
Your visual diet is important.
Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic’s Storytelling with Data was the first data visualisation book I got my hands on. It forever changed the way I make graphs. Since then, I’ve devoured tens of dataviz and design books that have taught me invaluable lessons about the field. If right now you’re wondering which books I recommend, I’ve got a viz for that (duh!). Choose for yourself from this map!
When you go down the book rabbit hole, you’ll also likely be drawn to online classes, tutorials, conferences and articles. That’s great! Consume as many of those as you have time and patience for. And in addition, make time to explore the work done by other people. Set aside an hour each week to explore visualisations, infographics, dashboards and perhaps even graphic designs out there. Save the ones you like for future reference. Or, as Austin Kleon calls it, make a steal folder. Mine is on Pinterest.
Practice
Nothing beats learning by doing.
Books, tutorials and examples are a great way to acquire new knowledge as a beginner. But you’ll need to make many, many charts to get good at this thing we call data visualisation. Thankfully, our awesome community is full of fun initiatives that can help you practice and progress every week. Here are some of the ones I know of:
Makeover Monday, mainly for Tableau users;
Tidy Tuesday, for those who code in R;
Viz for Social Good, for anyone interested in using data for social good;
Elevate also runs regular challenges and initiatives.
If none of the above seem right for you, make your own projects! It’s super common in the dataviz community to create visuals on topics that are personally interesting to you. So do that! And don’t forget to share it with the world, on Twitter or the DVS Slack.
Iterate
With each project, seek feedback.
For every visualisation you create, solicit at least one person’s feedback. Whether it’s from an expert, your spouse, or your kid, it’s crucial to know how another human being perceives what you created. Make sure it’s someone who won’t be afraid to tell you the truth. In the initial article, I mentioned how my partner provides me honest feedback on my visualisations. He’s also the person who patiently proofreads all my newsletters before they come out to you (thanks, babe ❤️). Constructive feedback will draw your attention to areas in your work that are unclear to others, which will make the final result better!
Teach
Teach it to learn it.
Even though it may feel a little uncomfortable to transmit something you’ve just learned yourself, it’s great for your progress. As soon as I knew how to create foundational visualisations in Tableau, I started teaching my colleagues how to use the tool. When I didn’t have answers to their questions, I’d go online and find out. So if you still have the image of a traditional teacher in your head — someone who’s studied the topic for years and has written multiple books on it — step out of it. In today’s knowledge economy, everyone knows something others don’t and can teach it. As long as you’re curious and passionate about the matter, you can too!
Chill
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
The visualisations you create will not solve the world’s biggest problems. And that’s OK. In an environment where fellow dataviz specialists win awards and showcase their designs in world-class museums, it can be hard to see the impact of your own work. Trust me, I get it. But you have to remind yourself to take in the small victories too, that can come in unexpected ways. This morning I consulted for a small digital products team. At the end, the manager said that my approach to dataviz helped him understand his team better. I couldn’t have expected such feedback, but absolutely loved it.
So take in all the small wins, and don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re doing great!
As always, thanks for reading The Plot.
See you in two weeks,
Evelina
Thank you! As someone starting with data visualization, this is so clear, useful and helpful! Thank you for sharing. :)