#dataviz101

[igotcharts]

Here’s a handy little data viz 101 of chart types that I made for a Los Angeles Data + Donuts’ School of Data session that I’m co-teaching with @wfumihsu .

[visualizingorg-blog]

Advice from Alberto Cairo

VisualisingData: Given the timescales involved in the students' challenge, do you have any advice from your newspaper/magazine days of handling/managing their time?

[12:24pm] AlbertoCairo: Yep

[12:25pm] AlbertoCairo: Hey Andy

[12:25pm] AlbertoCairo: OK, here's the answer

[12:25pm] CharleneManuel: Hi Andy!

[12:25pm] AlbertoCairo: When you work on a deadline, which was usually my case when I worked at a newsroom, prioritize

[12:25pm] AlbertoCairo: That's when the hierarchy process that I tried to explain is more crucial

[12:26pm] AlbertoCairo: because it allows you to understand what is crucial, what is secondary, and what should be added only if you have time and resources

[12:26pm] AlbertoCairo: If you are able to do that, you will be able to build your interactives in a modular format that lets you add more and more features down the road

[12:26pm] VisualisingData: Sure...

[12:27pm] VisualisingData: I'm mindful of Simon Rogers' quote

[12:27pm] VisualisingData: “80% perspiration, 10% great idea, 10% output”

[12:27pm] VisualisingData: The biggest part of the challenge is the hidden iceberg...

[12:27pm] AlbertoCairo: so you start showing just the very basics, the headline, the intro, the main data points, rankings, connections in the data, and some basic interactivity, what I would call the "presentation" layer, and then you go deeper and deeper depending on the time you have

[12:27pm] AlbertoCairo: Yes 80% perspiration for sure

[12:27pm] AlbertoCairo: I don't believe in great ideas

[12:27pm] alexandrapappas joined the chat room.

[12:27pm] VisualisingData: The preparation of the data, the contextualising of the problem, the identification of the audience and the message etc.

[12:28pm] AlbertoCairo: Great ideas usually show up only after you have sweated over the data for a while, if you know what I mean. Unless you are Moritz Stefaner or Jan Willem Tulp, I guess!

[12:28pm] VisualisingData: Sure, so I guess you would read that quote almost as a sequence - an outcome of the hard work not something serprate from the hard work

[12:29pm] AlbertoCairo: Yes

[12:29pm] AlbertoCairo: As a journalist I learned that the hard way

[12:29pm] AlbertoCairo: Don't sit on your chair waiting for good ideas to come

[12:29pm] AlbertoCairo: read as much as you can, learn as much as you can, work your ass for, look at your data and your story intensely

[12:30pm] VisualisingData: When I was at the London Viz Marathon last year...

[12:30pm] AlbertoCairo: only after you have done that for a while your brain will be able to unconsciously create connections and come up with a creative idea

[12:30pm] VisualisingData: It was fascinating watching the groups who ran straight back to their tables...

[12:30pm] VisualisingData: 50% immediately threw their Dr Dre headphones on

[12:31pm] VisualisingData: 50% sat in groups, got post it notes and sketched out the challenge

[12:31pm] AlbertoCairo: sketching out is also crucial

[12:31pm] VisualisingData: The Dr Dre crew still had their coding windows open with 2 minutes to go and only just submitted

[12:31pm] AlbertoCairo: a lot, as much as you can

[12:31pm] VisualisingData: And on that note, with my battery at 2% and a lunch meeting to go to, I bid you all farewell and good luck!

[12:31pm] AlbertoCairo: with pen and paper, or crayons, or sharpies