Meetup 1: Developing a Critical Eye

George I. Hagstrom

Events Upcoming

  • Once per month (Tuesday, Wedneday, Thursday) “field trips” to New York Open Statistical Computing Meetup
  • nyhackr.org

Events Upcoming!

nyhackr.org

Events Upcoming!

nyhackr.org

Why Visualizations Matter

  • Graphs are the main way we communicate data
  • Your visualizations are how people will remember your analysis, can make or break your recommendations to decision makers.
  • Two goals of the class:
    1. Learn how to tell stories with graphs
    2. Learn to make good visualizations

Why do we need a class on this?

  • People are not naturally good at telling stories using data

Why do we need a class on this?

  • The world is full of awful visualizations

Why do we need a class on this?

  • The world is full of awful visualizations

Why do we need a class on this?

  • The world is full of awful visualizations

Why do we need a class on this?

  • The world is full of awful visualizations

Case Study

  • Your firm had two employees leave in May
  • This caused a backlog of work

Case Study

  • Highlight the key features to tell a story

Storytelling 0.3

Course Website and Meetup

  • Brightspace to submit homework
  • Course Meetup: Monday 8:00-9:00PM
  • Zoom Link

Slack Channel

Textbooks

Two most important textbooks:

  1. Fundamentals of Data Visualization

  2. Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction

Textbooks

Two most important textbooks:

  1. Fundamentals of Data Visualization

  2. Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction

Textbooks

  • For pythonistas
  1. Scientific Visualization: Python + Matplotlib

Textbooks

Useful for the story/business framing

  1. Storytelling with data

Textbooks

Useful for the story/business framing

  1. Storytelling with data

Assignments

  • 6 Lab Assignments (60%)
    • Submit a qmd source and rendered slides to brightspace
    • ‘R’ or ‘python’ choice
  • 6 Figure Corrections (18%)
    • Opportunity to correct figures from lab assignment
  • Short Interactive Project (22%)
    • Shiny App on dataset of your choosing

Week Plan: Readings

  • Chapters 1 and 2 of Fundamentals of Dataviz
  • Preface and part of Chapter 1 of Healy’s Data Visualization:
    • Why look at data?
    • What makes figures look bad?
    • Problems of honesty and judgement

Week Plan: Assignments

  • Due in two weeks: Data Story 1

Week Plan: Key Concepts

  • Methods for creating a story (Storytelling)
  • What makes a quality figure (Wilke, Healy)

Context: Purposes of Visualizations

  • Exploratory
  • Explanatory
  • Inferential

Context: Purposes of Visualizations

  • Exploratory
  • Explanatory
  • Inferential

IPCC SPM1 Special Report on 1.5C

Context: Purposes of Visualizations

  • Exploratory
  • Explanatory
  • Inferential

Context: Who, What, and How

Before you begin, start with three questions

  • Who will see your figure?
    • You would make different choices presenting to experts, decision makers/stakeholders, your supervisor, or the general public

Context: Who, What, and How

  • Figure for Decision Makers (IPCC SPM):

Context: Who, What, and How

  • Figure for other scientists (IPCC)

Context: Who, What, and How

  • Figure for other scientists (IPCC)

Context: Who, What, and How

Before you begin, start with three questions

  • What do you want your audience to know or do?
    • There needs to be a point or story beyond “this is interesting”

Context: Who, What, and How

  • Consider the Mechanism
  • More details in written comms than presentations

Storytelling

Context: Who, What, and How

Before you begin, start with three questions

  • How?
    • What data will you use to accomplish this?
  • Don’t hide non-supporting data
    • Trust is built over time but destroyed in an instant
    • Building trust is key for convincing people to take action on your recommendations, in all sorts of settings

The Elevator Pitch and Big Idea

  • If you had just 3 minutes to tell your audience what they need to know, what would you say?
    • What is the overall topic/problem (get into it fast)
    • Why is it important (bring emotion into it)
    • Try to find a good punchline to complete the narrative

Big Idea: Single Sentence Summary

  • Convey your unique point of view
  • Must convey what is at stake

Why Stories?

  • Humans are wired to hear and tell stories, it is how we relate
  • Neuroscience research backs this up
  • Good stories create synchrony across multiple brain regions between storyteller and listener

Why Stories?

  • Humans are wired to hear and tell stories, it is how we relate
  • Neuroscience research backs this up
  • Good stories create synchrony across multiple brain regions between storyteller and listener

Bad, Ugly, and Wrong Figures

What Makes Bad Figures Bad

  • Healy: Aesthetic, Substantive, Perceptual
  • Next weeks will address these specifically

What About Great Figures?

  • There are no principles/rules for going from good to great
  • Perfect the good first, then your creativity can help you make something great

What About Great Figures?

  • There are no principles/rules for going from good to great
  • Perfect the good first, then your creativity can help you make something great

Thanks!

DATA 608