Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics

Introduction xv

1 Telling Stories with Data 1

More Than Numbers 2

What to Look For 8

Design 13

Wrapping Up 20

2 Handling Data 21

Gather Data 22

Formatting Data 38

Wrapping Up 52

3 Choosing Tools to Visualize Data 53

Out-of-the-Box Visualization 54

Programming 62

Illustration 76

Mapping 80

Survey Your Options 88

Wrapping Up 89

4 Visualizing Patterns over Time 91

What to Look for over Time 92

Discrete Points in Time 93

Continuous Data 118

Wrapping Up 132

5 Visualizing Proportions 135

What to Look for in Proportions 136

Parts of a Whole 136

Proportions over Time 161

Wrapping Up 178

6 Visualizing Relationships 179

What Relationships to Look For 180

Correlation 180

Distribution 200

Comparison 213

Wrapping Up 226

7 Spotting Differences 227

What to Look For 228

Comparing across Multiple Variables 228

Reducing Dimensions 258

Searching for Outliers 265

Wrapping Up 269

8 Visualizing Spatial Relationships 271

What to Look For 272

Specific Locations 272

Regions 285

Over Space and Time 302

Wrapping Up 325

9 Designing with a Purpose 327

Prepare Yourself 328

Prepare Your Readers 330

Visual Cues 334

Good Visualization 340

Wrapping Up 341

Index 343