A New FlowingData Book, Second Edition

I wrote a book! It’s the second edition of Visualize This. It focuses on the how of visualization with practical examples that you can apply to your own data. You’ll learn how to use a variety of tools and work through the full visualization process, from data to visual analysis to publication-ready graphics.

This second edition is loosely based on the first, but this is a brand new book. The examples are new, the tools are refreshed, and I rewrote almost every word. It turns out a lot can change over a decade and a half.

You can pre-order Visualize This now.

I hope it’ll help all of you have more fun with data.

More updates to come.

Tags:

Posted by in Book, Site News

Tags:

Permalink

A wide view of visualization with ‘The Art of Insight’

The Art of Insight, by Alberto Cairo, highlights how designers approach visualization with a wide view.

In the narrowest view of data visualization, you use charts to pull quick, quantitative information from dashboards and reports. Take a few steps back and you get exploratory data analysis and then storytelling. Keep going and you get a fluid-like approach to visualization that gives more attention to beauty, emotion, and qualitative insights that are difficult to measure. The Art of Insight, the final book in Cairo’s three-book series, focuses on the more fluid approach.

As a slow reader, I read this surprisingly quick. I enjoyed reading and thinking about the less mechanical side of visualizing data.

Tags: ,

Introduction to statistical learning, with Python examples

An Introduction to Statistical Learning, with Applications in R by Gareth James, Daniela Witten, Trevor Hastie, and Rob Tibshirani was released in 2021. They, along with Jonathan Taylor, just released an alternate version with applications in Python. So if Python is your thing, have at it. Like the R version, it is free to download as a PDF.

Tags: , ,

Information Graphic Visionaries delivered

Visualization still seems like a relatively new thing, but it has a history that goes back a few centuries. The Information Graphic Visionaries book series celebrates this history with a profile of three makers — Florence Nightingale, Emma Willard, and Étienne-Jules Marey — and their work.

The series started as a Kickstarter campaign and the books have been making their way out. I just got my copy on Marey and the graphic method. I’m looking forward to digging in.

Tags: ,

Introduction to Data Science, an open source book

Introduction to Data Science, by Harvard biostatistics professor Rafael A. Irizarry, is an open source book that provides, as you might have guessed, an introduction to data science:

The demand for skilled data science practitioners in industry, academia, and government is rapidly growing. This book introduces concepts and skills that can help you tackle real-world data analysis challenges. It covers concepts from probability, statistical inference, linear regression, and machine learning.

Tags: , , ,

Introduction to Probability for Data Science, a free book

Introduction to Probability for Data Science is a free-to-download book by Purdue statistics professor Stanley H. Chan:

We need a book that balances the theory and practice. We need a book that provides insights and not just theorems and proofs. We need a book that motivates the students, telling them why probability is so essential to their work. We need a book that highlights the impacts of the subject. From over than half a decade of teaching the course, I have distilled what I believe to be the core of probabilistic methods. I put the book in the context of data science, to emphasize the inseparability between data (computing) and probability (theory) in our time.

Download a free PDF copy or buy a physical copy.

Tags: , ,

Visualising Knowledge

Visualising Knowledge is an open book from PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, based on 25 years of making charts:

PBL data visualisation is about visualising research results, using graphs, maps, diagrams and infographics. Over the years, the variety in types of visualisation formats has greatly increased. In addition, visualisations have to be presented in an increasing number of different media: from figures in reports to interactive visualisations that are easy to read on smartphones and tablets.

The book ‘Visualising knowledge’ provides insight into how visualisations at PBL are created in a process of close collaboration between visualisation experts, researchers and communication experts, always keeping in mind both the medium and the target audience.

The original version is in Dutch, and they just published an English version. Download either version here.

Tags: , ,

Introduction to statistical learning

An Introduction to Statistical Learning, by Gareth James, Daniela Witten, Trevor Hastie, and Rob Tibshirani:

As the scale and scope of data collection continue to increase across virtually all fields, statistical learning has become a critical toolkit for anyone who wishes to understand data. An Introduction to Statistical Learning provides a broad and less technical treatment of key topics in statistical learning. Each chapter includes an R lab. This book is appropriate for anyone who wishes to use contemporary tools for data analysis.

The PDF version of the book is free to download. There’s also a free online course companion.

Tags: , ,

Hands-On Data Visualization, an open-access book on interactive visualization for beginners

Hands-On Data Visualization, by Jack Dougherty and Ilya Ilyankou, is an open-access book geared for beginners. The book starts with spreadsheets, and then walks you through some of the more high-level JavaScript libraries to put things online relatively quickly. If you don’t have programming experience but want to kick the tires, it’s probably worth saving this for later.

You can also grab a physical copy.

Tags: ,

Humorous charts to organize thoughts

When I’m feeling confused about what’s going on around me, I gravitate towards making charts, so Michelle Rial’s book of charts, Maybe This Will Help: How to Feel Better When Things Stay the Same, resonates. It’s available for pre-order.

Tags: , ,