do you SEE it?

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When communicating with data, creating visual contrast is key for directing your audience's attention. Check out the following video for a brief illustration of why contrast is important and an in-depth look at four real-world examples on how to achieve contrast through position, color, and added marks.

For more storytelling with data videos, check out my YouTube channel.

the cat in the hat knows a lot about data visualization

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Check out this video of my recent Stanford MBA guest-lecture, where I discuss the importance of being sparing and intentional in your use of color and putting your thoughts into words when communicating visually with data.

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declutter your data visualizations

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When I was a little girl, I used to get in trouble for cleaning my room. Check out the following video to find out why and learn why clutter in data visualization is a bad thing and how to avoid it. Specifically, I'll cover five tips and examples from my book, storytelling with data: 

  1. Leverage how people see
  2. Employ visual order
  3. Create clear contrast
  4. Don't over-complicate
  5. Strip down & build up

This is a slightly modified version of the talk I've been giving on my Bay Area book tour at companies like LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Dropbox, Tesla, Airbnb, and Evernote. Post any related questions in the comment section and I will respond. I hope you enjoy!

being clever with color

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Quick announcement: I'll be doing just one more public storytelling with data workshop in 2015, which will be in Chicago in mid-October and still has a few open spots. Details and registration can be found here.

I've recently given a short presentation covering considerations when it comes to the use of color in communicating with data (earlier this week, for Chartio, and last week at the Seattle DataVis meet up). In it, I cover 7 brief lessons:

  1. Color grabs attention
  2. Color can signal where to look
  3. Color should be used sparingly
  4. Color can carry quantitative value
  5. Color carries tone and meaning
  6. Not everyone sees color
  7. Color should be used consistently

For each of these lessons, I talk about some specific strategies and look at a number of real-world examples. In order to bring this content to a wider audience, I recorded it, and you can view it here:

Leave a comment to let me know if you're interested in seeing more video content like this in the future.

The lessons covered here and much, much more can also be found in my forthcoming book, storytelling with data: a data visualization guide for business professionals, available for pre-order on Amazon today.