Module 5: Lesson 1¶

The Importance of Data Visualizations¶

The first lesson explores how humans view data, which includes techniques to use and avoid to create clear and powerful visualizations.

Objectives¶

By the end of this lesson, you will understand that visualizations

are an important tool, that can convey a message quickly to a large and diverse audience,
can be misused to distort the underlying data, and
are based on several basic concepts that can be used to build creative approaches for communicating information.

You should share with the class via a Discussion Forum post your reactions to these activities.

Time Estimate¶

Approximately 1 hour.

Activities¶

Video: Watch the importance of data visualizations video, which will introduce this important topic.

Reading: Read about the power of visual perception , which introduces ways to paint a clear and powerful visualization.

Reading: Visualization lies, which introduces visualization techniques that can mislead and confuse the interpretation of a visualization.

Video: Watch the beauty of data visualization TED video by David McCandless, which will demonstrate how complex data can be turned into simple, beautiful visualizations.

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