Data Insights: New Ways to Visualize and Make Sense of Data offers thought-provoking insights into how visualization can foster a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of data. The book offers perspectives from people with different backgrounds, including data scientists, statisticians, painters, and writers. It argues that all data is useless, or misleading, if we do not know what it means.Organized into seven chapters, the book explores some of the ways that data visualization and other emerging approaches can make data meaningful and therefore useful. It also discusses some fundamental ideas and basic questions in the data lifecycle; the process of interactions between people, data, and displays that lead to better questions and more useful answers; and the fundamentals, origins, and purposes of the basic building blocks that are used in data visualization. The reader is introduced to tried and true approaches to understanding users in the context of user interface design, how communications can get distorted, and how data visualization is related to thinking machines. Finally, the book looks at the future of data visualization by assessing its strengths and weaknesses. Case studies from business analytics, healthcare, network monitoring, security, and games, among others, as well as illustrations, thought-provoking quotes, and real-world examples are included.This book will prove useful to computer professionals, technical marketing professionals, content strategists, Web and product designers, and researchers. - Demonstrates, with a variety of case studies, how visualizations can foster a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of data - Answers the question, "How can data visualization help me?" with discussions of how it fits into a wide array of purposes and situations - Makes the case that data visualization is not just about technology; it also involves a deeply human process

Experiments, surveys, measurements, and observations all generate data. These data can provide useful insights for solving problems, guiding decisions, and formulating strategy. Progressing from relatively unprocessed data to insight, and doing so efficiently, reliably, and confidently, does not come easily, and yet gaining insights from data is a fundamental skill for science as well as many other fields and often overlooked in most textbooks of statistics and data analysis. This accessible and engaging book provides readers with the knowledge, experience, and confidence to work with data and unlock essential information (insights) from data summaries and visualisations. Based on a proven and successful undergraduate course structure, it charts the journey from initial question, through data preparation, import, cleaning, tidying, checking, double-checking, manipulation, and final visualization. These basic skills are sufficient to gain useful insights from data without the need for any statistics; there is enough to learn about even before delving into that world! The book focuses on gaining insights from data via visualisations and summaries. The journey from raw data to insights is clearly illustrated by means of a comprehensive Workflow Demonstration in the book featuring data collected in a real-life study and applicable to many types of question, study, and data. Along the way, readers discover how to efficiently and intuitively use R, RStudio, and tidyverse software, learning from the detailed descriptions of each step in the instructional journey to progress from the raw data to creating elegant and informative visualisations that reveal answers to the initial questions posed. There are an additional three demonstrations online! Insights from Data with R is suitable for undergraduate students and their instructors in the life and environmental sciences seeking to harness the power of R, RStudio, and tidyverse software to master the valuable and prerequisite skills of working with and gaining insights from data.

Data Science gets thrown around in the press like it'smagic. Major retailers are predicting everything from when theircustomers are pregnant to when they want a new pair of ChuckTaylors. It's a brave new world where seemingly meaningless datacan be transformed into valuable insight to drive smart businessdecisions. But how does one exactly do data science? Do you have to hireone of these priests of the dark arts, the "data scientist," toextract this gold from your data? Nope. Data science is little more than using straight-forward steps toprocess raw data into actionable insight. And in DataSmart, author and data scientist John Foreman will show you howthat's done within the familiar environment of aspreadsheet. Why a spreadsheet? It's comfortable! You get to look at the dataevery step of the way, building confidence as you learn the tricksof the trade. Plus, spreadsheets are a vendor-neutral place tolearn data science without the hype. But don't let the Excel sheets fool you. This is a book forthose serious about learning the analytic techniques, the math andthe magic, behind big data. Each chapter will cover a different technique in aspreadsheet so you can follow along: Mathematical optimization, including non-linear programming andgenetic algorithms Clustering via k-means, spherical k-means, and graphmodularity Data mining in graphs, such as outlier detection Supervised AI through logistic regression, ensemble models, andbag-of-words models Forecasting, seasonal adjustments, and prediction intervalsthrough monte carlo simulation Moving from spreadsheets into the R programming language You get your hands dirty as you work alongside John through eachtechnique. But never fear, the topics are readily applicable andthe author laces humor throughout. You'll even learnwhat a dead squirrel has to do with optimization modeling, whichyou no doubt are dying to know.

Master the art and science of data storytelling—with frameworks and techniques to help you craft compelling stories with data. The ability to effectively communicate with data is no longer a luxury in today’s economy; it is a necessity. Transforming data into visual communication is only one part of the picture. It is equally important to engage your audience with a narrative—to tell a story with the numbers. Effective Data Storytelling will teach you the essential skills necessary to communicate your insights through persuasive and memorable data stories. Narratives are more powerful than raw statistics, more enduring than pretty charts. When done correctly, data stories can influence decisions and drive change. Most other books focus only on data visualization while neglecting the powerful narrative and psychological aspects of telling stories with data. Author Brent Dykes shows you how to take the three central elements of data storytelling—data, narrative, and visuals—and combine them for maximum effectiveness. Taking a comprehensive look at all the elements of data storytelling, this unique book will enable you to: Transform your insights and data visualizations into appealing, impactful data stories Learn the fundamental elements of a data story and key audience drivers Understand the differences between how the brain processes facts and narrative Structure your findings as a data narrative, using a four-step storyboarding process Incorporate the seven essential principles of better visual storytelling into your work Avoid common data storytelling mistakes by learning from historical and modern examples Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change with Data, Narrative and Visuals is a must-have resource for anyone who communicates regularly with data, including business professionals, analysts, marketers, salespeople, financial managers, and educators.

Data Visualization Made Simple is a practical guide to the fundamentals, strategies, and real-world cases for data visualization, an essential skill required in today’s information-rich world. With foundations rooted in statistics, psychology, and computer science, data visualization offers practitioners in almost every field a coherent way to share findings from original research, big data, learning analytics, and more. In nine appealing chapters, the book: examines the role of data graphics in decision-making, sharing information, sparking discussions, and inspiring future research; scrutinizes data graphics, deliberates on the messages they convey, and looks at options for design visualization; and includes cases and interviews to provide a contemporary view of how data graphics are used by professionals across industries Both novices and seasoned designers in education, business, and other areas can use this book’s effective, linear process to develop data visualization literacy and promote exploratory, inquiry-based approaches to visualization problems.

Many analysts are too concerned with tools and techniques for cleansing, modeling, and visualizing datasets and not concerned enough with asking the right questions. In this practical guide, data strategy consultant Max Shron shows you how to put the why before the how, through an often-overlooked set of analytical skills. Thinking with Data helps you learn techniques for turning data into knowledge you can use. You’ll learn a framework for defining your project, including the data you want to collect, and how you intend to approach, organize, and analyze the results. You’ll also learn patterns of reasoning that will help you unveil the real problem that needs to be solved. Learn a framework for scoping data projects Understand how to pin down the details of an idea, receive feedback, and begin prototyping Use the tools of arguments to ask good questions, build projects in stages, and communicate results Explore data-specific patterns of reasoning and learn how to build more useful arguments Delve into causal reasoning and learn how it permeates data work Put everything together, using extended examples to see the method of full problem thinking in action

Is your business looking out? The world today is drowning in data. There is a treasure trove of valuable and underutilized insights that can be gleaned from information companies and people leave behind on the internet - our 'digital breadcrumbs' - from job postings, to online news, social media, online ad spend, patent applications and more. As a result, we're at the cusp of a major shift in the way businesses are managed and governed - moving from a focus solely on lagging, internal data, toward analyses that also encompass industry-wide, external data to paint a more complete picture of a brand's opportunities and threats and uncover forward-looking insights, in real time. Tomorrow's most successful brands are already embracing Outside Insight, benefitting from an information advantage while their competition is left behind. Drawing on practical examples of transformative, data-led decisions made by brands like Apple, Facebook, Barack Obama and many more, in Outside Insight, Meltwater CEO Jorn Lyseggen illustrates the future of corporate decision-making and offers a detailed plan for business leaders to implement Outside Insight thinking into their company mindset and processes.