select links from 2025-12-14
group by Data Visualisation!
This week I wanted to focus on data visualisation because of Saloni’s guide to data visualization. It’s great, the material is rich and I thought “oh, let’s do a data vis theme! I’ll share my favourite resources!” As much as I tried jogging my memory, I couldn’t pin down “the only awesome shortlist of data visualisation resources you will ever need”. There are SO MANY resources out there – and some are below – but ultimately it’s about conveying a meaningful message.
Conveying a message is a two way street, however. Someone has to look at your plot and understand it, draw meaning from it. There are best practices but you need to develop your own sensibilities based on feedback. An artist can create any piece of art but it may fail to convey intention and meaning. Data visualisation is no different - heck, even KPI charts can be taken to an art form! Art and good taste are important in the day to day too (just look at people getting excited about Helvetica). But you need to practice this and improve your craft, day in and day out.
My own sensibilities were developed through feedback - I was lucky to make a ton of charts during my uni years and I had an amazing manager in 2018 that had incredible attention to detail. I think I only learned about “the classics” like Edward Tufte and Albert Cairo around 2019-2020. Heck, I only found out about IBCS last year! If you’re starting out, it’s important to share your work - put it out there, send it to people for feedback! It will be embarrassing but well worth it.
Saloni’s guide to data visualization
Saloni Dattani is the co-founder and editor of Works in Progress, a wonderful online (and print!) magazine about interesting topics. Saloni recently published an amazing blog post how she approaches data visualization:
It’s got plenty of examples, VERY good heuristics and it goes straight into my “how to dataviz” treasure trove.
The R Graph Gallery and the Big Book of R
The R Graph Gallery has been my goto resource if I want to work with a new type of chart that I haven’t had the fortune of using. It’s simply excellent.
For learning resources, The Big Book of R is still amazing for someone starting out.
Other links
Blog: The Plot by Evelina Parrou
Blog post: My favorite ggplot2 packages with examples by Joshua Kunst
Web page: Size of Life by Neal Agarwal is a BEAUTIFUL website
News! %notin% is coming to base R!
Bluesky post: If you use negative margins, you can move your facet labels INSIDE the plots: