Data visualisation is a cross disciplinary activity that requires us to operate at the intersection of a visual designer, data scientist and storyteller. It is both a science and an art. So how does one realistically learn these multitude of skills needed to get good at the craft of data visualisation. In this slide deck, I discuss ideas about the possible path that a beginner could adopt to learn this craft through sustained practice.

1. Learning the Craft of
Data Visualisation
Amit Kapoor
@amitkaps

2. Art - Craft - Science

3. craft | krɑːft
noun: An activity involving skill in
making or doing things by hand

4. How do you learn a
craft?

5. Novice — Expert

6. Start with Basics

7. Do Repetitions

8. Conduct Deliberate
Practice

9. Focus on Mastery

10. It took me a lifetime
— Pablo Picasso

11. So, how do you
start?

14. Learning Styles

16. We don’t see things
as they are, we see
them as we are.
— Anais Nin

17. Understand your
own strength

18. Learning Data
Visualisation

19. Start with Charting
Simple Datasets

20. Learn Basic Charts

22. Design Basic Charts

23. Expand your Chart
Vocabulary

25. Visualisation is the
transformation of
the symbolic into
geometric
— McCormick et al. 1987

26. Think Geometric,
Not Charts

27. Encode with Shapes
and Colour

28. Position them out

29. Learn the Grammar

30. Play with Colour

31. Understand Visual
Perception

32. Develop an
Aesthetics Sense

33. Learning to See

34. Nature

35. Architecture

36. Abstract Art

37. Sketch ideas

38. Visualise Wide
Datasets

39. Visualise Large
Datasets

40. Visualise Spatial
Datasets

41. Move to Layering

42. Multi-layered Static
Visualisation

43. Narrative
Visualisation

44. Dashboard
Visualisation

45. Interactive
Visualisation

46. Tools

49. Data is just a clue to
the end truth
— Josh Smith

50. See the world
through a data lens

51. Aesthetics is deeply
associated with
emotions and
feelings
— Giorgio Lupi

52. Create beautiful
aesthetics

53. The data is just part
of the story.
— Jonathan Harris

54. Tell stories that
connect

55. Closing the Gap

57. Crafting Visual
Stories with Data
amitkaps.com

58. Amit Kapoor
@amitkaps