Assignment 3

Robin Camarote's "4 Great Resources for Presenting Your Data Creatively" list resources that can help inspire anyone who needs to create a data visualization. Each source contains sample charts/graphs/other visualizations that help fully convey how differently information can be displayed. The article, like the lecture, explains that people need visualization in order to fully understand the full scope of big data. While regular bar graphs are appropriate for some projects, creativity for visualizations can also be rewarding.

Another article on Forbes, "Big Data Needs More 'Creative Types'", explains that the data science field should be populated with creative, arty people. These people, whom the article refers to as "data artists" are able to combine knowledge about statistics and problem solving skills to successfully portray a story out of large amounts of data. In the lecture it was explained that some data visualizations are able to point out certain trends or inconsistencies more than others. Data artists are able to discern patterns from information in unconventional ways, that most people simply are unable to do.

Denise Lu's "7 Data Viz Sites to Inspire Your Creative Eye" features a list of sites that display interesting, out of the box, visual displays of data. Some sites put more of an emphasis on the asethetics they offer while others are optimal for different types of data. For example, "Chart Porn" is frequently used for political and financial graphics. The lecture gave examples of several measurements of data (gender, Twitter users, etc) out of the many possibilities. Knowing about as many visualizations as possible makes it easier to think up new ways to display a given data set.


Referenced articles:

http://www.inc.com/robin-camarote/look-smart-with-inspiration-from-these-top-4-data-visualization-sites.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/teradata/2015/01/30/big-data-needs-more-creative-types/

http://mashable.com/2013/10/01/data-viz-sites/#gkbjZh.qDuk_