11 Innovative Data Visualizations you Should Learn (in Python, R, Tableau and D3.js)

They are one of the most engaging aspects of a presentation (if used correctly).

This visualization shows us how life expectancy has changed over the years in different continents plotted against the GDP per capita.

So much information packed into such a small space.

The package used to create the above visualization? gganimate! No surprise to see that the power of ggplot extends to yet another awesome visualization type.

You can check out our guide to building interactive plots in R: How I Built Animated Plots in R to Analyze my Fitness Data   Sankey Diagrams in R Intrigued? This is a classic example of a Sankey diagram.

It essentially shows the flow of information, where the width of the arrows is proportional to the flow quantity.

The above visualization shows the relevance of Facebook’s custom list advertising.

This visualization was created using the ggalluvial package in R.

It combines the style and flexibility of the original alluvial package with the power of the tidyverse.

The full code, which is just a few lines, can be found here.

  Data Visualization in Tableau “In good information visualization, there are no rules, no guidelines, no templates, no standard technologies, no stylebooks.

You must simply do what it takes.

” – Edward Tufte Edward Tufte is a pioneer in the field of data visualization.

I feel this quote really applies to the visualizations we generate using Tableau.

The plethora of features and customizations Tableau offers is almost unparalleled.

If you’re interested in getting started with Tableau, you’ve come to the right place! Here is a series of articles to help you transition from a Tableau beginner to an expert: Tableau for Beginners – Data Visualization Made Easy Intermediate Tableau Guide for Data Science and Business Intelligence Professionals A Step-by-Step Guide to learn Advanced Tableau   The World’s Largest Vote – India’s Elections Visualized This is a truly stunning visualization.

I have only taken one part of the full dashboard.

The scope of this visualization and the amount of data covered is staggering and really useful for anyone interested in this kind of analysis.

Each data point represents details about each seat, including the winner’s name, state, party, and constituency).

Look at how neat this visualization is, despite packing in a bucket load of information.

This is something we can all aspire to in our daily/weekly/monthly report, right?.Here is the full Tableau dashboard which you can download.

  Monitor Sales Performance using Tableau I wanted to include a real-world business dashboard.

If you’re struggling to visualize where you can use these visualizations in the real-world (use your imagination!), you should find this super useful.

This is an analysis of sales data to measure the distance from the original quota.

I especially liked the first horizontal tab which neatly summarized the key figures a client or stakeholder needs to know.

The full Tableau workbook contains five comprehensive dashboards that look at these sales figures from different perspectives.

I really feel you should use this as a reference if you work in the sales or marketing field.

  Film Genre Popularity – 1910-2018 I’m a big movie buff so this visualization instantly drew my attention on the Tableau public gallery.

Keep in mind that this is the popularity of film genres over time.

Each genre has a different axis range hence look at them from that lens (rather than a one versus one comparison).

What stood out for me is that you can consider this as a dashboard with multiple data points presented.

Can you think of a similar use case in your professional life where such a dashboard would come in handy?.You can download the entire worksheet and play around with it in Tableau.

  Data Visualization in D3.

js If you want to create jaw-dropping animated visualizations, D3.

js should be your go-to tool.

It is a powerful library that enables you to build customized visualizations for any kind of storytelling you could imagine for the web.

This section is perhaps my favorite out of the four we have covered in this article.

You should strongly consider adding D3.

js to your skillset, especially if you want to work with data visualization regularly.

Here are two popular articles on how to get started with D3.

js: Beginner’s guide to building data visualizations on the web with D3.

js How to create jaw-dropping Data Visualizations on the web with D3.

js?.  Concept Map – Relationship Between Concepts I use a concept map quite often.

I can easily depict relationships between different concepts or knowledge points.

As Wikipedia says, “A concept map typically represents ideas and information as boxes or circles, which it connects with labeled arrows in a downward-branching hierarchical structure”.

You’ll find it useful for mapping business decisions, process flow diagrams, information design, knowledge visualization, among other things.

It’s an under-rated yet useful tool to have in your arsenal.

This concept map is very interactive and you can play around with the different nodes as well.

  Sequences Sunburst Visualization in D3.

js Ah, brilliant!.This visualization shows how to use the sunburst concept with data that describes the sequence of events.

Think about it – you can visualize your customer’s journey using this.

Instead of a static funnel, you can see all possible paths using this visualization.

Your marketing team will love you for implementing this.

????.The full D3.

js code to generate this sunburst of sequences is here.

  Visualizing the Interaction Between Game of Thrones Characters Are you a Game of Thrones fan?.Then you’ll love this visualization.

It represents the influence of each character based on the number of times his/her interaction has come up in the “A Storm of Swords” book.

Note that the nodes represent the characters and the links the interaction between them.

The size of the node and name represents the influence of the character.

No surprise to see Tyrion having the biggest influence, is there?.You can build your own Game of Thrones visualization using this tutorial.

  Data Visualization in Python We often think of Python as the ultimate programming language for data science.

We associate it with cleaning data, building predictive models, and even certain data engineering tasks.

But did you know that Python is actually pretty useful for generating data visualizations?.That’s right – Python comes with two exclusive libraries for visualization – matplotlib and seaborn.

You can check out this article to know more about these libraries and see them in action.

9 Popular Ways to Perform Data Visualization in Python   A Geologic Map of Mars This visualization is a thing of beauty.

I came across this geologic map of Mars a few days back and I’m still astonished that this was created in Python (with a bit of help from Adobe Illustrator).

Amazing!.The Python libraries used to create this wonderful visualization are: Matplotlib NumPy Pandas Cartopy If the font is too small to read or you want to print this out as a poster – get the full high-resolution image here.

And you can get the Python code for this visualization here.

The GitHub repository has the complete tutorial to get you started.

  Plotting Geostationary Satellites in Python https://s3-ap-south-1.

amazonaws.

com/av-blog-media/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/geo_python_visualization.

mp4     I’m fascinated by the research our data science community is doing on satellite data.

We’ve seen new planets being discovered, ground-level images being recreated, NASA predicting earthquakes, among other things.

The PyEphem package was used to create this impressive plot in Python.

PyEphem basically lets us implement astronomical algorithms in Python.

Quite a handful of data science enthusiasts tried their hand on plotting this visualization and you can find all the resources here.

  End Notes I had a lot of fun putting this list together.

I work mostly with R and Tableau so it was eye-opening to see the kind of visualizations we can generate using D3.

js.

I’m definitely going to try my hand there.

Are there any visualizations you’ve come across that blew your mind?.Go ahead and share them with us in the comments section below.

This is the best place to get creative and learn from the community!.You can also read this article on Analytics Vidhyas Android APP Share this:Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Related Articles (adsbygoogle = window.

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