This beginner-friendly, tool-free course is for anyone who reads, creates, or presents charts and wants them to be clear, honest, and effective. Learn which chart type fits which kind of data, how to protect design integrity and avoid misleading your audience, and how to use color and visual encodings thoughtfully. No software or chart-building experience is required—just a basic understanding of data types (like the difference between numerical and categorical data). Ideal for newcomers, analysts, and communicators who want to make smarter decisions about how data is visualized.
Overview
Syllabus
- Course Introduction
- Get introduced to data visualization course structure, objectives, prerequisites, tools, and your instructors, Jayden Ziegler and Josh Bernhard.
- Introduction to Pie Charts
- Understand when pie charts work best for showing part-to-whole comparisons and recognize common pitfalls that make them less effective.
- Introduction to Bar and Column Charts
- Interpret and choose between bar and column charts to compare categorical data, understanding when to use grouped or stacked formats to highlight relationships and category differences.
- Introduction to Line and Area Charts
- Understand how line and area charts reveal trends over time, compare categories, and represent parts of a whole, while recognizing when these chart types are appropriate or potentially misleading.
- Introduction to Scatter Plots
- Interpret scatter plots to explore relationships between two numerical variables, assess correlation strength and direction, and spot clusters, trends, or outliers.
- Introduction to Histograms
- Learn how values are distributed across ranges, estimate variability, and spot outliers using histograms to interpret the shape and spread of numerical data.
- Data Visualization Design Integrity
- Apply design principles to make your data visualizations clear, effective, and trustworthy.
- Using Color and Additional Encodings
- Use color, shape, and size to highlight patterns, emphasize insights, and support accessible data communication.
- Course Review
- Review key chart types, data-visualization design principles, and skills for effectively interpreting, creating, and presenting trustworthy data visualizations.
Taught by
Jayden Ziegler
