Data Visualization: Charts, Maps, and Interactive Graphics (ASA-CRC Series on Statistical Reasoning in Science and Society) - Softcover

Grant, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1138707600 ISBN 13: 9781138707603

Publisher: Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2018

Synopsis

This is the age of data. There are more innovations and more opportunities for interesting work with data than ever before, but there is also an overwhelming amount of quantitative information being published every day. Data visualisation has become big business, because communication is the difference between success and failure, no matter how clever the analysis may have been. The ability to visualize data is now a skill in demand across business, government, NGOs and academia.

Data Visualization: Charts, Maps, and Interactive Graphics gives an overview of a wide range of techniques and challenges, while staying accessible to anyone interested in working with and understanding data.

Features:

• Focusses on concepts and ways of thinking about data rather than algebra or computer code.
• Features 17 short chapters that can be read in one sitting.
• Includes chapters on big data, statistical and machine learning models, visual perception, high-dimensional data, and maps and geographic data.
• Contains more than 125 visualizations, most created by the author.
• Supported by a website with all code for creating the visualizations, further reading, datasets and practical advice on crafting the images.

Whether you are a student considering a career in data science, an analyst who wants to learn more about visualization, or the manager of a team working with data, this book will introduce you to a broad range of data visualization methods.

Cover image: Landscape of Change uses data about sea level rise, glacier volume decline, increasing global temperatures, and the increasing use of fossil fuels. These data lines compose a landscape shaped by the changing climate, a world in which we are now living. Copyright © Jill Pelto (jillpelto.com).

About this title

About the Author

Robert Grant is a British statistician specialising in data visualization and Bayesian models. He worked in biomedical research and taught statistics at St George's Medical School, Kingston University, the Royal College of Physicians of London, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence before launching his own training and coaching business, BayesCamp, in 2017.

Review

"Excellent!"
–Andrew Gelman

"In [this book], Professor Grant gives an overview of a wide range of techniques and challenges, while staying accessible to anyone interested in working with and understanding data. [It] includes chapters on big data, statistical and machine learning models, visual perception, high-dimensional data, and maps and geographic data; Contains more than 125 visualizations, most of which were created by Professor Grant; And is supported by a website with all code for creating the visualizations, further reading, datasets and practical advice on crafting the images. ... [This book] is especially recommended reading for students considering a career in data science, analysts who wants to learn more about visualization, and managers of teams working with data. Introducing a broad range of data visualization methods, [this] is a valued and unreservedly recommended addition to college and university library collections."
– Micah Andrew, Reviewer, Midwest Book Review, January 2019

"... Data visualization is a very useful tool for this, but only when used well. That is what this book offers: visualization techniques, a link with statistics, principles for designing a good visualization, and lots of examples. The author aims to teach a way to design graphics that have an impact. The author is a statistician and this is reflected in the way he approaches the topics: for example, there is no display of error bars without explaining what they represent .... Examples are the backbone of the book, each chapter has one or more visualizations to compare what the advantages are to present data a certain way ... without forgetting the reasoning behind it, whether it be statistical or visual). This makes the book very readable and appealing."
―Thibaut Cuvelier, Developpez.com, June 2019

Edition details

• Publisher: Chapman and Hall/CRC
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1138707600
• ISBN 13: 9781138707603
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248