Visual Analytics Fundamentals: Creating Compelling Data Narratives with Tableau

Master the Fundamentals of Modern Visual Analytics--and Craft Compelling Visual Narratives in Tableau!

Do you need to persuade or inform people? Do you have data? Then you need to master visual analytics and visual storytelling. Today, the #1 tool for telling visual stories with data is Tableau, and demand for Tableau skills is soaring. In Visual Analytics Fundamentals, renowned visual storyteller and analytics professor Lindy Ryan introduces all the fundamental visual analytics knowledge, cognitive and perceptual concepts, and hands-on Tableau techniques you'll need.

Ryan puts core analytics and visual concepts upfront, so you'll always know exactly what you're trying to accomplish and can apply this knowledge with any tool. Building on this foundation, she presents classroom-proven guided exercises for translating ideas into reality with Tableau 2022. You'll learn how to organize data and structure analysis with stories in mind, embrace exploration and visual discovery, and articulate your findings with rich data, well-curated visualizations, and skillfully crafted narrative frameworks. Ryan's insider tips take you far beyond the basics--and you'll rely on her expert checklists for years to come.

• Communicate more powerfully by applying scientific knowledge of the human brain
• Get started with the Tableau platform and Tableau Desktop 2022
• Connect data and quickly prepare it for analysis
• Ask questions that help you keep data firmly in context
• Choose the right charts, graphs, and maps for each project--and avoid the wrong ones
• Craft storyboards that reflect your message and audience
• Direct attention to what matters most
• Build data dashboards that guide people towards meaningful outcomes
• Master advanced visualizations, including timelines, Likert scales, and lollipop charts

This book has only one prerequisite: your desire to communicate insights from data in ways that are memorable and actionable. It's for executives and professionals sharing important results, students writing reports or presentations, teachers cultivating data literacy, journalists making sense of complex trends. . . . practically everyone! Don't even have Tableau? Download your free trial of Tableau Desktop and let's get started!

Lindy Ryan teaches visual analytics and data visualization in Rutgers' Professional Science Master's program. As Research Director for Radiant Advisors, she led work in data discovery, enablement, visualization, and visual analytics, and developed Radiant's Data Visualization Competency Center^TM methodology. Her books include The Visual Imperative and Visual Data Storytelling with Tableau (Addison-Wesley, 2018). A published novelist, screenwriter, and short-film director, her creative work has won numerous awards.