How to Learn more about data visualizations (and how to create your own)?

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Learn more about data visualizations (and how to create your own)


If you’re feeling inspired or want to learn more, there are tons of resources to tap into. Data visualization and data journalism are full of enthusiastic practitioners eager to share their tips, tricks, theory, and more.

Blogs about data visualization are a perfect place to start

See our list of great data visualization blogs full of examples, inspiration, and educational resources.

The experts who write books and teach classes about the theory behind data visualization also tend to keep blogs where they analyze the latest trends in the field and discuss new vizzes. Many will offer critique on modern graphics or write tutorials to create effective visualizations.

Others will collect many different data visualizations from around the web in order to highlight the most intriguing ones. Blogs are a great way to learn more about specific subsets of data visualization or to look for relatable inspiration from well-done projects.

Learn about historical examples and theory from books

Read our list of great books about data visualization theory and practice.

While blogs can keep up with the changing field of data visualization, books focus on where the theory stays constant. Humans have been trying to present data in a visual form throughout our entire existence. One of the earlier books about data visualization, originally published in 1983, set the stage for data visualization to come and still remains relevant to this day.

More current books still deal with theory and techniques, offering up timeless examples and practical tips. Some even take completed projects and present the visual graphics in book-form as an archival display.

There are loads of free courses and paid training programs

There are plenty of great paid and free courses and resources on data visualization out there, including right here on the Tableau website. There are videos, articles, and whitepapers for everyone from beginner to data rockstar. When it comes to third-party courses, however, we won’t provide specific suggestions in this article at this time.

A note on data visualization tools and software


There are dozens of tools for data visualization and data analysis. These range from simple to complex, from intuitive to obtuse. Not every tool is right for every person looking to learn visualization techniques, and not every tool can scale to industry or enterprise purposes. If you’d like to learn more about the options, feel free to read up here or dive into detailed third-party analysis like the Gartner Magic Quadrant.

Also, remember that good data visualization theory and skills will transcend specific tools and products. When you’re learning this skill, focus on best practices and explore your own personal style when it comes to visualizations and dashboards. Data visualization isn’t going away any time soon, so it’s important to build a foundation of analysis and storytelling and exploration that you can carry with you regardless of the tools or software you end up using.