Visualizing your data is a crucial component of research, as it allows you to verify, explore, and communicate your findings more effectively. This session teaches principles for effective data visualization, outlining easy-to-implement principles both for exploring data and for transforming data into charts and graphics that effectively communicate research findings.

This session is geared toward researchers looking to understand the principles behind effective visualizations. Researchers should be able to translate the concepts to the language or plotting tool of their choice.

Workshop format: Presentation and demo, with some optional interactive questions.

Target audience: This workshop is geared toward researchers looking to understand the principles behind effective visualizations and the mechanics of generating them.  The workshop is language agnostic and should be applicable to whatever plotting tools participants prefer to use.

Knowledge prerequisites: None, although some prior experience making research plots and struggling with the best ways to render information visually will likely make the session more valuable to participants.

Hardware/software prerequisites: Overarching requirements for all PICSciE virtual workshops are listed in this guide.  Participants should ensure they have met these requirements in advance, as THERE WILL BE NO TECHNICAL TROUBLESHOOTING DURING THE WORKSHOP ITSELF! 

Learning objectives: Participants will learn general guidelines for creating effective visuals (commonly referred to as charts, graphs, plots, etc.) and see some real-world examples of what does and doesn’t work.