Introducing FlowingData Membership. It was about five years ago when I got into visualization.
Before I actually made anything, I read books and guides that made suggestions and preached a handful of design principles, but when it was time to make a data graphic for publication, I didn't know what I was doing. Theory is great. Being able to apply it to your own data is better. Back then — which seems like forever but isn't actually that long ago — there weren't many practical tutorials or books on how to visualize data. Visualize This is the book I wish I had when I was starting out. Why Isn’t Data Visualization More Popular? Todd provides 5 reasons why data visualization isn't more prevalent: People don't know what data visualization is.Bad visualization has skewed perception of what data visualization is and what it can be used for.People can't interpret charts or new data representations.Visualization is difficult to create, but easy to copy.People won't pay for visualization.
While all the reasons do have some truth, there are a couple things worth adding. Build Interactive Time Series Charts with Filters. By Nathan Yau When you have several time series over many categories, it can be useful to show them separately rather than put it all in one graph.
This is one way to do it interactively with categorical filters. Become a FlowingData member, and get instant access to tutorials and resources. Membership.