Tutorials

I often follow the workflow below when designing static visualizations, both print and online:

1. I generate base graphics in programs such as FlourishiNZight, RAWgraphs, Data IllustratorQGIS, etc.
2. I export these as vector files, open them up in Illustrator, style them, and arrange the final compositions there.
3. Finally, I use ai2html to export the Illustrator file if I'm going to show it online. If it's a print project, I save it as a PDF.
4. If I use Flourish and the output is an interactive graphic, I do the styling and exporting in it.

This diagram summarizes this process, showing most of the tools I explain in my introductory courses (click to maximize):




The list below includes videos that I share with my students during the first few weeks of classes in our Journalism and Interactive Media programs at the University of Miami.

The videos I've recorded myself are in DropBox folders and they are not compressed. Why? Because I'm giving you permission to use them at will in your own classes. You decide whether to compress them for your own purposes or not.

I recommend not to play these DropBox videos in your browser, but to download them first to your computer. Then, if you have trouble opening them, try a player like VLC, which is safe and free.

WEEK 1
Excel data cleaning and Pivot Tables
Cleaning Data in Excel, by Maarten Lambrechts
Pivot Tables 1
Pivot Tables 2


WEEK 2
Wrangling data with Data Wrangler and Exploring data with visualizations in INZight
All videos and data are inside this folder. To read about the techniques I explain in them, read The Truthful Art, chapters 5-9.
Data Wrangler is an old but very simple tool that lets you transform data in wide format into long (or “tidy”) format.
INZight is a powerful and easy to use free tool for data discovery.


WEEK 3
Adobe Illustrator basics
Lesson 1: Basic skills
Lesson 2: Elementary shapes
Lesson 3: Compositions in Illustrator
Lesson 4: Charts and maps in Illustrator
Lesson 5: The pen tool
NOTE: If you want to learn more about Illustrator, consider purchasing my 12-hour tutorial.


WEEK 4
Data Illustrator
This tutorial is by Data Illustrator's co-creator John Thompson.
Data Illustrator is a tool that greatly expands on the charting capabilities of tools such as Adobe Illustrator.
All videos and data are in this folder.

WEEK 5
Flourish
Flourish is a tool to design both interactive and static data visualizations. It's quickly becoming one of my favorites. All the videos and data are inside this folder.

WEEK 6
RAWgraphs
RawGraphs is a wonderful tool that lets you create graphs and charts that you can later style in Illustrator or InkScape. Here is a tutorial designed by the RawGraphs team.

WEEK 7
Styling charts with Adobe Illustrator
After designing your charts with INZight or Raw, you should change their style to make them more elegant. Adobe Illustrator can help with that.
—Videos: 1, 2, 3, 4

WEEK 8
Using AI2HTML to export Adobe Illustrator infographics as HTML files
This tutorial is by Luís Melgar.
Download the files
—Videos: 1, 2, 3, 4

MORE VIDEOS COMING SOON


Other resources

—Transforming Adobe Illustrator files into HTML with Ai2html (read the documentation in the official website first) Videos: 1, 2, 3

—A great introduction to QGIS

My personal collection of R resources

My complete Illustrator video tutorial

More about Pivot Tables:
—Using Excel Pivot tables (Mac version): Six videos on YouTube and the data used
—See also this short explanation of Pivot Tables
—Another (longer) tutorial about Pivot Tables