Data Visualization

Outline

• Basic points
• Graphs
  • Excel
  • Matlab
  • R/Mathematica/Python
  • Other third party data
  • Tableau?
• Tables
• CAE/CFD
• 4D Data
• Other
  • Circle things on pictures

Basic Points

• Show what is hard to tell
• Easy to read
• Obvious point
• Print vs Digital
  • Print is smaller, colors come out worse, lines not as crisp
  • If in journal... expect no colors, extremely small

Graphs

• most common form of data visualization
• Pls no grid lines if possible
  • Tick marks
  • Colors
  • Leader lines
• Pls no legend
  • Direct Labels
  • Leader lines
• Lines not pencil thin
• Scatter plots most common
  • Considered bad form to use lines to connect discrete data points
  • Use trendline sparingly, only when r2 or slope is point of the graph

Excel

• Easiest to input raw data
• Extremely easy to make it not look like dookie
• Excel likes to make text grey, fine on computer, bad in print
• Default blue is hard to read in print, also kinda ugly color
• Not good at showing 3d data, forget 4d
  • Can be done with some creativity or plug ins
• Google Sheets not as powerful, can look fancier

First steps

• Get rid of grid lines
• Set axes properly
• (Recommended) Change color from default blue to black

Matlab

• Requires some programming experience
• Slightly harder to import data than excel

Data Acquisition