An introduction to data visualization

by Erin Dillon & Broc Kokesh
Adapted from materials from William Gearty

2025 Paleontological Society Short Course

Learning objectives

Why data visualization is important
Strategies for effectively visualizing data
How to create basic graph types in R
Example code to modify

Schedule

1:30 - 2:00 PM: Theory of data visualization

2:00 - 3:15 PM: Data visualization practical

Theory of data visualization

What is data visualization?
Picking a graph type
Basic design principles
Visualization in R

What is data visualization?

The representation of data through the use of graphs and figures.

Often the data are complex, but the representation should be approachable and easy-to-understand.

Let’s look at some examples

For example, here are some data:

(even this is a data visualization)

Let’s look at some examples

And here is a data visualization of that data: