declutter your data visualizations

When I was a little girl, I used to get in trouble for cleaning my room. Check out the following video to find out why and learn why clutter in data visualization is a bad thing and how to avoid it. Specifically, I'll cover five tips and examples from my book, storytelling with data: 

1. Leverage how people see
2. Employ visual order
3. Create clear contrast
4. Don't over-complicate
5. Strip down & build up

This is a slightly modified version of the talk I've been giving on my Bay Area book tour at companies like LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Dropbox, Tesla, Airbnb, and Evernote. Post any related questions in the comment section and I will respond. I hope you enjoy!

my @Google talk

I'm super excited that Google was my first stop to talk about my new book, Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals. Check out the following video, where I highlight a couple lessons from the book and tackle audience Q&A. Big thanks to Tina and Davey for moderating!

being clever with color

Quick announcement: I'll be doing just one more public storytelling with data workshop in 2015, which will be in Chicago in mid-October and still has a few open spots. Details and registration can be found here.

I've recently given a short presentation covering considerations when it comes to the use of color in communicating with data (earlier this week, for Chartio, and last week at the Seattle DataVis meet up). In it, I cover 7 brief lessons:

1. Color grabs attention
2. Color can signal where to look
3. Color should be used sparingly
4. Color can carry quantitative value
5. Color carries tone and meaning
6. Not everyone sees color
7. Color should be used consistently

For each of these lessons, I talk about some specific strategies and look at a number of real-world examples. In order to bring this content to a wider audience, I recorded it, and you can view it here:

Leave a comment to let me know if you're interested in seeing more video content like this in the future.

The lessons covered here and much, much more can also be found in my forthcoming book, storytelling with data: a data visualization guide for business professionals, available for pre-order on Amazon today.

things change when you have children

I just watched a video of a short chat between Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds about creativity and story. In it, Garr talks briefly about how having children has influenced his view and approach: "Things change when you have children."

Yes, they do.

And will continue to for me, as my husband and I are excitedly expecting baby #2 this summer!

(When you've got one who is this cute, how can you help but do it again?!?)