Graphics

In this unit, you will learn how to add and modify basic plots,

Follow the links to each lecture, lab, and reading.

Scroll down to download the SWIRL lessons.

Lesson 1. Making basic plots

Learning Goals:

• Understand how people interpret graphics,
• Understand the default basic graph for certain data types,
• Be able to select and justify the choice of data presentation.

Lecture: Principles of graphic design

Demo: demo1

SWIRL: Plotting Data

Reading:

• Chart Chooser
• Bestiary of Graphics

Lab: Unit 5: lab 1

Functions:

Lesson 2. How to modify standard plots

Learning Goals:

• Understand principles of best practice in figure design,
• Modify default graphs,
• Search for help on advanced graphical parameters.

Lectures:

• Modifying plots
• Exporting graphics

Reading:

• Beyond Bar and Line Graphs: Time for a New Data Presentation Paradigm

SWIRL: Modifying default graphs

Exercises: Unit 5 Exercises

Lab: Unit 5: lab 2

Functions: plot(), par().

Lesson 3. How to add elements to plots

Learning Goals:

• Add elements to graphics (lines, text, symbols, labels, legends),
• Using different graphics devices,
• scaling figures

Lectures:

• Encoding values in points and lines, slides
• Adding elements to plots and organising plots in space

Reading:

• Stephen Few’s Graph Selection Matrix

SWIRL: Adding To Plots

Lab: Unit 5: Lab 3

Functions: abline(), text(), mtext(), points(), legend(), mfrow(), mfcol(),

Lesson 4. How to encoding values in graphics

Learning Goals:

• Use plot elements (colour, size, shape, etc) to encode values,
• Develop and use color palletes,

Lecture:

• Encoding values in color

Reading:

• Wilke 2019. Color basics
• Wilke 2019. Common pitfalls of color use

SWIRL: Plotting Colours

Lab: Unit 5: Recap

Functions: palette(), pdf(), png()

Further reading

Wilke, C. 2019. Fundamentals of Data Vizualization: A Primer on Making Informative and Compelling Figures

Healy, K. 2018. Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction

https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

Stephen Few’s books and blog