Section 4 Visualization

In this section, we discuss a set of tools for data visualization in R.

Goals of data visualization

• Communicate information
  • Transparently (show me the data!)
  • Quickly
  • Simply
  • Accurately
  • And with a little work: beautifully

There are many resources for ideas and best practices for data visualization. See here and here.

We will cover many types of visuals, each typically designed for a different purpose.

What to communicate?

• Data summary
  • Central tendency (e.g., mean, median)
  • Spread (e.g., standard deviation, IQR)
• Comparison
  • e.g., Callback rates for black vs. white sounding names
• Trend
  • e.g., Economic confidence over time
• Relationship
  • e.g., Correlation