Preface

There is magic in graphs. The profile of a curve reveals in a flash a whole situation — the life history of an epidemic, a panic, or an era of prosperity. The curve informs the mind, awakens the imagination, convinces. – Henry D. Hubbard

Above all else, show the data. – Edward Tufte

We cannot just look at a country by looking at charts, graphs, and modeling the economy. Behind the numbers there are people. - Christine Lagarde

0.1 Why this book?

There are many books on data visualization using R. So why another one? I am trying to achieve five goals with this book.

  1. Help identify the most appropriate graph for a given situation. With the plethora of graphs types available, some guidance is required when choosing a graph for a given problem. I’ve tried to provide that guidance here.

  2. Allow easy access to these graphs. The graphs in this book are presented in cookbook fashion. Basic graphs are demonstrated first, followed by more attractive and customized versions.

  3. Expand the breadth of visualizations available. There are many more types of graphs than we typically see in reports and blogs. They can be helpful, intuitive and compelling. I’ve tried to include many of them here.

  4. Help you customize any graph to meet your needs. Basic graphs are easy but highly customized graphs can take some work. This book provides the neccessary details for modifying axes, shapes, colors, fonts, annotations, formats, and more. You can make your graph look exactly as you wish.

  5. Offer suggestions for best practices. There is an ethical obligation to convey information clearly, and with as little distortion or obfuscation as possible. I hope this book helps support that goal.

0.2 Acknowledgements

[Acknowledgements to CRC employees will go here]

There are two other people I would like to thank. The first person is Manolis Kaparakis, Director of the Quantitative Analysis Center at Wesleyan University and ostensibly my boss. He has always strived to empower me and help me feel valued and appreciated. He is simply the best boss I’ve ever had. We should all be so lucky.

The second person is really the first person in all things. It was my idea to write this book. It was my wife Carol Lynn’s idea to finish the book. Her love and support knows no bounds and this book is a statistician’s version of PDA. How did I get so lucky?

0.3 Supporting website

Supplementary materials (including all the code and datasets used this book) are available on the support website, http://www.github.com/rkabacoff/datavis_support.