Best Free Data Visualization Resources & Tutorials

Many professionals are out there eager to learn data visualization. However, some may hesitate because of the perceived up-front costs. Those working in the field of data visualization rely on different tools to illustrate and share data findings, such as Tableau and Excel, which range in price depending on the subscription type. However, several free resources are also available to help beginners get the hang of data visualization.

Read on to learn more about the different types of free resources and tutorials available to help with your data visualization study.

What is Data Visualization?

Data visualization uses graphics like plots, charts, or animations to represent data findings. These visual depictions communicate complicated data relationships in an accessible and engaging format and have a range of applications for sharing data-driven insights with an organization’s internal and external stakeholders. Because an estimated 65% of the population comprises visual learners, data visualization provides a way to quickly and effectively convey data findings. Even though data visualization takes many forms, it shares the common goal of communicating otherwise complex data insights in a memorable and understandable way, even for those who don’t come from a technical background.

Each day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are being created, which continues to grow exponentially. This increase in the amount of data has created a corresponding need for visualization practices to share the insights these numbers contain. Data visualization has a variety of uses across industries and professions. It has applications for describing trends or patterns hidden in data and communicating organizational structures or hierarchies. The data visualization process is typically broken into four purposes: to generate ideas, to illustrate concepts, to provide avenues into visual discovery, and to convey data in the form of visualizations.

Read more about what data visualization is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with Data Visualization?

Those with the skills to create engaging and effective data visualizations have the power to communicate detailed data insights and findings to audience members from all backgrounds. Data visualizations provide a concise and interactive way to depict data trends. Visualizations incorporate color and contrast to present information like sales patterns so that audience members can quickly observe information that may be difficult to see from a graph or spreadsheet. In addition, another benefit of working with data visualizations is that they can provide perspective on the data by placing it in the context of a larger story, which can help audience members understand the information as it relates to an organization’s overall goals or bottom line. Context plays an integral role in helping audiences understand the entirety of the data being depicted, which would be difficult to convey by listing numbers in a table.

Data visualization also provides a better understanding of a business’s operations. Running a business requires staying on top of many moving parts, and data visualizations provide a tool that can depict multifaceted operations and how different business activities connect. Moreover, analyzing and visualizing data provides insights into important business metrics that can lead to smoother daily operations and more successful project execution. For organizations that sell products or services to customers, data visualizations offer crucial insights into customers’ preferences, demographics, and shopping patterns. They provide a way for organizations to use customer-focused data to explore brand perception, customer sentiments, and even what customers post about the product or service on social media outlets. Businesses can then use these insights to tailor marketing strategies and brand outreach.

In addition to providing customer insights and depicting important trends in the data, visualizations also tell a story. Information is presented in an easy-to-understand format, and the audience is taken on a journey that leads to an inevitable, data-driven conclusion. Just like a written story, a visual story has a strong beginning, a basic plot, and an ending that looks into the future, providing recommendations for how to move forward. Instead of requiring tens of thousands of words to tell this story, data visualizations can do so with a series of well-placed infographics, carefully worded labels, and brief descriptions of the content, all of which tell the story of data in the larger context of an organization’s needs and goals. 

Free Online Data Visualization Resources

For those who want to study data visualization online but don’t want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to do so, the good news is that many excellent free online resources are available. You can select from pre-recorded webinars, YouTube videos, TED talks, online tutorials, and videos. The following is a list of some of the different learning options you may consider:

• Noble Desktop’s Blog & Learning Resources page provides a wealth of free information on data analytics, data science, and Tableau. These short, free articles are an excellent option for learners who want to explore different data visualization topics before enrolling in a course.
• Udemy offers a range of short videos on data visualization topics, such as Matplotlib Tutorial, Install Tableau Desktop, Introduction to Predictive Analytics Models, and Introduction to Time Series with Pandas. Each video is between three and nine minutes long.
• Simplilearn’s Introduction to Data Visualization is another great free resource. This nine-hour, self-paced class contains content on using ggplot2 to design customized plots. 
• YouTube content is another helpful resource for studying data visualization. Free videos are currently offered on a range of topics. A TED talk by David McCandless, The Beauty of Data Visualization, offers nearly 20 minutes of content about the importance of visualizing data. Additionally, Five Data Storytelling Tips to Improve Your Charts and Graphs is also on YouTube. This nine-minute video offers instruction on creating more interactive and engaging visualizations of data.
• If you’re interested in enrolling in a free data visualization course, Udacity’s Data Analysis and Visualization is an intermediate-level free online class in which participants work with R programming for statistical computing and visualization. Kaggle’s Data Visualization is also available. Participants in this four-hour, beginner-friendly class receive instruction on creating basic data visualizations like bar charts, line charts, heat maps, and scatter plots. 

Learn Data Visualization with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

If you’re interested in studying data visualization, Noble Desktop offers several in-person and live online courses that provide hands-on training. For those who wish to work with Tableau for visualizing data, Noble’s Tableau for Data Visualization Bootcamp is an excellent option. Participants receive an overview of the field of data visualization and learn about Tableau Public’s visualization tools. By course completion, students will have a solid understanding of identifying which datasets to connect to and how to analyze, filter, and organize data to make customized, publishable visualizations. This course also offers the option of a free retake for those interested in revisiting Tableau concepts. 

Noble’s in-person or live online Data Analytics Certificate is another good learning option for those seeking a more intensive study option. This rigorous program provides expert instruction on various data analytics concepts and prepares learners to become Business Analysts or Data Analysts. By course completion, all participants will be familiar with core business intelligence, statistical analysis, data analysis, and data visualization concepts. This is a project-based course in which students will complete various real-world projects using prescriptive and predictive analytics. All students receive one-on-one mentoring as part of tuition.

In addition, other in-person and live online data visualization courses are also available from Noble Desktop. Those who wish to learn the tools to become Data Scientists may consider enrolling in Noble’s Data Science Certificate, which covers machine learning, automation, SQL, and Python. A Python for Data Science Bootcamp covers fundamental and complex Python programming concepts, such as creating programs and using statistics to make machine learning models. 

The Excel Bootcamp is also available, which teaches core spreadsheet functions like working with macros, formulas, and PivotTables. Finally, those interested in working with SQL to extract information from databases can enroll in Noble’s SQL Bootcamp. This course prepares learners to write queries, aggregate data, and filter results using Postgre SQL.

Key Insights

• Data visualization is a powerful tool for communicating data findings that can be understood and accessed by audience members who don’t come from a technical background. 
• Those who know how to visualize data contribute significantly to their organization by presenting data findings that depict important patterns, correlations, and trends that may not be apparent simply by looking at datasets.
• In addition to paid video content on data visualization, free resources such as tutorials, TED talks, YouTube videos, and webinars are also available. 
• Noble Desktop offers in-person and live online data visualization courses if you want to learn more about how to visualize data.