Data Visualization Video Tutorials

Data visualization is the act of representing data findings in a visual format, such as through charts, graphs, or maps. Presenting visualized data findings can highlight the most critical insights in the data, allowing audience members to easily spot patterns, correlations, trends, and outliers of consequence. Watching video tutorials online is a popular method of learning data visualization. They provide an accessible, engaging way to learn more about visualizing data and can be watched from any location at any time. This article will cover a range of videos, including what they teach and where to find them.

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. 

Why Are Video Tutorials Helpful When Learning Data Visualization?

Video tutorials are an excellent resource for those who want to learn data visualization but may not be ready to commit to a course that meets regularly. The following are several reasons why this learning format is an excellent alternative to in-person or live online study:

• Studying data visualization can be costly, especially for certificate programs. Online video content is generally a much more affordable learning option. Some content is even offered for free from reputable educational providers. That’s why video tutorials can be a great learning alternative, especially for those new to visualizing data.
• If you’re a visual learner, data visualization videos are an effective way to study this field. They allow you to follow the video in real time and offer the flexibility of pausing at any point to take notes, rewind, or revisit difficult concepts. 
• Video tutorials are pre-recorded, which means they can be watched at any time of the day, any day of the week, and accessed from any location. This makes them a great learning option for those looking to balance data visualization study with other commitments, such as full-time work, family, or travel. 
• One of the benefits of studying data visualization through online video tutorials is that so many are available. Some are relatively short, which allows students to work on one concept before moving to another. Other videos are longer and more comprehensive and provide an overview of fundamental data visualization concepts and tools and how they fit into the larger field of data analytics.
• If you’re new to visualizing data, online video tutorials can be an excellent starting point in your learning journey. While it may be difficult to master more complex visualization techniques solely from online videos, they offer a low-stakes way to begin learning about this field.

Types of Data Visualization Videos

If you want to learn more about visualizing data, a great starting point is a free online video. Noble Desktop’s Get Started in Data Science webinar includes 80 minutes of instruction on how to use Python programming in data science. It also provides an overview of the field of data science and a description of the skills needed to be a Data Scientist. This beginner-friendly webinar is an excellent option for those who want to learn more about data science before diving into a class or certificate program.

In addition to Noble’s free data science webinar, other educational providers also offer online video content about data science, data analytics, and data visualization. Some video content is available in short form and spans only minutes, whereas other videos are more extended and contain a comprehensive overview of data visualization topics. Video content is free from some sources and is offered for a small fee or via other subscription platforms.

Visme Tutorials and Tips offers ten videos on various data visualization topics, such as creating an interactive map, adding content to tables, and adding charts and graphs to projects. In addition, Oracle Analytics currently has over 50 videos devoted exclusively to data visualization topics. LinkedIn Learning also provides Learning Data Visualization, which includes video content, two project files, and six quizzes. LinkedIn Learning also has Data Visualization Tips and Tricks, with more than two hours of industry-relevant instruction on the process of visualizing data.

Why Learn Data Visualization?

Learning to visualize data findings and present them in a way that’s accessible to different audience members is an in-demand skill across industries and professions. We live in an increasingly visual culture, and the human eye is naturally drawn to patterns and colors. Data visualization tools provide a way to engage audience members and communicate an important message at the same time. By seeing information depicted in colorful plots or charts, it’s easy to spout outliers and patterns, as well as to identify trends. This makes it possible for audience members to internalize data findings more easily.

Data visualization is considered to be a form of visual storytelling. It offers an interactive format in which professionals can easily share information, explore opportunities, and examine past patterns or relationships to make educated forecasts about what may transpire. Whether the data visualization is basic or complex, it helps audience members be on the same page regardless of their level of expertise or background working with big data. Because of how widespread data visualization is in every industry, it’s one of the most valuable skills you can have in your professional toolbelt. Those with the ability to tell compelling, engaging data-driven stories with their visualizations have the power to educate and even sway audience members with the insights they find.

Read more about why you should learn data visualization. 

How Difficult is It to Learn Data Visualization?

If you want to learn to visualize data, you may wonder how hard it is to create visualizations that convey data findings. The good news is that you can easily learn how to make basic data visualizations with practice and instruction. A lot of work goes into creating a professional-grade data visualization that properly balances various design elements to convey data results effectively. Just like learning a new language, the skills involved with creating compelling data visualizations can require learning new terms and principles and applying them to real-world information. 

Before learning to visualize data, you may consider learning several related skills to make the learning process easier and faster. First, it’s essential to understand the basics of data, such as how it’s stored, how to retrieve it, and how it’s analyzed. The more you know about data analysis, the easier it will be to visualize the results of the analytics process. In addition, another skill that can help you learn to visualize data faster is an understanding of basic design concepts. Effective data visualizations will convey significant data findings without too much text or information that overpowers the visual components. Reviewing core design concepts, such as color, contrast, white space, and visual flow, are just a few core design concepts that can help you create your own data visualizations.

Because data visualization is a broad category, many tools, platforms, and applications are available to help you analyze and visualize data. One of the most effective tools for data visualization is Tableau. If you are interested in using this visual analytics platform, Tableau Creator is available for $70/user/month. This package includes Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep Builder, and one Creator license for either Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server. In addition, a free trial of Tableau is also offered for those still deciding whether Tableau is the best option for their data visualization needs. In addition, Tableau Public is a free platform that helps those working with data create and share their data visualizations online. Tableau Public boasts the largest repository of data visualizations in existence. 

Read about how difficult it is to learn data visualization. 

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.