Being a Data Viz Consultant | Cara Thompson | Data Science Hangout

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We were recently joined by Cara Thompson, Data Visualization Consultant at Building Stories with Data, to chat about data visualization, consulting and niche specialization, working out loud, and her uniquely winding path to data visualization as a specialty.

In this Hangout, we explore all things data visualization. Cara emphasizes its role in helping data teams effectively communicate research outcomes, particularly assisting teams of specialists in communicating with a non-specialist audience. She sees the value in making viz understandable - not just making it pretty (though she's great at that part, too!). Cara advises sometimes starting the data visualization process with pen and paper before using digital tools. A common pitfall discussed is trying to include too much information in a single visualization, rather than focusing on what the user needs to see first.

Resources mentioned in the video and zoom chat:
🔗 Cara Thompson's LinkedIn →   / cararthompson  
🔗 Cara Thompson's Blog → https://www.cararthompson.com/posts
🔗 Tidy Tuesday GitHub Repo → https://github.com/rfordatascience/ti...
🔗 Data Visualization Catalogue → https://datavizcatalogue.com/
🔗 Data to Viz → https://www.data-to-viz.com/
🔗 Cecilia Baldoni's Shrew Scrollytelling Website → https://cecibaldoni.github.io/project...
🔗 Kinga Stryszowska-Hill, Ph.D.'s LinkedIn (mentioned for Canva use with plots) →   / kingashill  
🔗 Libby's Favorite Data Viz Palette Tool (by Susie Lu)→ https://projects.susielu.com/viz-pale...

If you didn’t join live, one great discussion you missed from the zoom chat was about... pie charts 🥧 While Cara mentioned they do have their place despite everyone loving to pick on them, the chat saw lively debate, including comments on their utility in specific niche fields like high-throughput chemistry, humorous links to examples of "bad" 3D pie scatterplots (?!), and also some general ambivalence about their use. Maybe not everyone hates pie charts? What do you think?

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