330 Weeks of Data Visualizations: My Journey and Key Takeaways
I have been making one visualization weekly since I started my full-time data science job in 2018. Now, over 330 weeks later, I consider this an achievement I'm truly proud of. During coffee chats, people often ask me about it, which inspired me to write this article and share my journey and key takeaways.
I will cover how I got started, how to find datasets to visualize, how to choose the right visualization tools, what I've learned, and tips for aspiring data visualizers.
How Did I Get Started
When I began my first full-time job, my mentor, a Tableau guru, introduced me to the MakeOverMonday project.
Welcome to Makeover Monday!
Makeover Monday is your weekly learning and development appointment with yourself and hundreds of passionate data people. For free!
Join us every Monday to work with a given data set and create better, more effective visualizations and help us make information more accessible.
The Makeover Monday community comes together every week from around the globe and we would love for YOU to become part of it, too.
It's an amazing community, and I can't recommend it enough if you're looking for Tableau data visualization inspiration.
Since then, I've dedicated one hour every Monday to visualizing the dataset posted on MakeOverMonday. I publish my visualizations on Tableau Public and write a short blog post with data insights.
How to Find Datasets to Visualize
Initially, I followed the datasets posted weekly by MakeOverMonday. However, the project paused for a year in September 2021. Running the community weekly is a huge commitment, so I completely understand the need for a break. Therefore, starting in October 2021, I began finding my own datasets to visualize every week.
I soon realized finding a "visualizable" dataset each week can be challenging. Sometimes, I spend more than an hour searching for a dataset but only 15 minutes creating the actual visualization – I try to limit the visualization time to be within 30 minutes to make it more sustainable. Here are some approaches I adopted to find datasets:
1. Datasets related to my personal interests or experiences: My visualization ideas often stem from my interests or experiences. When I have a specific data question in mind, I search for relevant datasets online – data mining is also an important Data Science skill
