Data visualization resources: all the links you'll ever need!
Data visualization: all the resources you'll ever need!
You want to start creating clear and attractive data visuals, but don’t know where to start? No worries, here’s a complete overview of tools, resources and inspiration you can use as a starting point for your designs.
Presentation
Doctoral Schools – Turning research data into powerful visuals:
- Download the slides for session 1 (pdf, 25.5 MB)
- Download the slides for session 2
- Download the slides for session 3
Finding useful datasets
- Google Dataset Search: datasetsearch.research.google.com
- Kaggle: kaggle.com
- data.world: data.world datasets
- Or read our blogpost: Small datasets to practice your data visualization skills
Inspiration for data visualization
- Information is Beautiful: informationisbeautiful.net
- Information is Beautiful awards: informationisbeautifulawards.com
- Visual.ly: visual.ly/view
- Pinterest: pinterest.com
- Dear data: dear-data.com
Digital tools to create infographics and data visuals
- Canva: canva.com
- Infogram: infogram.com
- Piktochart: piktochart.com
- Visme: visme.co
- Venngage Infographic maker and Graph maker
- Whimsical: whimsical.com
- Adobe Illustrator: adobe.com
- Affinity Designer: affinity.serif.com
- Flowchart tool: draw.io
- BioRender (like Canva, but specifically for life sciences): biorender.com
- List of dataviz tools: creativebloq.com/design-tools/data-visualization
- ggplot2 cheat sheet: https://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/UG/SM/STAT3022/r/current/Misc/data-visualization-2.1.pdf
Illustrations and icons
- Freepik: freepik.com
- The noun project: thenounproject.com
Colour schemes
- Adobe Color CC: color.adobe.com
- Coolors.co: coolors.co
- Pictaculous: digitalinspiration.com/color-palette-generator
- Website color schemes: canva.com/learn/website-color-schemes
- 100 brilliant color combinations: canva.com/learn/100-color-combinations
- Article: Your friendly guide to colors in data visualisation
Typography
- Dafont: dafont.com
- Google Fonts: fonts.google.com
- FontSquirrel font identifier: fontsquirrel.com/matcherator
- Font Pairing: fontpair.co
Creating graphs
- Dataviz catalogue: datavizcatalogue.com
- Choose and design the perfect chart: chart.guide
- Choosing the right chart: infogram.com/page/choose-the-right-chart-data-visualization
- The Chartmaker Directory: chartmaker.visualisingdata.com
- The Data Viz Project: datavizproject.com
- Datawrapper: datawrapper.de
- Flourish: flourish.studio
- LocalFocus: localfocus.nl
- D3.js: d3js.org
Creating maps
- Snazzy maps (Google maps styles): snazzymaps.com
- Mapbox: mapbox.com
- Mapme: mapme.com/stories
- Datawrapper: datawrapper.de
- Leaflet JavaScript Library: leafletjs.com
- 3D maps with QGIS and Aerialod: statsmapsnpix.com
- Read our blogpost: Behind the maps
Creating tables
- The Ultimate Guide to Designing Data Tables
- Table inspiration: fivethirtyeight.com
Ethics in data visualization
- Dealing with outliers: https://flowingdata.com/2018/03/07/visualizing-outliers/
- Visualizing projections and missing data: https://flowingdata.com/2018/01/30/visualizing-incomplete-and-missing-data/
- Spurious correlations: https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
- About dynamite plots: http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/wiki/Main/DynamitePlots
- Alternatives to box plots: https://nightingaledvs.com/ive-stopped-using-box-plots-should-you/
- Visualizing the uncertainty in data (Flowing Data): https://flowingdata.com/2018/01/08/visualizing-the-uncertainty-in-data/
- Visualizing uncertainty (Claus Wilke): https://clauswilke.com/dataviz/visualizing-uncertainty.html
Books about infographics and data visualization
- Data visualisation, Andy Kirk
- Dear Data, Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec
- Information graphics, Taschen
- Infographic designers’ sketchbooks, Steven Heller & Rick Landers
- Storytelling with data, Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
- The visual display of quantitative information, Edward Tufte
- Trees, maps and theorems, Jean-Luc Doumont
- Visual journalism, Gestalten
- Visual thinking, Willemien Brand
People on Twitter talking about data
- Twitter list: Dataviz world leaders
Videos about data visualization
- The beauty of data visualization (David McCandless)
- Journalism in the age of data (Geoff McGhee)
- Datafest Tbilisi (dozens of free talks)
- Outlier 2021 (62 free talks)
Dataviz blogs and online magazines
- Chartable (by the Datawrapper team)
- Cool Infographics (Randy Krum)
- Flowing Data (Nathan Yau)
- Infographics for the People (John Grimwade)
- The Information is Beautiful blog (David McCandless)
- Junk Charts (Kaiser Fung)
- Nightingale (by the Data Visualization Society)
- The Storytelling with Data blog (Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic)
- The Visme blog on infographics
- Visualising Data (Andy Kirk)
Dataviz podcasts
Read more:
Gridlines are better than axes
Almost always, gridlines are better than axes. Vertical axes are the default option, and they have been around for centuries, so they are very well known. But they also have downsides. My biggest problem with vertical axes is that they’re often so far away from where the action is really happening.
Review: A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication
Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer clearly love graphs. But A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication isn’t just about graphs — it’s about the stories behind them: the context, the people, the new measurements that made them necessary, and the discoveries they enabled.
Report visuals don’t have to suck
Discover how CREG, Belgium’s electricity regulator, turns complex data into clear and engaging visuals. From smart annotations to small multiples and uncommon chart types, their Monitoring Report shows how thoughtful data visualization makes technical reports easier to read and understand.
Data visualization podcasts 2025
At Baryon, we’re huge fans of podcasts! Data visualization podcasts are a great way to stay up to date on the latest trends and techniques in data visualization.
Tell me why… I don’t like dashboards
I don't like dashboards. Well, most dashboards at least. They're just trying too hard... to do everything, everywhere, all at once. Why is that? And is there a better solution?
Why I love matrix charts
This one is definitely in my top 5 of favourite chart types: a matrix chart! Super flexible, can provide some great insights into the data, and it will fit well into your beautiful report design.
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