Data Visualization

The inspiration for this Unit project is Mona Chalabi whose hand-illustrations – featured on her instagram – highlight important social, economic, gender, and race issues in the US and the world today. We’ll start by looking at her illustrations and then go a little deeper into the world of infographics – identifying the main types of data visualization so you can choose the best one to illustrate your point.

First we need to go with research. When beginning research on a social, economic, or cultural issue you may begin by going through the front door, looking at current news/events or through the back, looking at the raw materials. UNC’s library has lots of resources that you might find useful through the E-Research by Discipline link on the library homepage. But here are some categories you should target:

Statistics
Economics Data/Stats as well as Economic Literature
Business Resources
Maps
History Resources (American History, Life is a good one!)
Cultural Studies Resources
Anthropology Resources
Food studies Resources
Patents
NGram Viewer (words over time)

Infographics

Wire-Framing your Infographic Presentation

Tools

Adobe Suites: Illustrator, Photoshop : https://help.unc.edu/help/how-do-i-install-adobe-creative-cloud-applications/

For training on adobe suites, please use UNC’s subscription to LinkedIn Learning (you will have to sign in with onyen and password) and set up an account.

*Piktochart (longform/vertical infographics, free account with login)
Visual.ly  (pay)
*Canva (longform/vertical infographics, free account with login)
Easel.ly  (longform/vertical, square, horizontal infographics, free account with login)
Adobe Spark
Visme (longform/vertical, square, horizontal infographics, free account with login)

 

Vecteezy (vector graphics)
The Noun Project (icon graphics)

Online Tutorials: Lynda.com (via UNC ITS – it’s free!)