Partners and Clients
Let Your Data Speak.
Join us in the pursuit of effective data communication. Explore tutorials, learn best practices, and review graph remakes; listen to top minds in the fields of data, data visualization, and presentation skills on The PolicyViz Podcast; and interact with the community in HelpMeViz.
Books
My latest book details essential strategies to create more effective data visualizations. I walk readers through the steps of creating better graphs and how to move beyond the simple line, bar, and pie charts. Through more than five hundred examples, I demonstrate the do’s and don’ts of data visualization, the principles of visual perception, and how to make subjective style decisions around a chart’s design. I survey more than eighty visualization types, from histograms to horizon charts, ridgeline plots to choropleth maps, and explain how each has its place in the visual toolkit.
It might seem intimidating, but everyone can learn how to create compelling, effective data visualizations. This book will guide you as you define your audience and goals, choose the graph that best fits for your data, and clearly communicate your message.
Data Visualization in Excel
- This is the first book available on the market that shows people how to create more advanced data visualizations in the Excel software tool. It provides step-by-step instructions and downloadable Excel files, that readers can use to expand how they use Excel and communicate their data to their audiences.
- Through how-to tutorials for more than 20 advanced graph types, readers will move beyond the standard area, bar, line, and pie charts to heatmaps, waffle charts, dot plots, slope charts, cycle plots, and more.
- Visit the CRC Press website to download accompanying, editable Excel files.
Better Data Visualizations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks
- Learn about principles of visual perception and data visualization best practices.
- Expand your graphic literacy by learning about more than 80 different visualization types
- Learn how to define your audience and goals, and choose the chart, graph, or diagram that best fits for your data.
Elevate the Debate: A Multilayered Guide to Communicating Your Research
- This book helps researchers, analysts, and scholars to use traditional and digital media environments to their advantage.
- Real-world guide helps readers present their data-driven research with greater clarity, coherence, and impact.
- An array of practical strategies and proven techniques enables readers to make their research accessible to diverse audiences, form engaging narratives, and design and implement meaningful outreach plans.
Podcasts
Episode #239: Micah McCurdy
Micah is a mathematician who likes to use pictures to understand things. He runs a website, hockeyviz.com, where he stores pictures about hockey. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia with his wife and his two children. Episode Notes Micah | Twitter | Site Bubble…
Episode #238: Jeremy Ney
Jeremy is the author of American Inequality, a biweekly newsletter that uses data visualization to highlight U.S. inequality topics and to drive change in communities. His work has been published in TIME, Bloomberg, and the LA Times. He was a…
Episode #237: Tristan Guillevin
Tristan is a Data Visualization Freelancer who likes to combine different techniques to find the best way to represent data. He regularly creates tools and videos to help people build their next projects or level up their skills. Tristan is the 2017 Iron Viz…
Episode #236: Gabrielle Ione Hickmon
Gabrielle Ione Hickmon (b. 1994) is a Black woman from a middle place—Ypsilanti, MI. Her lab is a place where clay and words meet. She is interested in body memory, waiting rooms, layovers, circles, Black imaginaries, and ocular proof. Her…
Workshops
I offer virtual and on-site half-, full-, and multi-day workshops in data visualization, presentation skills, and data visualization tools including Excel, PowerBI, R, and Tableau. Workshop attendees will expand their graphic literacy and learn best practices to create more effective graphs and data visualizations. They will also gain knowledge about what types of visualizations work best for their audience and why. I will also work with your current visualization projects and suggest redesigns that will illustrate what better data visualization means for you and your content.
I bring my experience as a Ph.D. economist to your data. We will not only explore how to communicate your work but can also explore the statistical underpinnings–the theoretic. Beyond an ordinary workshop, I also offer project-specific consulting services to help you and your teamwork better with your data and create more effective graphs, interactive visualizations, infographics, and more.
Public Workshops
Check out my public data visualization and presentation workshops, held around the world at various times during the year! More details on this page.
Virtual Webinars
Many of my standard workshop and speaking topics can be easily adapted to a webinar format. Webinars are typically limited to 60- to 90-minutes and include a combination of polls, chats, and interactive exercises.
Core Principles of Data Visualization
The study of data visualization—the visual representation of data—plays a crucial role in the work of researchers and analysts. Organizations tasked with producing, releasing, and analyzing large amounts of data can more effectively analyze and communicate their work by understanding how to better visualize their data. Often, however, visualizing results comes as a last-second addition to the output and secondary to the analysis, which ultimately limits the effective relay of information.
Introduction to Presentation Design and Techniques
Most people who work with data approach the task of presenting analysis by converting a written document into slides. Unfortunately, the result is often a text-heavy presentation saddled with bullet points, stock images, and graphs too complex for an audience to decipher―much less understand.
Effective Data Communication in Excel
In this hands-on workshop, we explore how to expand the data visualization capacities of the Microsoft Excel software tool. Though there are more and more tools available to analyze and visualize data, Excel continues to be the leader in the field, used by millions around the world every day.
Speaking Topics
I would love to speak at your event. My customizable presentations aim to help you and your teams process, visualize, present, and communicate your data. Most presentations are about 40 minutes with additional time reserved for Q&A and discussion.
I also offer shorter presentations, workshops; breakout sessions; and panel presentations. I can tailor my presentations and workshops to the needs of your organization and event. I am flexible in working with your presentation equipment and set-up; please contact me to discuss the details. I am also available for virtual presentations, workshops, and webinars–all are designed with the restrictions technology brings and the comfort of the audience in mind.
Please see below for more information about the topics I can cover for your organization, or contact me to discuss your speaking needs. My Portfolio includes some recent presentations and some videos to see me in action.
Data Visualization Done Differently
The data visualization field combines data analysis, graphic design, journalism, and statistics and aims to help analysts in a variety of fields provide their audience with greater insights into their research or products. In this presentation, I lay the groundwork for how to use data visualization to more effectively communicate.
Better Data Communication
A first step to improving the way you communicate data and analysis is to have some basic understanding of best practices and strategies. In this talk, I lay out three principles for better data visualization
Better Presentations
When faced with the prospect of giving a presentation, researchers and analysts often simply convert their reports to slides: text is converted to bullets, and figures and tables are simply copied and pasted. The problem with that approach is that presentations are a fundamentally different form of communication than are reports or journal articles.
Data Currency — Unlocking Value With Visualization
Most organizations recognize the innate value of data, and are beginning to trade in its powerful currency. But this has not wholly erased the challenges data and analytics leaders face when trying to illustrate how data can unlock potential business value. Enter data visualization.
Once Upon a Time: From Data to Stories
The word “stories” has become synonymous with visualizing and presenting data. But contrary to what most people actually mean, most of us do not tell stories when we visualize data. In this talk, I investigate how we define storytelling and contrast it with a definition of storytelling to demonstrate how most of us are not really telling stories with data.
Details and Logistics
My presentations are usually 35-45 minutes with additional time for Q&A and discussion. I also offer shorter presentations, half-, full-, and multi-day workshops; breakout sessions; and panel presentations. I often tailor my presentations to the needs of your organization and event. I am flexible in working with your presentation equipment and set-up; please contact me to discuss the details.
Past Speaking Events
I have enjoyed presenting to many audiences on each of these topics. Please take a look at a few examples from my Portfolio or see Testimonials.
Consulting Services
I can help you create effective and stunning data visualizations, reports, and slide decks. I leverage my expertise in data visualization and presentation skills to help you communicate your data in better ways. With my background in economics, I can help explore your data to help pull out insights and discoveries, be it through descriptive statistics or more complicated modeling. I have worked with people and organizations across multiple sectors to help them create visualization products and presentation slide decks that will help you and your reader or audience find insights and make discoveries.
My Expertise
Data Visualization
Create better, more effective graphs, charts, and tables.
Infographics
Help develop and build economic models to reach solutions and gain insights.
Reports
Let me help you develop, lay out, and design your next paper, report, issue brief, or blog post.
Presentation Slides
I can help you and your teams create better, more effective presentation slides.
About the Founder
Jonathan Schwabish
My name is Jonathan Schwabish. I’m an economist by training, but over the last 10 years, I’ve worked hard to communicate my research in better ways and to help others do the same. Here on my site, I share blog posts and tutorials, the popular PolicyViz Podcast, and my collaboration site HelpMeViz. Through each of these, I am interested in helping others do a better job communicating their data. I also offer teaching, speaking, and consulting services to reach beyond what I can offer on my website.
Testimonials
Your presentation was terrific! I heard many favorable comments about your lecture, and I am confident that it will attract a substantial audience when we post it on the NBER website later this summer. I really appreciate the time and energy that you devoted to preparing your lecture.
James Poterba
Jon’s workshop was really good, honestly! I consider myself quite advanced on the topic and have attended many “Visualization” workshops in the past that did not teach me much. This one really allowed me to raise my level and I will be using those templates and scripts very soon!
Yves Froude
The workshop was perfect. I loved the workshop aspect and the comprehensive educational approach to get us to gain the understanding to then be able to practice.
Andrea Mauro
I speak for all of my colleagues here at the U.S. Department of State in expressing our gratitude to you for a most engaging presentation at our agency’s monthly Evaluation Community of Practice meeting. Before and after the presentation, the staff was excited about getting insights on the power of data visualization in both processing and presenting data, such as evaluation information, to various stakeholders. We very much appreciate you giving us your time and insights, as well as links to additional resources and information. The use of data visualization techniques is a burgeoning field in federal agencies, so your remarks and accompanying materials will help move us further along the continuum of presenting data in visually appealing and informative ways.
Stephanie Cabell
Featured Products
Data Visualization Catalog
My collection of nearly 1,000 graphs, charts, tables, and diagrams I use as inspiration in my own work and when I teach data visualization. These real examples are helpful in a variety of ways: to demonstrate the wide variety of graphic types; to show variations in typography, color, tool, platform, and design; and to discuss how to implement perceptual rules to draw and direct attention. This interactive table enables you to sort, filter, search, and download different visualizations to help you on your way to being a better data communicator.
Workshops
Learn more about the various training workshops I offer, from core principles of data visualization and presentation skills to design to different tools like Excel, R, and Tableau. All of the workshops can be customized for in-person or online, time, and content specific to your team and organization.
HelpMeViz
The project is open to anyone who is searching for feedback on their visualization designs, from seasoned designers and data visualization specialists to individual analysts searching to improve their graphic displays. All types of visualizations are welcome: simple, single line or bar charts to full-blown infographics to interactive visualizations.
