Coming up with fresh data visualization ideas can be a tough job for most dashboard developers at early stages. But, with the right exposure and inspiration from some of top works in the field can make your brainstorming sessions more engaging and, full of ideas – leading to inspiring and more meaningful dashboards (data visualizations).
Therefore, in this article, I will share 5 sites you can turn to for inspirations and ideas – when authoring dashboards.
See Also: 5 Ways to Apply Your Tableau Knowledge
These include:
The Tableau Viz Gallery
In the Tableau viz gallery, you get to see stunning data visualization examples across the web created with Tableau public, the Tableau viz gallery features both the viz of the day and featured visualization.
This site can be a great source of inspiration and ideas which will spur you create meaning and effective information dashboards.
You can utilize this site in the following ways.
By improving some of the dashboards done and published on the site.
Learn by doing – where possible download the dashboard and try recreating it in your own copy of Tableau.
(By doing so, you will learn and improve your dashboarding skills)
Note: You can always subscribe to viz of the day to get inspiration direct into your inbox.
Visualizingdata.com
Visualizingdata.com is a data visualization consultancy firm founded by Andy Kirk, a freelance data visualization specialist based in Yorkshire, UK. This website produces great content on data visualization and will inspire you upskill your data storytelling skills.
Some of the common subjects on this website include.
The little of visualization design
Explore and explain, a video and podcast series on data visualization design
Articles on data visualizations
Books on data visualizations
The site also publishes a monthly post featuring the best data visualization content.
Storytelling with data
Storytellingwithdata.com is a data visualization consultancy firm helping the world get rid of the ineffective graph, one 3D pie at a time. With focus on simple lessons and practical applications, the site promises to help users choose effective visualizations, eliminate clutter, and focus on attention to tell story.
Some of great content of this site include.
A podcast where you get to listen to great conversations around data visualizations with world leading experts and trainers
A community of data experts where you get to hone your data visualization skills through practice
You can access books and read great blog posts on data visualizations
Information is beautiful
Informationisbeautiful.net is another great site whose mission is distilling world’s data, information and knowledge into beautiful infographics and visualizations. Founded by David McCandless, this site will help you learn how to make clearer and more informative data visualizations.
In this site you can access books on data visualization to inspire your creativity and help you cement your visualizations skills, and view some of great examples on data visualizations.
Top BI vendors and consulting firms
Other sites you can gain a lot of inspiration on data visualizations are websites owned by data visualization vendors and consulting firms. All these vendors and firms have dashboard examples showcasing some of great reports you can create using their tools.
Some of vendor sites you should check include.
Open source data visualization sites
Data visualization consulting firms
Note: Most of these vendors and firms have webinars and whitepapers on best practices for data visualizations which can be a great place to sharpen your visualization skills.
Bonus point
These are not the only great sources you can seek inspiration from, lots of others sites/niche groups and communities are available on social media platforms such as Facebook and Pinterest; You can try searching these keywords on Pinterest to see some of the works; Data visualization design, data visualization dashboard, data visualization techniques, data visualization infographics etc.
Books and publications on data visualizations can also be a great source of inspiration and ideas. Some of great collection of books on data visualizations include.
The big book of dashboards by Steve Wexler, Jeffrey Shaffer and Andy Cotgreave
The visual display of quantitative information by Edward R. Turte
Information dashboard design, displaying data for At-a-glance monitoring by Stephen Few :
The accidental Analysts: Show your data who’s boss by Eileen and Stephen McDaniel
I hope this post helped you in some way. If you would like to sharpen your data visualization skills with Tableau, kindly join us by subscribing to our mailing list below for great and inspiring content on data visualization right in your inbox.
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