Stayed up (1:00AM local time) to catch a @dfcidatascience Zoominar conversation by @AlbertoCairo and @rafalab on the experience of #DataViz in biomedical sciences. No regrets. #DataScience Here are some things I picked up (a thread):

One problem in the academic sciences or public health is that we tend to think of elements of communication as an afterthought. You also need to think of style, alignment, legibility, color, and other parts of design to be effective in communication. But these can be learned.

Another frequent shortcoming is the curse of knowledge - not being able to adapt the expanse of your knowledge and expertise to suit the needs of your audience.

Don't let the software dictate your design. It hurts when you look at a #DataViz and can immediately tell what software was used to create it. We need to control our tools and master them for effective communication.

There are things in your graphic that make the message clearer, and there are things that make it prettier. There are also things that contribute to neither. If something in your graphic is not needed - it does not make communication better - it should not be there.

Pie charts are not all that bad. There are some (although rare) cases when they should be fine.

Visualization has always been taught through rules. Do this and don't do that. But it should be approached as a manner of reasoning, not unlike writing. How to we communicate, with that particular data, for that particular purpose, for that particular audience.

Visualization is always purpose driven. Also to judge a #DataViz we should ask, what is this graphic intended for?

Make a distinction: We have visualizations we use to communicate messages to other people, but we also use visualizations with data to discover things to ourselves. If you don't visualize your own data, you miss the dinosaur in the room. Google the #Datasaurus

Closing thoughts by @AlbertoCairo: try to fall in love with data visualization. It is a technique that will allow you to see data clearer. It's also a mode of reasoning, just like writing. Like a pair of new glasses, it expands your horizon, it opens new paths to explore.