Become a FlowingData Member

Step-by-Step Tutorials

Make and design charts that fit your data, audience, and purpose.

Courses

Learn to visualize data, from analysis, making, to publication-ready graphics.

The Process

Keep your knowledge fresh with the weekly newsletter on the small but important steps in visualization.

Full Archive Search

Quickly access thousands of posts and links on FlowingData, public and members-only.

Tools and Resources

Members-only links and guides focused on the how of visualization.

Get Charting Help

Ask questions. Get expert advice.

Where Your Support Goes

Membership is the best way to support FlowingData. This is a one-person site that I started in 2007.

Your generosity supports:

• FlowingData blog and newsletter — a publicly available resource on visualization, statistics, and design, every weekday since 2007
• Tutorials — how to visualize data step-by-step with a variety of tools, from a practical perspective
• Courses — detailed instruction from beginner to advanced
• The Process members-only newsletter — discussing what’s new in visualization and the design process of making great charts
• Data Design Guides — for communicating data effectively and honestly
• FlowingData Projects — charts, analysis, and visual experiments exploring the everyday-ness of data

It means FlowingData keeps the lights on, hopefully until I can’t data anymore. Membership makes this possible.

What Members Say

I teach a class on data visualization, and FlowingData has been a source of inspiration and provocative examples for me and my students. Nathan Yau creates discussion generating graphs, starts conversations about other noteworthy data and graphing efforts, and provides useful insights on coding and workflow.

I’ve used skills from the visualizations both for internal tools at work, as well as for public facing visualizations.

I love being a member of FlowingData because you just can’t beat Nathan’s approachable and easy-to-follow tutorials – they’ve saved me so much time. Plus, he always has his finger on the pulse of the data viz community so having access to all of his posts and the weekly newsletter is a MUST for me!”

I think of your weekly emails as lessons that I actually take notes on every week and apply the knowledge I learn to my actual job as a data analyst… The membership fee is more than worth it for the information and education you get…

As a student who is just getting into the game of visualization (and plans to continue), it has been very helpful to be able to have a closer look behind the scenes.

The tutorials are very helpful to move from “Oooo, cool!” to how to actually DO the cool.

…one of the finest resources on visualization…

Design Any Chart

Go beyond defaults with step-by-step tutorials.

The tutorials (shorter for specific charts) and courses (depth and process) cover a range of basic to advanced, along with my own visualization projects. Learn step-by-step so you can make useful data graphics for reports, presentations, and analysis.

Design data graphics that speak to different audiences. Make any chart. Pick the right chart for your data and purpose.

Then apply to your own data with access to datasets, file downloads, and practical examples.

If you get stuck, ask questions or see previous answers.

It’s not just how to press buttons or to copy and paste. You learn how chart types and visual encodings work so that you can make any chart. Customize to your needs and apply in your own work.

Even if you don’t have a specific chart in mind, the growing collection serves as a great reference.

The Process

Get the member-exclusive newsletter covering the practical side of visualizing data.

Stay up-to-date with visualization tools, what’s new in the field, and learn how experts design data graphics.

You also get access to the full archive. Delivered every Thursday, the collection passed 350 issues in 2025.

It’s worthwhile to learn the principles behind visualization, but in practice, there are always trade-offs. The “rules” always work more like suggestions. The Process is a weekly newsletter for FlowingData members that looks more closely at how to apply what we know about visualization in your everyday work.

Questions and Answers

Can I have an invoice/receipt?

A lot of people use their education credits from work to pay for membership. You’ll get an invoice and receipt via email when you sign up. If they get stuck in spam or you don’t get it for some reason, just let me know and I’ll help sort it out.
 

Can I cancel my subscription at anytime?

Yes. There is no minimum subscription length. Membership auto-renews. Cancel anytime via your profile with a few clicks, hassle-free. There are no refunds.
 

Do I need to know how to code first?

No. Some tutorials are more advanced, but they are written for various backgrounds. You can also work through the courses first, which assume minimal coding experience and can lay a foundation to build on. Ask questions any time.
 

Do I need to buy any software?

No. Most of the tutorials cover R, Python, or JavaScript, so there’s no software you need to buy. They’re free to use. Some tutorials use Adobe Illustrator, but I provide open source alternatives. The only non-free solution is Microsoft Excel, but my hope for this category is that you can use software already on your computer.
 

How is this different from your books?

Data Points and Visualize This provide overviews of visualization and concepts. Tutorials and courses on FlowingData show you how to execute, and the collection is always growing. If you read the books (thanks!) and are ready to make all the charts, the tutorials and courses will get you there.
 

Can I purchase a group membership?

Yes. You can get a group membership for 5 or more people so everyone on your team can make the best charts. There are savings for additional members.