Membership

Gain instant access to visualization courses and tutorials for insight and presentation. Support an independent site.

The Benefits

Here is what you get when you join.

 

Where Your Support Goes

FlowingData is a one-person site that I (Nathan Yau) started in 2007. I started memberships in 2012. Since 2018, FlowingData has been 100% member-supported and the site would not exist without its generous members.

Membership supports:

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

Your support as a member means FlowingData keeps the lights on, hopefully until I can’t data anymore.

Visualization in Practice

Learn with real data and concrete examples.

The best way to learn how to visualize data is to start doing it now. Make charts. Work with real data. Get expert guidance.

With membership:

  • Make great charts right away.
  • Look at real data.
  • Gain technical know-how and design skills required to visualize your data in a way that is both useful and beautiful.
  • Experiment with how visual forms work.
  • Learn how to negotiate between more efficient and more visually compelling chart types.
  • Learn about how the charts get made instead of relying on templates.
  • Download source code to apply to your own datasets.
  • Support an independent site.
  • Build the visualization skills that everyone with data wants. Become indispensable.

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.
Eric Lawrence

Make Any Chart

Go beyond defaults with step-by-step tutorials.

There are hundreds of step-by-step tutorials — with more every month — amounting to hundreds of hours of learning.

The tutorials — covering a range of basic, to advanced, to my own visualization projects — walk you through step-by-step so that you can make data graphics for reports, presentations, and analysis.

We don’t just cover the mechanics of encoding data into shapes and colors. You will also learn how to design data graphics that speak to different audiences. You’ll learn how to make any chart. You’ll learn how to pick the right chart for your data and purpose. You’ll learn the steps to get from raw data to finished graphic.

Tutorials include datasets, source code downloads, and examples to work with.

Sample of the Tutorials

  • Small Multiples
  • Slopegraph
  • Heatmap
  • Calendar Heatmap
  • Beeswarm Chart
  • Frequency Trails
  • Network Diagrams
  • Dot Density Map
  • Voronoi Diagram
  • Square Pie Chart
  • Difference Chart
  • Horizon Graph
  • Working with Shapefiles
  • Unit Chart
  • Chord Diagram
  • Custom Charts
  • Making More Readable Charts
  • Choropleth Map
  • Animated Visualization
  • Much more…

If you get stuck, there’s a section at the end of each tutorial to ask questions and see previous answers.

It’s not just how to press buttons or to copy and paste code. Instead, 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 projects.

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

In-depth Guidance

Learn the basics and then advance with the courses, at your pace.

If you don’t have a specific visualization in mind, and instead are eager to learn it all, membership provides bonus access to self-guided courses. Work with the suggested schedule or move at your own pace, with a combination of reading and practice exercises.

Visualization for Clarity

Learn how to get from spreadsheet or CSV file to polished graphics to present to an audience. It’s not about the tools. It’s about process.


Visualization in R, From Beginner to Advanced

Create basic charts, make use of visualization packages, map geographic data, and create custom graphics to use with your own data.


Mapping Geographic Data in R

Make beautiful and insightful maps that allow you to see spatial patterns across regions and are great for presentation and communication.


Visualizing Time Series Data in R

Everything you need to know to see and show patterns over time, from basic chart types to the more advanced.

The Process

Get the members-only 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.

It’s worthwhile to learn the principles behind visualization, but in practice, there are always tradeoffs when you design data graphics. The rules that you read in books usually 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.

Who is this guy?

Hi, my name is Nathan Yau. I make a lot of charts and analyze data. I’ll help you do the same.

I have a PhD in Statistics, with a focus on visualization for presenting data to non-professionals. I’ve been visualizing data for over a decade, and I believe that visualization is the best way to communicate data to everyone, regardless of background. I wrote two bestselling books on the topic.

I use charts for analysis, for reports and presentations, and for communication to a wide audience. My work leans towards practical but has also reached millions of people.

I was a winner of a FastCompany Innovation by Design Award for Graphic Design & Data Visualization; I’ve won Information is Beautiful awards; and I was featured in The Best American Infographics. I’ve worked as a researcher and for mainstream publications.

My books and tutorials on visualization are based on these experiences and have helped thousands advance past the defaults.


 

Become a Member Today

There are many tools and apps to help you visualize data. There are workshops and classes. These cost thousands of dollars. There are books, guides, blogs, and podcasts that provide tips and commentary for the “best” charts. But nothing compares to actually working with data.

Flash past knowing the “rules” of visualization and learn how to make beautiful data graphics. You’ll spend less time pondering over charts and more time making and producing results you can see.

Support an independent site. Gain instant access to detailed courses, tutorials, and the members-only newsletter. Thanks.

Billing is automatic and you can cancel at any time.

 
 

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. There are a few tutorials that 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. The collection of tutorials and courses is also constantly growing. If you read the books (thanks!) and are ready to make all the charts, the tutorials and courses will get you there.