Visualizing Relationships - Data Points: Visualization That Means Something - page 179

Visualizing
Relationships

6

Statistics is about finding relationships in data. What are the similari-
ties between groups? Within groups? Within subgroups? The relation-
ship that most people are familiar with for statistics is correlation. For
example, as average height goes up in a population, most likely aver-
age weight will go up, too. This is a simple positive correlation. The
relationships in your data, just like in real life, can get more compli-
cated though as you consider more factors or find patterns that aren't
so linear. This chapter discusses how to use visualization to find such
relationships and highlight them for storytelling.

As you get into more complex statistical graphics, you can make heavy
use of R in this chapter and the next. This is where the open-source
software shines. Like in previous chapters, R does the grunt work, and
then you can use Illustrator to make the graphic more readable for an
audience.