Training courses

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Exponential advances in technology have provided us with ubiquitous means for creating, recording and mobilising incredible amounts of data. Where once data was scarce, now it is captured in abundance. Our attitudes as consumers have also evolved. We demand transparency and openness and yearn for visual insight and understanding.

Yet, whilst we have access to fantastic tools and widespread capabilities for storage, handling and analysis, the knowledge and techniques required to most effectively display and communicate data are somewhat neglected. In a cluttered, competitive world, a design approach based on intuition, instinct and personal taste is no longer sufficient to cope with, let alone exploit, this data overload.

This is where data visualisation comes in.

Data visualisation is both an art and a science. It is an art concerned with unleashing creativity and innovation, designing communications that appeal on an aesthetic level and survive in the mind on an emotional one. It is a science aimed at understanding and exploiting the way our eyes and brains process information most efficiently, effectively and accurately.

 

Training objectives

The objective of these one-day courses is to provide you with a comprehensive, contemporary introduction to data driven visualisation design. It will equip delegates with the most effective approaches to designing visualisations that maximise impact and amplify cognition.

You will leave the course buzzing with excitement about the foundation knowledge and practical capabilities you have acquired. You will never again settle for a default Excel chart or fail to challenge colleagues who ask you to make a graph look ‘fancy’. Instead, you will be inspired to take on future data visualisation challenges with greater confidence and bullish know-how. Challenges will become opportunities.

The course content and the pace and depth of its coverage will be flexible and designed to suit the needs of the collective audience. This will be particularly the case where bulk booking of delegates from single organisations make up the majority or entirety of the class.

 

Training topics

The main topics covered in the training will include:

• Historical background and modern context of data visualisation
• Foundation principles of design and the human visual system
• Applying critical thinking to visualisation design
• The essentials of chart design and selection
• Best practice approaches for tackling different data types and problem contexts
• The visualisation design methodology and process
• Visualisation project case studies
• Outline of the essential visualisation tools and resources
• Individual and group visualisation practice
• Opportunities to discuss and explore your own data visualisation challenges

Content will be delivered through an energetic blend of teaching, discussion, individual practice and group work. There will also be one-to-one opportunities to discuss and explore the data visualisation problems or tasks delegates are facing in their workplace. It may also be possible, depending on the mix of the groups, to tackle some of these during the day as we work through the stages of sample visualisation design challenges to embed and refine your craft.

 

Public training events

The current schedule of public events is listed below. In some cases the exact date and confirmed venues are yet to be finalised but these will be announced as soon as possible. If you don’t see a location to suit you, register your interest with Andy Kirk via email.

 

Private training events

Alongside the schedule of public events, bespoke training events are available for organisations to arrange for their colleagues to attend private training sessions. Such events offer the benefits of receiving a full training session but with the content and activities designed, where possible, to suit the client’s specific requirements.

Maybe you have a specific workplace visualisation challenge that you would like to work on within the structure of a training session? Or perhaps you want to explore visualisation possibilities of various key datasets in teams and see what each team comes up with? Whatever your organisation’s visualisation needs are, an effective training event can be designed and delivered to maximise the training benefit to you.

If you would like to enquire about arranging a bespoke event please contact Andy Kirk to discuss your requirements.

 

Who should attend?

These courses are ideal for anyone who has responsibility for, or is interested in best practice approaches to the visual analysis and communication of data.

You might be an analyst of large and complex data sets, or somebody who just wants to enhance the occasional report. You might be an academic looking to share critical insights more effectively or in advertising and looking to stand out from the crowd. You might be a programmer with no design training or a designer with no programming skills. You might be in advertising, medicine, the media, engineering or the public sector.

The point is that there is no ‘typical’ delegate, data is everywhere and we’ve all got to do something with it so let’s do it right. Anyone and everyone is most welcome and encouraged to attend!

There are no skill-, no knowledge- and no role-based pre-requisites or expectations of any person attending, other than you should be willing to contribute to discussions and activities during the day.

The training will not go into great depth about any one specific technology. If you are expecting to come away with instant interactive programming capabilities, for example, this won’t be the best course for you. We will certainly thoroughly profile the most effective and cutting-edge tools, and programming languages and environments will form a key part of that section, but the purpose of the training is to coach you through the fundamental principles, effective resources and best practice methodologies associated with this exciting field.

 

Potential future locations for public training courses

I am constantly looking for opportunities to deliver training courses in new places around the world and I have received much interest from a broad range of locations. Once I receive sufficient volume of requests for training courses in specific parts of the world, that is a trigger for me to arrange an event so I look forward to hearing from people interested in adding their names to existing or new locations around the world – email me now with your details and preferred location!

 

Training testimonials

Don’t just take my word for it, here’s a selection of comments and feedback from recent delegates…