Visualise Data Options from Better Evaluation

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The excellent site Better Evaluation has an enormous collection of data visualization tools & advice. It is a rich description of possible visual techniques to use to convey your data more effectively. Data visualisation is the process of representing data graphically in order to identify trends and patterns that would otherwise be unclear or difficult to discern. Data visualisation serves … Read More

Creating Animations and Transitions With D3

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For the ambitious, this is a great intro to creating your own animations and transitions in d3.js. In interactive visualisation, there is the word reactive. Well, maybe not literally, but close enough. The fact is that reactivity, or the propension of a visualisation to respond to user actions, can really help engage the user in a visualisation, and help them … Read More

Using D3 to Make Data-Driven Visualizations

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D3 is a new tool for designers and programmers working on creating interactive visualizations out of large data sets. We recently told you how to create choropleth maps in D3 with an easy, step-by-step tutorial. In this short video, we’ll go over the basics of using selections with d3.js to make data-driven visualizations. Source: Using Selections in D3 to Make … Read More

Creating Fillable PDF Forms With InDesign and Acrobat

MargaretDesign Tools, Legal Product Design, Visual Creation Tools1 Comment

Do you want to create a form to distribute out to the public, that users can fill in (within constraints set by you)? Then it’s worth investing in some powerful software, beyond standard Microsoft Word & Adobe Acrobat Reader. Learning to use Adobe products like InDesign & Illustrator is useful to create PDFs that are more usable, interactive, and user-friendly. … Read More

How to create interactive PDF forms with Acrobat Pro

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The Design Cubicle presents a tutorial on How to create interactive PDF forms using Adobe Acrobat Pro. It’s authored by Brian Hoff, see the full article at the link to read the entire tutorial. If you’re like me then you like everything from your website down to your legal contracts to look well designed and function to your client’s liking … Read More

Automate excel -> flowchart diagram with Visio

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Here is a very instructional piece from Michael Angeles explaining how to use Excel databases & Visio diagramming software to transform a spreadsheet into a flowchart automatically. It requires some up-front planning & design, but it can be worth it if you make a lot of diagrams. Check out Automating Diagrams with Visio « Boxes and Arrows for the full … Read More

Design pattern libraries for desktop & mobile software

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One of the best ways to quickly develop your vision of a new software product (or overhaul of an existing one) is to visit Design Pattern Libraries, that can show you how other talented designers have laid out interfaces for certain functions. I’ve gathered together links to useful design pattern libraries for both desktop & mobile software interfaces.  You can … Read More

Canva – easily create graphic designs in your browser

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Canva is an amazing browser-based tool to very easily mix your own gorgeous graphic design image. It provides you with well-designed layout templates, text, stencils, vectors, and free images for you to then feed into your own composition. It is very intuitive to use as an authoring tool. It gives you lots of choices, but supplies you with enough guidance … Read More

Draw | LibreOffice

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via Draw | LibreOffice – Free Office Suite – Fun Project – Fantastic People. LibreOffice is a free, opensource set of desktop software.  It offers several visual design functions. Draw lets you produce anything from a quick sketch to a complex plan, and gives you the means to communicate with graphics and diagrams. With a maximum page size of 300cm … Read More

Amazon Storyteller for creating visual stories

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Amazon Storyteller is a great resource for anyone who wants to quickly create a graphic narrative.  Though Amazon has released this story-visualizer as tool for movie-makers, it is also useful for anyone who wants to tell a visual story. This could be the lawyer who wants to author a graphic version of a legal process. Or it could be a … Read More

Datawrapper for making charts, graphs and maps

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Datawrapper is an open source project started out of a German training institution for newspaper journalists.  It is a free software service that lets you easily create correct charts that you can embed online. Here is their quick start guide: If you just want to give Datawrapper a try, here is a brief run-through. Principle: First the data, than the … Read More

Make Infographics with Piktochart

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Piktochart is an online, paid tool to create your own infographics easily, by plugging in your data into their templates. You can also create reports, banners, and presentations with their tool. Here is their basic tutorial overview of how to make an infographic with their tools: With Piktochart’s tools and features, you’ll be an infographic making genius in no time. … Read More

A Beginner’s Guide to Making Infographics

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Here’s an excellent article from Rachel Banning-Lover on The Guardian, intended particularly for NGOs and relief workers,  via the Global Development Professionals Network | Guardian Professional.   How to make infographics: a beginner’s guide to data visualisation An interactive map of attacks on health care in Syria – the blue spots show attacks by government forces. Photograph: Physicians for Human … Read More

Creating Static and Interactive Infographics with Illustrator and Muse

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An article from Jim Babbage on Adobe’s Blog, via Creating Static and Interactive Infographics with Illustrator and Muse. Creating Static and Interactive Infographics with Illustrator and Muse This week, the team I work on at Adobe was given a special task; to create new education-based assets to use in demonstrations, tutorials and to share with educators and other education colleagues. … Read More

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

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A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. from Ralph Lengler & Martin J. Eppler at www.visual-literacy.org This interactive table presents a systematic overview of tools to use when trying to visualize different things — and hover over any of the types, and see an example of exactly that pop-up. So cool & useful!

Make an Interactive Flowchart in Excel

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Here is an Interactive Flowcharting Tutorial – FlowBreeze Help. This tutorial will take you through the steps to create a flowchart using the interactive flowcharting mode of FlowBreeze. Because FlowBreeze is an Excel add-in, it will load with Excel but the interactive text-to-flowchart generation remains idle until you start a flowcharting session. It will operate on only one worksheet at … Read More

Make Interactive Visualizations: Graphviz

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Graphviz | Graphviz – Graph Visualization Software. Graphviz is open source graph visualization software. Graph visualization is a way of representing structural information as diagrams of abstract graphs and networks. It has important applications in networking, bioinformatics, software engineering, database and web design, machine learning, and in visual interfaces for other technical domains. The Graphviz layout programs take descriptions of … Read More

Learn to make Icons

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Here is a five-part free tutorial from Skillshare, taught by the Noun Project, on how to create beautiful & crisp icons for your designs. Especially since there is a lack of legal icons, this is a great way to learn how to go from sketches to usable & sharp visuals. This class is perfect for anyone wanting to learn more … Read More

Free icons, vectors, and pictograms

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This website is full of examples of great free icons, symbols, vectors, and pictograms to use in your designs: Awward’s collection of Vector icons and Icon Webfonts for Interfaces and Responsive web design. Browse through and download these great resources for making your designs and documents look sharper, professional, and creative.

Vector line icons

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This is a free set of beautiful, sharp icons to use in your designs from the Linecons Free – Vector Icons Pack by Designmodo. You can download this pack and you will have each of these icons in all the formats you might need to use in your designs — PNG, photoshop, illustrator, pdf, and webfont. Icons are usable to … Read More

visualizing.org: Data Visualization community

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Visualizing.org is a site that collects together a community of people who are visualizing complex issues through data & design. It includes some political, governmental, and legal issues. It is rich with examples of good visualizations — maps, diagrams, tables, infographics, and more. It also has challenges & support for those who want to sharpen their visual skills.