Ever wonder what a dataset looks like? How can your research data tell a story, spark curiosity, or make complex ideas seem clear in an instant?

The winning entries in our Data Visualization Challenge show exactly that—how CU Boulder students turned raw data into engaging, thought-provoking visuals. The contest, held in honor of Love Data Week and sponsored by the Center for Research Data & Digital Scholarship (CRDDS), used data supplied by the Office of Space Optimization and Facilities Management. It challenged students to show how green our campus landscape is by creating visualizations of the biodiversity of trees. The results allow viewers to spot trends, patterns, outliers and relationships that might not be obvious in raw data.

Curious to try it yourself?

CRDDS regularly offers data visualization workshops and one-on-one research consultations to help you get started—no experience required.

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Here are three reasons why you should schedule a consultation with CRDDS to learn more about data visualization. Data visualization can help you: 

• Understand your data better. Visualizations help researchers spot trends and patterns that might not be obvious in raw data. For example:
  • A scatterplot can reveal correlations.
  • A time-series graph can show trends over time.
• Communicate your research findings more clearly. Charts, graphs, and maps make complex results easier to understand for both technical and non-technical audiences. A good visualization can:
  • Summarize key findings at a glance.
  • Support storytelling in presentations, papers, or posters.
  • Make an impact in grant proposals or reports.
• Explore hypotheses. Interactive or iterative visualizations (like those created with R, Python, or Tableau) allow researchers to explore "what if" questions and test assumptions before running formal analyses.

Data visualization is a research skill you can learn. Let us help you.