In June of 2007, I offered my data visualization courses to the general public in the United States for the first time. My courses are usually taught privately to organizations, at conferences, and at the University of California, Berkeley. Those who wish to attend, but can’t muster enough people for private courses and don’t want to attend an entire conference, can now attend one of my public workshops. In 2008, I will be offering two public workshops: one in Boston from June 24-26 and one in San Francisco from October 7-9.

The 2008 East Coast Visual Business Intelligence Workshop and the 2008 West Coast Visual Business Intelligence Workshop are designed for those who find themselves buried in numbers (statistics), struggling to understand what they mean and then present their findings to decision makers. Three separate courses will be offered at each workshop:

Table and Graph Design for Effective Communication

Dashboard Design for at-a-Glance Monitoring

Visual Data Analysis for Discovery and Understanding

Table and Graph Design for Effective Communication

The ability to communicate quantitative information effectively is not intuitive; it requires a set of skills that must be learned. Most quantitative information is presented in tables and graphs. Unfortunately, most are poorly designed—often to the point of misinformation. Why? Because almost no one, including specialists such as financial analysts and business intelligence professionals, have been trained in effective chart design. Based on my book, Show Me the Numbers, I teach practical methods for presenting data accurately, clearly, and compellingly.

Dashboard Design for at-a-Glance Monitoring

Dashboard design is a timely topic. Dashboards—single screen displays of the most important information people must monitor to do their jobs—have become a popular means to rapidly assess what’s going on. Despite their potential, however, most dashboards perform poorly, because they present information poorly. As the author of Information Dashboard Design, I know this topic well and teach simple design practices that enable dashboards to communicate clearly and meaningfully, at a glance.

Visual Data Analysis for Discovery and Understanding

Before you can present information effectively, you must understand it. Ninety percent of all business data analysis can be done using simple graphing techniques to discern meaningful patterns. These skills are easy to learn and apply with proper guidance and good software, but few people know them. This course will get you started.

To register for the workshop or to learn more about it, you may visit the Workshops page or call (510) 558-7400.

Take care,