NOT (Data Visualization is Easy to Learn)
🔴 “Data visualization is easy to learn part of Power BI”
Not easy at all. Not easier than data modeling.
➡️There are many data visualization related capabilities and limitations to learn in Power BI: core visuals, custom visuals, Vega/Vega-Lite, SVG, Power BI-specific tricks and workarounds required to override limitations, and data modeling techniques that enable certain visualizations.
At the same time, data visualization is not about Power BI at all. It’s tool agnostic. A tool (Power BI or another) introduces certain techniques and limitations on top of data visualization science (and art).
➡️ Data visualization is important. It can easily turn perfect data (ETL and data modeling) into misleading numbers, lines, and rectangles. Or it can turn useless numbers into important insights and messages.
➡️ Data visualization is not based on simple rules. It’s full of “it depends.”
➡️ Data visualization depends on the audience, which differs and often may lack data visualization literacy and behave irrationally.
➡️ The internet is full of misconceptions and misleading recommendations about data visualization.
➡️ When charts lie, people trust them. When charts tell the truth, people don’t trust them. It happens quite often.
➡️ You have to read books. Blog posts are not enough for holistic understanding of data visualization.
➡️ There is no single source of truth about data visualization. There are many great books that complement each other, and sometimes it seems like they contradict each other (but the reality is more complicated).
➡️ Data visualization is somewhere between standards (IBCS) and extreme customization. Between science and art. It depends.
➡️ Data visualization requires a lot of practice. It helps, but it also doesn’t help; what worked in one case may not work in another similar case. This means you need even more practice.
➡️ There are pie charts. You love them because they are easy to create. You hate them because they are not easy to interpret. You love them again because there are good pie charts. Then you hate them again because there are too many bad pie charts.