In this book, we use a variety of data sets to help explain techniques and illustrate design principles. By using data from a wide range of disciplines, we hope to convey to the reader exactly how widespread the applications for visualization are; indeed, many innovations in the field have resulted from the exploration of ways to visualize data in new fields. It also is our experience that visualization specialists can find roles for themselves in virtually any domain, which enables us to expand our understanding of new disciplines while making a significant contribution to the advancement of both the visualization field and the application domain area.
One of the most common roadblocks to visualizing data is converting files from their original format (usually dependent on the tools used to acquire the data) to one that is acceptable to the visualization tool you wish to use. Thus, by providing a number of sample data sets, along with detailed descriptions of their formats, we hope to facilitate users in this process. All data sets used in this textbook can be found here, along with links to other data repositories and sites containing very detailed descriptions and software for different popular data formats.
Available Data Sets: