Data visualisation

Data visualisation, like digital storytelling, is not a single tool, but rather a technique which can draw on a whole variety of different web 2.0 tools (including mobile apps) and, increasingly, web 3.0 tools in the form of generative AI chatbots and plug-ins that can create data visualisations in a more automated way.

Data visualisation involves displaying data sets in visual formats, which are sometimes static (such as images, charts or infographics, which typically combine text and images) and sometimes dynamic (such as videos or interactive animations). See the example above of the video The Internet 1997-2021 from The Opte Project.

The aim is to reveal and/or highlight patterns by presenting the data in a particular way. We’re seeing growing use of infographics, especially in the media, to communicate key information quickly in an easily comprehensible format. Therefore, it is important for students to learn both how to read data visualisations (bringing digital literacies like multimodal literacy, information literacy and critical literacy to bear in their analysis) and how to create and disseminate them (though the use of multimedia and networking tools). While creating data visualisations traditionally required sophisticated technical skills, tools are now available which make it possible for non-specialists to create such visualisations relatively easily.

Useful resources include:

• • Services which provide infographics on a wide range of topics: some of these might serve as good stimulus materials for lessons, such as Mashable’s Infographics Pinterest board and Elearning Infographics (note that the latter is of more direct relevance in teacher development courses).
  • Services which provide large data sets (sometimes along with templates that can be used to create specific visualisations of the data): these include Google Books’ Ngram Viewer, Google’s Data Commons (formerly Google Public Data), and the Google Earth Engine.
  • Services which provide templates into which you can insert your own selected data: these include Flourish, Infogram, Piktochart, Venngage and Visme (note that many of these now offer AI support) as well as the Education Infographic templates on the design platform Canva. Dynamic data visualisations can be created without any need for coding using some of the above services, such as Infogram or Flourish. Other options include the generic multimedia creation and sharing services listed on the social sharing page of this website. For reviews of various infographic creation platforms, see MakeUseOf’s 5 Best Free Tools to Make Infographics Online.
  • Services which support more automated creation of data visualisations, such as Google’s abovementioned Data Commons; generative AI chatbots and their plug-ins; specialised AI-powered data visualisation tools such as CalcGen AI and Napkin; and a number of the abovementioned general data visualisation services, such as Infogram, Piktochart and Venngage, which now leverage AI. As these tools rapidly become more sophisticated, the options for creating data visualisations will increase. It is however a good idea for students to gain some hands-on, manual experience of creating data visualisations first, so that they have a solid understanding of how relevant tools function, develop their data literacy, and can bring a critical eye to bear on any automatically created visualisations.

For ideas on the kinds of data visualisations it is possible to create, take a look at Ralph Lengler and Martin Eppler’s infographic A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods. For more guidance, see the Pinterest board How to Create Infographics or the University of Hull’s Libguide on Infographics. For more on educational uses, see Kathy Schrock’s video Infographics as a Creative Assessment.

Examples of very sophisticated data visualisations include the Opte Project video The Internet 1997-2021 (also available on YouTube), as seen at the top of this page. Other interesting examples worth checking out include:

• • Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day inferred from Twitter (Amislove, 2010) [Video]
  • A Time-Lapse of Every Nuclear Explosion since 1945 (Isao Hashimoto, 2010) [Video]
  • London 24: Layers of London Air Traffic (NATS, 2015) [Video]
  • The Deep Sea (Neil Agarwal, 2019) [Interactive visualisation]
  • Atlas of the Invisible: Using Data to Map the Climate Crisis (The Guardian, 2021) [Static visualisations]
  • Nominal GDP Cartogram (BlueBerry, 2021) [Static visualisation]
  • Climate Shift Index: Global Map (Climate Central, 2022) [Interactive visualisation]
  • Climate Shift Index: Ocean (Climate Central, 2024) [Interactive visualisation]
  • Data Never Sleeps 12.0 (Domo, 2024) [Static visualisation]
  • Data Never Sleeps: AI Edition (Domo, 2025) [Static visualisation]

Last update: February 2026.