The bumps in the road: A retrospective on my data visualisation mistakes
summary
Describes moving from messy Jupyter notebooks to a reproducible Python pipeline using matplotlib, Conda and GitHub Actions that auto-runs every function prefixed plot_ and assembles a single Gallery.pdf artifact. Shows concrete fixes: unit tests that catch extra Y columns, CI failures that alert broken figures, and stress-testing by multiplying input size 100x to find memory limits. Demonstrates separate src/data layout, automated nightly reports, and that the gallery generation reliably detects regressions.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Introduction and setup
- 1:09Why data visualization is hard
- 4:00Know your audience first
- 6:06Setting up the project structure
- 7:29Design principles for clarity
- 10:17Customize default plots
- 12:03Testing data visualization code
- 13:07Project structure deep dive
- 15:56Avoid misleading visuals
- 18:07Continuous integration for plots
- 20:55Know your visualization limits
- 21:59Key takeaways and automation
- 23:47Q&A session
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