2.2 Building Visualizations
Time: ~20 minutes
What You'll Learn
- How to pick the right chart type for your data and your audience
- Having AI generate visualizations from raw data
- The difference between charts that inform and charts that impress
- Iterating on AI-generated charts to get exactly what you need
Key Concepts
In Module 1 you learned to read charts critically. Now you'll create them. The key insight: the best chart isn't the fanciest one -- it's the one that makes your point instantly clear.
This lesson covers:
- Choosing the right chart -- Bar, line, scatter, pie, and when each one actually makes sense
- AI-generated visualizations -- Giving AI your data and a clear description of what you want to show
- Iterating -- Asking AI to adjust colors, labels, axes, and format until the chart tells the story you need
- Applying Module 1 skills -- Checking your own charts for the same tricks you learned to spot (truncated axes, misleading scales, etc.)
Claude will guide you through creating several visualizations from sample data, then help you evaluate whether each one is honest and effective.
How to Start
Open Claude Desktop and say:
start lesson 2.2Skills You'll Use Later
- Chart selection (used when presenting data in narratives)
- AI iteration workflow (applies to all creative AI tasks)
- Self-evaluation (the habit of checking your own output for bias)