What is data visualisation?
Data visualisation generally considered as the graphical representation of information and data, it is currently an extremely active and critical aspect in research, teaching, and development, and is closely related to information graphics, information visualisation, scientific visualisation, and statistical graphics.
The main purpose of data visualisation is to communicate information clearly and effectively by means of graphical representation. However, this does not mean that data visualisation must be boring for its functional purpose, or extremely complicated to look gorgeous.
In order to effectively communicate ideas and concepts, aesthetic and functions need to go hand in hand, and by visually communicating key aspects and features, we get deep insights into fairly sparse and complex datasets.
Why is it important?
The huge amount of data is one of the characteristics of the Internet era. Learn to quickly digest and absorb useful information in huge data groups can greatly help to seize opportunities. Studies have shown that the amount of information we use visually is far greater than other senses. This also means that the possibility of finding relevant information through data visualization is far greater than other methods, and it allow viewers to get more information. 
While many organisations and companies across different sectors relying on data to gain insights and optimising their products, data visualisation is not yet an integral part of research communication. Today, powerful, modern, open source, interactive and web-based visualisation tools have revolutionised the potential for research data impact, we are here to help our researchers make the most of their data and take advantage of such tools.
How this site could help?
Support through:
• Documentation on dataviz best practice and use of tools
• Communication channels
• Capacity building opportunities through Events
• Help when you needed
• Contribution
Where should I start?
• Learn from documentations
• Share your data visualisations on ORDA showcase
• Join the google group and/or slack community
• Contribute blog post
• Contribute to the website
• Get in touch with ideas for training, coding clubs, hackathons