12-03, 18:30–19:00 (UTC), General Track
Plotnine is a Python library that implements the Grammar of Graphics, enabling users to create complex, layered plots. This talk covers techniques for customising your plots, using time series data as an example, and highlights how plotnine integrates with matplotlib, allowing you to enhance your data visualisations for better storytelling.
Plotnine is a data visualisation library that brings the Grammar of Graphics to Python, enabling users to build complex plots layer by layer. No background knowledge of plotnine is required, and the talk will begin with a brief introduction to the syntax of plotnine. The remainder of this talk will guide attendees through the process of customising plots to take them from the basic, default settings to high quality, effective visuals. Using an area chart displaying time series data as an example, this talk will focus on techniques for customising and annotating plots to highlight important insights. It will also show you how to exploit the fact that plotnine is built on top of matplotlib - enabling the use of a much wider range of libraries! This talk is designed to help data scientists and analysts improve their data storytelling skills by making their charts not only informative but visually engaging.
No previous knowledge expected
Nicola Rennie is a Lecturer in Health Data Science based within the Centre for Health Informatics, Computing, and Statistics at Lancaster Medical School. Her research interests lie in understanding how to effectively communicate complex quantitative ideas in an accessible way e.g. to clinicians, patients, the public, and students. Nicola also has experience in data science consultancy, and collaborates closely with external research partners. She can often be found at data science meetups, presenting at conferences, and is the R-Ladies Lancaster chapter organiser.
Nicola has roles in several organisations including as committee members of the R-Ladies Global Team and the RSS Teaching Statistics Section Group, as co-lead of the Statistics Software Special Interest Group at the RoSE (Researchers of Statistics Education) Network, and as a member of the Editorial Board of Significance magazine. She is also one of the Royal Statistical Society’s 2024-2025 William Guy Lecturers, and will be recording and delivering her talk aimed at 11-16 year olds on the topic of using data and statistics to shape decision making in medicine and healthcare.