What Data Visualization Content Is on clauswilke.com?

Updated

clauswilke.com is the personal site of Claus O. Wilke, a professor and R package author whose data visualization work centers on the ggplot2 ecosystem and his open-source book Fundamentals of Data Visualization. If you want practical R visualization guidance, package documentation, or a free book on chart design, the site collects that material in one place. The content is most useful if you already work in R and want to improve how you build and format plots.

The Book: Fundamentals of Data Visualization

The site's most substantial visualization resource is Fundamentals of Data Visualization, described as an open-source book written entirely in R Markdown. It is presented as a concise introduction to effectively visualizing many different types of data sets.

  • Format: Open-source, authored in R Markdown
  • Scope: A broad introduction to visualizing different data types
  • Related talk: "Upping your Dataviz Game" covers select chapters from the book, discussing how to tell a story and how to prepare data

The book is the natural starting point if you want conceptual guidance on chart choice and design rather than only code.

R Packages for Visualization

Wilke has authored several widely used R packages for data visualization and is a regular contributor to ggplot2:

Package Role
cowplot Plot composition and arrangement
ggridges Ridgeline-style plots
ggtext Formatted text in ggplot2 figures

These packages are relevant if you are customizing multi-panel layouts, distribution plots, or text labels in ggplot2.

Talks and Video Content

The site lists selected talks with dates, locations, and video links:

  • "Upping your Dataviz Game" — Santa Fe, NM, Oct 14, 2020. Covers selected book chapters, storytelling, and data preparation.
  • "Spruce up your ggplot2 visualizations with formatted text" — San Francisco, CA, Jan 30, 2020. Focuses on the ggtext package for adding formatted text to plot and axis labels.

These are useful if you prefer learning from a walkthrough rather than reading documentation.

Blog Posts on Visualization and Tidyverse

Recent posts include:

  • "Writing a blogdown post for the ages" (Sep 8, 2020) — on making blogdown posts durable over time
  • "Blogging PCA tidyverse style" (Sep 7, 2020) — performing a PCA using the tidyverse
  • "New site design" (Aug 19, 2020) — a site redesign and move
  • "Fundamentals of Data Visualization" (Jan 23, 2018) — announcing the book

The PCA post is the most directly applicable to visualization workflows, since PCA results are commonly plotted.

Projects and Other Resources

Beyond the book, the Projects section includes:

  • Generative art — visual art created by mathematics and randomness
  • Fundamentals of Data Visualization — the open-source book
  • Virtual Books — blog posts collected into book-like form

If your interest is in the intersection of code, randomness, and visual output, the generative art project is the relevant entry point.

How to Decide What to Use

  • Want chart design principles? Start with Fundamentals of Data Visualization.
  • Need to format ggplot2 text or labels? Look at the ggtext talk and package.
  • Building multi-panel or ridgeline plots? Check cowplot and ggridges.
  • Prefer video? The two listed talks cover dataviz storytelling and ggplot2 text formatting.
  • Interested in tidyverse workflows? The PCA blog post is the closest fit.

The site does not present pricing signals for these resources, so treat availability and access terms as stated on the individual pages rather than assuming free or open access beyond what is described.