If you want to get better at data visualization, there’s only one way: practice. And that’s exactly what this course is about.
You'll tackle dozens of exercises and work with real-life datasets at the end of each module to apply what you’ve learned.
Here’s just a glimpse of the plots shared by students in the Discord channel to get feedback on both code and design!
Ok, back on the main topic 🙈
What is a Venn diagram?
A Venn diagram visualizes relationships between sets using overlapping circles to show shared and unique elements.
It typically looks like this:
Venn diagrams work well for 2 or 3 groups! But beyond that, they become unreadable. The issue is combinatorial explosion: the number of combinations grows way too fast. With more than three groups, the diagram quickly becomes a cluttered mess, making it impossible to extract meaningful insights:
A better option: Upset Plot
The UpSet Plot is a powerful alternative that scales well with many groups.
It has a bar chart at the top that shows the size of each group combination. Then the X-axis grid indicates which groups contribute to each bar.
It's much clearer than a cluttered Venn diagram! Take a moment to study the figure:
Origin & Implementation
The UpSet plot was introduced in 2014 and quickly gained traction. You can build it using one of those tools:
In R, use the {upsetR} package to build one. I even wrote an example in the R Graph Gallery.
In Python, there’s the UpSetPlot package (though I haven’t used it personally).
In JavaScript, you can use upsetjs.
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And that's it for today!
I hope you discovered a new chart type and more importantly, that you'll get to use it someday! ☺️
Before I go, here’s one of the latest testimonials for Matplotlib Journey I got. I hope it can motivate you to join the course in the remaining 48h!
