Data visualization is the presentation of data in a pictorial or graphical format. A well-designed figure can have a huge impact on the communication of research results. Data visualizations can include word clouds, bar charts, maps, or even simple tables.
According to Noah Illinsky at IBM's Center for Advanced Visualization, a successful visualization:
Read more about The Four Pillars of Visualization.
Data visualization can reveal problems in your data collection if it hasn't been cleaned properly. You don't want to make assumptions that aren't warranted! Read Hadley Wickham's "Tidy Data" to learn more about cleaning your data.