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The Visualising Data Newsletter - Issue #11, December 2024
Published 22 days ago • 12 min read
Welcome to the latest issue of the 'Visualising Data Newsletter', chronicling the most insightful and delightful data viz content every month, straight to your inbox.
Each month I collect, curate, then publish a selection of links to 50 of the best, most interesting, most thought-provoking data visualisation-related content I've encountered during the previous month. This month's issue relates to content I saw published during November 2024. To catch up on all previous monthly issues visit my Newsletter page.
This is the last issue of the year so let me wish all those who celebrate a very Merry Christmas and to all a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2025!
Thanks for reading and see you again in January.
Andy
Latest from me...
Firstly, some recent posts or announcements relating to my professional services and activities.
I recently announced details of my next public training course which will be a virtual 'Masterclass in Data Visualisation' course taking place over Zoom during February 18th, 19th and 20th. Each daily session will be 4 hours in length, running 1pm to 5pm (UK, GMT). Visit the links for more details about the course, pricing including possible discounts, and how to register.
On the 4th December I hosted a live webinar featuring a panel of five brilliant guests discussing ‘The State of Data Viz’. This ~100 min session was then published as two separate audio and video episodes of my Explore Explain series. It was a brilliant conversation and we covered a lot of ground, also with the help of the audience. Visit the link to find details of how to watch or listen back.
In the previous issues I reported how my book had gone to print and then had been published in the UK and EU. I hear from my publishers that it is now also available in India and will be reaching the North American market later in December and then Australia/NZ early in the new year. I specify those regions only because those are the main markets of my publisher in terms of their regional offices/printing operations but it also reflects the steady release across all regions and on all book-buying platforms. I'll keep adding direct links to prominent outlets on my book site. I also want to mention for those based in the UK (and specifically in London) that I will be holding a book launch event in London during the early evening after work on Thursday 6th February. More details will be published when I resume after the holiday break.
"In 1973, Roe v. Wade granted a nationwide right to abortion and helped create a path to access". Taking that language of 'paths' and extrapolating it to the metaphor of 'mazes', Jan and Michelle, show in this outstanding piece how, for women in the US, 'abortion access has rarely been a straight line — it’s full of twists, turns, and roadblocks'.
2. How Trump built his victory, vote by vote | Washington Post
One of the best visual concepts I've seen all year. As Chiqui Esteban mentions in his accompanying post "every election, we try to find one way to visualize the result in a different way. This time, every vote is a grain of sand, and we go deep into it...". Just brilliant.
I adore this interactive web app project by Dentsu Tokyo using the charming aesthetic style of analogue woodcut stamps to allow rail users to collect unique symbols of their journeys as they visit over 900 different stations around Japan. (It inspired me to get my own stamp made!)
As part of the #30DayMapChallenge Alex embarked on an absolutely stunning 3D-printed version of John Snow’s 1854 'cholera map' of Soho. It took him ages, he says, which is why I include this with a degree of hesitation as I wish not worsen the growing demand for him to produce many more of these. (*declaration: I am extremely fortunate and grateful to have received this piece of work from Alex but it was already at the top of my bookmarks to include this month anyway)
"NYC is having the driest fall on record... only 0.01 inches of rain fell in October. There were 29 whole days with no rainfall, the second longest stretch in the city's history. "
"Every print in this project visualizes an entire year of birding data from eBird in a specific region. These hand-coded 100% AI-free artworks are staggeringly detailed, representing hundreds of thousands of observations of millions of birds."
"Seeing as Bluesky is in that phase of growth where users like nothing more than talking about the platform they are currently posting on, this live feed of EVERYTHING BEING POSTED HERE RIGHT NOW AS IT HAPPENS, IN 3D, will likely appeal"
... and this one visualises the frequency of letters in English words and where they occur in the word, which might be useful research for the Wordle-ers amongst you.
In a similar theme, Karim has built a fun app to explore baby name trends over time using the variation in the height of the letters in the word to show the popularity evolve.
12. National Gallery - Maps of paintings | Tiziana Alocci
"My biggest project of the year is out now! The National Gallery commissioned me to create an experimental mapping project to allow visitors to join in celebrating the Gallery’s 200th anniversary of connecting people with paintings."
"We created a groundbreaking interactive data visualisation for ONE Campaign that tracks progress in global financing for People and Planet. It was presented live at the UN General Assembly."
There were many exceptional bodies of work created for this annual map-athon, I've just picked out one collection, Jo Wood's, to showcase the incredible work he produced. You should check out as many portfolios as possible by searching for #30DayMapChallenge.
Some typically lovely data design and visuals work by Valentina in this collaboration: "Critical Minerals explores the profound transformation in our global energy landscape as we shift towards renewable sources"
Another entry this month for great work published on the The Pudding, here's a fun piece by David Mora and Michelle Jia looking at the apparent demise of the love song, or at least as far as the baby-boomer generation see it.
"Some diagrams for our latest visual investigation of the Bayesian, the $40 million superyacht that sank quickly due to the extra-tall mast, which made it vulnerable. "
"The 2024 US Presidential Election Eclipse: a multivariate moonpie symbolised Dorling cartogram. Forget red/blue maps, this one covers virtually every metric you can think of, providing nuance to the result."
I've not really had the appetite to spend much time looking back over many of the US election data viz pieces but this is a great catch-all collection from Lisa - "Curious how different news sites visualize U.S. election results? Here are 25+ links" - plus suggestions in the comments.
Relevant articles, interviews, or videos to help further your development in data viz.
24. Data Visualization Titles: A Taxonomy | FILWD
Enrico's follow up piece to his earlier article about the 'science behind titles' now shifts to the practicalities of the process behind how and what you should include in a title. Under-discussed topic but so important.
25. Behind the story idea: Sitters and Standers | Big Charts
Alvin Chang goes through the BTS details of his brilliant visual analysis of peoples' working conditions and how we've gone from standers to sitters, published on The Pudding.
Alberto announced the (likely 2nd half of) 2025 launch of his 'Open Visualization Academy', which will be "a free, open source, and constantly expanding library of knowledge of anything related to information design and visualization (not just data visualization) that I’ll curate"
27. Beyond the Visuals: Elevating Text as a First-Class Citizen in Dashboard Design | Tableau
Tableau Researchers Nicole Sultanum and Vidya Setlur, have been trying to "elevate text as a first-class citizen for data analysis and communication". This article explores the critical role of text in dashboard design, highlighting best practices and future opportunities for integrating text to enhance data communication and user interaction.
"People are now using LLMs to create charts and graphs. How might we assess the quality and consistency of the results? DracoGPT is a method that fits a visualization knowledge base (Draco) to LLM responses, enabling comparison across models, prompts, and results from human subjects experiments."
29. A famous climate graphic is running out of red | BBC Earthshots
"Scientists added a new shade to a graphical representation of global temperature change to keep up with our warming world. They are now adapting the idea to illustrate other environmental challenges."
31. Good Morning Data #7 | False Positives: The Imposter Syndrome in Dataviz | Nightingale
Julie's ongoing residence in this newsletter continues with this honest piece about her suffering from imposter syndrome all her life: "As a freelancer, it means whenever I’m given a new mission, my first two reactions are to jump at the ceiling in joy and fall on the ground in despair." (Side note: when everyone thinks they are imposters, as most of us seem to do in data viz, the truth is likely that none of us are - that's how I've tried to make peace with it).
32. Visualization in Motion: How to Create Effective Data Visualization with Real-Time Data | Elijah Meeks on Bluesky
"I gave a talk about realtime data viz and how we need to develop a better understanding of encodings that are more suited to realtime (like animation) as well as strive for data views that look and act different than those for batch data."
I was reminded of this class piece from 2020 from Mike: "There are many ways to compare values. Depending on what you seek to understand, one method may be better than another. In this post, we’ll walk through some common methods and consider their uses."
"After years of teaching the benefits of paper sketches for better thinking in design, I finally made it a habit—and it’s been transformative. From finding peace and focus to fostering true teamwork, the impact on my workflow and creativity has been profound."
"The effort to preserve data is an act of stewardship. Visualizing data is more than arranging numbers or statistics; it’s about capturing the human experience as it unfolds. If we view ourselves as caretakers of digital memory, then it becomes our responsibility to protect that memory from slipping away"
Nice thread from Evan as he explores a concept his students struggle with: “why do their 📊 look more professional than my 📊?” and how its down to the many many tiny decisions...
Like Evan's post, here's another recent demonstration of how Bluesky has really captured the spirit of peak Twitter and its value as a place for pleasant, constructive discourse and discussion: "The other day we had an interesting discussion about election cartograms in our team that I think is share-worthy..."
"Interested in buying something special for the map enthusiasts in your life (or yourself)? Skip the giant companies and go straight to the source: there are loads of skilled, independent cartographers out there whose work you can buy!"
A similar mention here for a place to buy beautiful visuals. I've always loved the exquisite craftsmanship of data artist and designer Nicholas Rougeux, and he's now launched a shop to buy copies of his extensive collection of works.
Congratulations to Javier and his USA Today graphics team on winning a bunch of E&P Magazine 'Eppy' awards. Javier is one of the best and nicest people I've met in this field so its brilliant to see his team thriving.
44. The Golden Age of Data Visualization: How Did We Get Here? | Routledge
New book by Kim Marriott which proposes that we are indeed living in the 'Golden Age of Data Visualization' and explains how and why this has happened. "This book is written for data visualization researchers and professionals and anyone interested in data visualization and the way we use graphics to understand and think about the world."
Thanks to Michaels' post, for the first time I discovered the name and the person behind the Sankey diagram, Matthew Henry Phineas Riall Sankey, who was born in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland on 9 Nov 1854, which was my Dad's birthday also.
I'm a big Christopher Nolan-ista and I've always loved this simple visual explainer he presents to describe the narrative structure of one of his first breakout movies, Memento from 2000.
47. Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016 | Asif Saddiqi on Bluesky
"Some time ago, NASA hired me to write about stuff humanity had flung into the heavens, far beyond Earth. They published it in 2018. This is it, a 372-page reference on every spaceship sent to deep space"
48. Denis Cherim captures surprising, well-timed, and occasionally ironic glimpses of daily life | This Is Colossal
"Often using a digital camera, Cherim captures the way lines converge to create surprising symmetry or sunlight glitters off the sea and appears to emanate from a street lamp. The photos are part of his ongoing series, The Coincidence Project, which he has been developing since 2012."
49. Touchscreens Are Out, and Tactile Controls Are Back | IEEE Spectrums
Rachel Plotnick’s 're-buttonization' expertise is in demand: "There was this kind of touchscreen mania, where all of a sudden everything became a touchscreen ...Over time, people became somewhat fatigued."
I’m ANDY KIRK, an independent data visualisation expert currently based in the UK. My vision is to deliver data viz excellence, everywhere. I offer data visualisation professional services to clients worldwide in my capacity as a design consultant, a prolific and experienced trainer, as a four-times published author, as a researcher and sought-after speaker. I'm editor of visualisingdata.com and host of the Explore Explain video and podcast series. If you have a desire to elevate your data viz capabilities, whether at the start of your journey or further along, get in touch.
Newsletter compiled and published by Andy Kirk on behalf of Visualising Data Ltd, 41 Talbot Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS8 1AG Unsubscribe | Update your profile
Andy Kirk | Visualising Data
Independent Data Visualisation Expert
Subscribe to the 'Visualising Data Newsletter' to elevate your understanding with my monthly chronicle of the most insightful and delightful data viz content.
Welcome to the latest issue of the 'Visualising Data Newsletter', chronicling the most insightful and delightful data viz content every month, straight to your inbox. Each month I collect, curate, then publish a selection of links to 50 of the best, most interesting, most thought-provoking data visualisation-related content I've encountered during the previous month. This month's issue relates to content I saw published during October 2024. I hope you continue to find this newsletter useful...
Welcome to the latest issue of the 'Visualising Data Newsletter', chronicling the most insightful and delightful data viz content every month, straight to your inbox. Each month I collect, curate, then publish a selection of links to 50 of the best, most interesting, most thought-provoking data visualisation-related content I've encountered during the previous month. This month's issue relates to content I saw published during September. As always, I hope you continue to find this newsletter...
Welcome to the latest issue of the 'Visualising Data Newsletter', chronicling the most insightful and delightful data viz content every month, straight to your inbox. Each month I collect, curate, then publish a selection of links to 50 of the best, most interesting, most thought-provoking data visualisation-related content I've encountered during the previous month. This month's issue relates to new content I saw published during August. With the format of this newsletter becoming...