Welcome to the latest issue of the 'Visualising Data Newsletter', chronicling 50 of the most insightful and delightful data viz pieces of content I encountered during November and December 2025.

Why two months? I did a fair bit of work travel in November, then I moved house in December, so when you add Christmas distractions into the mix I didn't manage time to do any newsletter-curating.

We're now two years into this newsletter's life so that's enough intro, let's just get straight into it!

Happy Viz'ing, see you in Feb.

Andy

Latest from me...

Firstly, some recent posts or announcements relating to my professional services and activities.

Visuals

The freshest data visualisation (or related) design pieces and collections.

7. The X Effect | Sky News​

A deep visual exploration of how the 'World's Richest Man is Boosting The British Right'

8. How a US home insurance fix is becoming a problem | Reuters​

Love the sketchy texture used for the various chart marks in this piece.

9. Inside the Deportation Machine | New York Times​

So many visualisations tend to concern grim topics, but you can still appreciate the severity of the content whilst appreciation the cleverness of how its portrayed and communicated.

10. Trump's Immigration Data Dragnet | Financial Times​

...and related is this from the FT looking at how "ICE makes arrests every day by linking federal, state and commercial data systems"

11. What would happen if the Amazon rainforest collapsed? | @patrickstotz on Bluesky​

If you can get a sub to access the excellent visuals on Spiegel, here's another sobering but well executed piece about the deforestation feedback loop.

12. Are you in TikTok’s cat niche? What 121,000 videos reveal. | Washington Post​

"Have you wondered how TikTok knows to show you cat videos, while a friend gets Call of Duty clips and politics — but no cats?" Such a clever approach to translating a complex network into a usefully-simplified semantic map

13. The State of Neuroscience 2025 | The Transmitter​

And speaking of semantic mapping, this is a stunning new interactive work by Moritz Stefaner charting 50 years of neuroscience research through trends and networks.

14. Trans News Initiative​

The Trans News Initiative is a vast new project from the Trans Journalists Association in collaboration with Polygraph and the University of Miami's School of Communication, dedicated to "tracking and analyzing news coverage of trans communities across the United States". The tool has analysed over 190K articles published by national news outlets in the U.S. to "provide data for journalists, media organizations, and researchers committed to covering issues that impact trans people fairly and accurately."

15. South Korea Has a Coffee Shop Problem | New York Times​

From co-author Pablo Robles, "We analyzed over 170,000 café records across South Korea to map the real hot-coffee zones in a country where cafés seem to exist on every corner. We captured hundreds of photos and stitched them together to recreate what it actually feels like to walk through one of Korea’s most iconic café streets. But even though opening a café rarely makes anyone rich, the hype still keeps people taking the risk."

16. CTrees | Pentagram​

"A data-driven digital redesign of the global non-profit organization with a mission to inform climate change policies by tracking carbon in every tree on the planet."

17. Mapping Singapore through 60 books | Straits Times​

Another stunning piece from the ST, whereby Graphics team "pored over 60 works of Singapore literature written in, or translated into, English and noticed the places which appeared repeatedly, the spaces to which writers kept returning." resulting in such a charming story built around a sequential thread of place.

18. The world's time zones visualized on a spinnable, interactive globe | Kyle Walker on LinkedIn​

Nothing to add, check it out!

19. Our team’s favorite visualizations of 2025 | Datawrapper​

The DW team always have a well-tuned sense of what's good and what's out there, so this holiday special 'Our team’s favorite visualizations of 2025' is a worthwhile shortcut to finding the year's best stuff.

20. The hypocrite's guide to Christmas shopping | Not-Ship​

Another submission for Amanda (I'm covering a two month period of her weekly newsletter pieces here so I can't just select one!) this looks at confronting and altering one's consumer habits at Christmas time.

21. Maps For Kids | Chartography​

"Three new wall maps for curious kids (and kids at heart)."

22. Every Bird | Jer Thorp​

Jer's found such a hot stream of data and design possibilities in the diversity of bird species and these "distinctive data-driven art works" celebrate that. "Choose from 16 Every Bird variants, with their own unique character, from Iceland to Indonesia, Scotland to Central Park."

23. Lazy Cats​

Watch out birds, here come the cats. Well, if they're bothered. Created by Lisa Hornung, this 'visual investigation into feline laziness' piece asks and answers the important question: Do cats really loaf all day?

Learning

Relevant articles, interviews, or videos to help further your development in data viz.

27. Presentation/Paper Highlights from IEEE VIS 2025 | FILWD on Substack​

Enrico provides a valuable summary of the IEEE Vis conference and the presentations of papers that caught his eye

28. Our tips for sourcing data | The Economist: Off the Charts​

Newsrooms offer the better source of such practical wisdom.

29. Designing for the Moment | Newspaper Design​

Nice interview with Luke Knox "on the Craft and Clarity Behind ESPN’s Visual Storytelling"

30. From Metrics to Mood: The Emotional Story in A HYROX Race | Nightingale​

"In the world of sports performance, data is everywhere. Watches track heart rates, apps monitor recovery, and race platforms log every split and second. But when all that data is condensed into a single visual, a story emerges: the numbers stop being neutral—they speak with raw emotion."

31. I want to stop defining by the negative | Aman Bhargava​

I really liked this approach Aman expresses to switching the critical mindset from what something is not or is missing to what something is.

32. Why interesting data is probably wrong | Storytelling With Data​

Mike Cisneros looks at Twyman’s Law: “Any figure that looks interesting or different is usually wrong.”

33. Charts Follow Chaos | Chartography​

Telling the history of Jules Petiet, the pioneer of the 'time-distance' map.

34. How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it | Lauren Leek on Substack​

"I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy."

35. Breaking New Ground with the Straits Times | The Data Journalism Podcast​

Its not just me banging the Straits Times drum! Featuring this week are Charlene Chua, Hannah Ong, and Stephanie Adeline to discuss "their work and how the Straits Times became such a powerhouse of data journalism".

36. Map Making (1961) | British Pathe on Youtube​

Vintage footage of Ordnance Survey workers demonstrating the techniques used to developing detailed maps.

37. Dos and don'ts on designing for accessibility | Gov.uk​

From 10 years ago but still very relevant today

38. A year end update | Pablo Robles​

"12 months of visual reporting, behind the scenes, dozens of folders, and new home." - Always insightful to hear from thoughtful reflectors like Pablo about the bumps and bruises and 'chaos' behind the scenes of visual journalism - "This year pushed me way out of my comfort zone. Most of the time, I was just trying to figure out how to visualize complex things under a lot of pressure in non-traditional ways."

News & Sundries

Latest developments, announcements, or announcements affecting the data viz world, as well as additional references to pieces covering broader data, tech, or design matters.

40. Uncharted Territory | Blackwells​

New Book! "Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us About the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves" by Chris Dalla Riva

41. Radical Cartography | Amazon​

Another new book! "Radical Cartography: How Changing Our Maps Can Change Our World" by Bill Rankin

42. Storytellers... | The Guardian​

..."how the world’s oldest job became the hottest new corporate job title"

43. A prestigious win for Reuters | Press Club Institute​

"Reuters journalists are the first recipients of the inaugural Pamela Tobey Award for Excellence in Visual Storytelling... The winning project, 'The unexploded bombs of Gaza,' was produced by Emma Farge, Adolfo Arranz, Han Huang, Simon Scarr, and Nidal al-Mughrabi." - congratulations to all!

44. Svelteplot 0.7 is out! | Gregor Aisch on Bluesky​

"Lots of new features since the last time I posted here: jitter transform, dodge transform (for beeswarm plots), stackMarimekko, image mark, and most recently the waffle mark! And the website now features a ton of examples.

45. Fifteen Years | xkcd​

Just see for yourself

46. Antirender​

"Antirender converts architects presentation drawings into the likely reality of the designs"

47. The pacifist weapons engineer who changed toys for good | BBC​

The story of Leeds-born inventor of the Spirograph, Denys Fisher

48. Pocket Boss​

Created by Mario von Rickenbach Pocket Boss is "the game where you handle lots of fun data and one not-so-fun boss."

49. RIP The Guy Who Put The Little Arrow On Your Fuel Gauge Though I Think There Was An Earlier One | The Autopian​

(Not a The Onion article.)

50. Christmas hunt: 25 holiday treasures | Straits Times​

... and finally, another from the ST, just in time for Christmas, it was a 'Where's Wally'/"Where's Waldo" type interactive game to find all 25 holiday treasures in the illustrated scene.

Thanks for reading!

Hi, I’m ANDY KIRK, an independent data visualisation expert. 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.

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