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, for this issue, during March AND April 2026.

It was a very busy time work wise so that's why I had to bundle two months of saved links together into one issue. The busy times have continued and so I know already that my next issue will be a combined collection published in July (rather than June). I hope to resume the normal monthly-frequency again thereafter.

Happy Viz'ing!

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 New Moonshot | ABC​

Another masterful piece telling the story of the latest NASA mission from the folks at ABC. "Sit back and let us take you on a journey to the moon on board Artemis II."

8. ‘This feels fragile’: how a satellite-smashing chain reaction could spiral out of control | The Guardian​

"Today, the space around Earth can no longer be considered empty. More than 30,000 objects are in orbit, and that figure is rising exponentially"

9. Awaiting Justice | Reuters​

Inspired by the “Lennon Walls” of colourful Post-it notes that sprang up in solidarity with Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters in 2019 this story depicts the cases against activists, politicians, lawyers, students and journalists.

10. Jeffrey Epstein’s elite relationships visualised: the banker, the economist and the director | The Guardian​

"In this second of a two-part series, The Guardian has focused on Epstein’s links to high-profile people in business and the arts", analysing "more than a million files and identified more than 150,000 unique emails for this investigation"

11. Human cost of violence, tragedies and disasters | Alyssa Flowers on Bluesky​

Alyssa put a call out for data viz folks to contribute their favorite "visual that focuses on the human cost of violence, tragedies and disasters? The most emotionally impactful visualization? The most visually striking?" and this is the resulting thread of contributions.

12. Portraits of Populations | Aman Bhargava​

"The Census of India has never been very reader-friendly. But in 1970s, a series of events led to government putting effort into publishing very interesting, truly "Indian" #dataviz for the average reader. My new story, with an explorer and some comics..."

13. AI chatbots know more about you than you realise | The Straits Times​

"AI is changing the online privacy game. One of the most unnerving risks may not come from what we divulge to chatbots knowingly, but from the personal details they can determine that we never even tell them..."

14. Research your family's Nazi past here [Translated] | Die Zeit​

Huge project that has absolute cut through out of the normal circles such a newspaper/data viz piece normally will: "We've analyzed millions of member records from the Nazi-Party NSDAP and made them searchable and browsable."

15. OpenAI is shipping everything. Anthropic is perfecting one thing. | Sherwood​

"The two AI titans are in a race to grow revenues, but they have very different strategies for releasing products. And one approach appears to be winning out."

16. Thread about car access and deprivation | Jo Wood on Bluesky​

"Inspired by this video Are Bike Lanes Actually Ruining Our Cities? I thought I'd explore some of the statistics around car access and deprivation with some datavis and analysis."

17. The Rise of the Manhattan Mega-Mansion | Bloomberg​

"We looked at where and how the ultra-rich are buying and combining two – sometimes three – adjacent townhomes to convert them into single-family housing (often featuring an elevator and a flashy central staircase.)"

18. How Blocking Oil and Gas From Leaving the Strait of Hormuz Ripples Around the World | New York Times​

"Trade is trickling through the vital artery connecting the Persian Gulf and the world, creating an economic shock thousands of miles away."

19. Below the Fold​

"I built a dashboard to explore the last 25+ years of New York Times' coverage. 1.5B words, 2.2M articles, 26K reporters. It's fascinating to look at the world’s preeminent attention-gathering org not as daily stories but as patterns of attention, ebbing and flowing."

20. The Strait of Hormuz Oil Shock Is Now Heading West | Bloomberg​

"The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for a month now, and nothing can prepare the West for the oil shock to come. Stockpile releases and export diversions are not enough to close the gap, and an estimated 11 million barrels of oil are lost daily"

21. The Leader Board that Changed Golf | Sportsball​

"As sports become more digital by the day, The Masters might be the last true analog sanctuary. No phones on the course. No massive video boards everywhere. No constant stream of updates in your pocket. Which raises a simple question: How do you actually know what’s going on?"

22. Pokemon tree of life | The Straits Times​

Another wonderful piece from the ST this period with this extravagant interactive scrolly-telling dendrogram-fest. "From complex ecosystems to ancient folklore, the Pokemon universe is a mirror of our own. To celebrate three decades of catching ’em all, explore the parallels between fact and fiction in this tree of life"

23. Annual Report 2025 | Shomrim​

Having had some insight into the process of this work I know how much effort has gone in to crafting and convincing of this approach to reporting on the year in the newsroom of Israel's equivalent to ProPublica.

24. The Age of Buildings in the Netherlands (revisited) | Bert Spaan​

"12½ years ago, I made a map of all the buildings in the Netherlands. Unexpectedly, people loved it! Ever since, I have been wanting to make an updated version of the map. Newer data, higher resolution, more interactive! I never got around to it, until last week..."

Learning

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

28. Data Visualization in the Age of AI | Paolo Ciuccarelli​

"A panel at Northeastern’s Design Research Week 2026 revealed productive tensions about text interfaces, creative friction, and whether AI even knows what visualization is."

29. Dorling Cartograms – so how should those circles be scaled anyway? | Observable​

Jonatan Hildén examines different approaches to sizing data-associated circles using Area scaling, Flannery scaling, and Radius scaling.

30. New Types of Databases | Pablo Robles​

"In modern journalism, we must act as designers, editors, illustrators, reporters, cartographers, and researchers to truly visualize complexity. Drawing on my eight years covering the shifting landscape of Asia and my role as a visual journalist, I shared how we can transform raw information into urgent, human-centric stories."

31. Bathymetry - Mapping the sea floor | NOAA​

"In this activity, students simulate the techniques oceanographers use to explore and map the sea floor... This hands-on experiment introduces concepts in sonar mapping, underwater landforms, and marine technology."

32. Cabinet of Infographic Curiosities | Attila Bátorfy on Bluesky​

All posts, present and past, from the wonderful 'Cabinet of Infographic Curiosities' are now available to access for free.

33. Fix my chart: Presidential approval ratings | Datawrapper​

You simply cannot have too much Gregor Aisch in any collection of suggested links, so here he is again in this issue with a smart piece recalling when a colleague at Die Zeit asked him for help with a line chart showing approval ratings of U.S. presidents.

34. The development of visual acuity and crowding reveals the slow fine-tuning of foveal vision | Nature​

"Why do children struggle to recognise objects in cluttered scenes more than adults? Our new paper looks at the development of visual acuity and crowding across childhood, and the way the visual system fine tunes our ability to see detail"

35. Visualising Climate Data – Climate Conversations | Youtube​

"How do you make millions of data points understandable in a single glance? Discover the art and science behind climate data visualisation. From the iconic warming stripes to the frontiers of visual climate communication. Featuring Prof Ed Hawkins (creator of the warming stripes) and Met Office Senior Scientist Neil Kaye."

36. The Power of Data Storytelling: Gurman Bhatia Breaks It Down | Newspaper Design​

In this delightful conversation Gurman Bhatia, founder of Revisual Labs and I think one of the smartest people I've come across in this industry, shares her journey from traditional reporting to cutting-edge data visualization.

37. Upload your sketch, get feedback | Steef​

Interesting experiment/development from Ben De Jong, Steef is an "AI assistant that helps people visualize data more effectively [by looking at] charts and dashboards and asks focused questions. 'Why did you choose this chart? What do you want someone to see? Who is this overview for?'"

38. The Surprising Design Secrets Behind Trust in Data Visualization | Storybench​

"A behind-the-scenes look at the invisible design choices that shape credibility in data journalism... We spoke with three influential voices in data visualization: Edward Tufte, the grandfather of information design; Alberto Cairo, Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the University of Miami; and Jan Diehm, creative director at The Pudding—to understand how they think about visual trust. What emerged wasn’t consensus, but a revealing tension about whether credibility lives in discipline or humanity, restraint or transparency."

39. Delphi tools​

Via Joey Cherdarchuk, who rightly describes this collection of free and useful tools to be wonderful. "A collection of small, low stakes and low effort tools. No logins, no registration, no data collection. I can't believe I have to say that. Long live the handmade web."

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.

41. The A.I. Disruption We've Been Waiting for Has Arrived | New York Times​

"... and its not terrible" says Paul Ford, for this opinion piece, focusing on the benefits of vibe coding capabilities equipping more people with the means to great useful tools themselves.

42. Build in Flourish, present in PowerPoint | Flourish​

Integrating embeddable, interactive, and responsive flourish visualisations into powerpoint is clearly going to be a hugely beneficial feature.

43. What We Ask Google | Penguin​

As the sub-title "A Surprisingly Hopeful History of Humankind" this new book from Simon Rogers is a really fun insight into the revealing world of what answers we search for and the topics we explore.

44. How (and why) to take a logarithm of an image | Youtube​

Shared by Jo Wood, who remarks on how Grant Sanderson is one of the most skilled visual communicators. "His explanations are pedagogic masterpieces and a joy to experience." and I can see why, even though it bent my brain, this video is a remarkable mathematical investigation into M.C. Escher's 'Prentententoonstelling' (Print Gallery)

45. MTV Rewind​

This is an MTV simulator with over 50,000 videos, organised by decade playlists, with channels for "MTV2, VH1 Pop-Up Video, MTV Spring Break, 120 Minutes, Headbanger's Ball, Yo! MTV Raps, and more."

46. Mechanical Pencil​

"An illustrated celebration of the engineering around us"

47. Many people feel they “can’t draw”... | Neil Cohn on Bluesky​

"...which seems odd given assumptions about drawing as a direct pathway to visual concepts. We can all see, so why can’t we draw? So here’s a thread why everything you know about learning to draw is wrong"

48. Peeling Back The Onion | Status​

"Ben Collins explains how The Onion is thriving by saying what others won't-and why human-created satire matters in a media landscape increasingly saturated by noise and A.I. slop." Includes the wonderful line 'The Onion's process is deeply, beautifully inefficient.'

49. Beloved by graphic designers, taken for granted by pedestrians: Inside a new book on Margaret Calvert | It's Nice That​

"Margaret Calvert and her collaborators helped shape the visual language of the United Kingdom by defining shorthand communication for motorists and pedestrians, working to create something purely logical over something fashionable."

50. An old favourite rises again...? | Infosthetics​

Noticed and shared by Nathan, "For the old heads, it looks like information aesthetics is partially back up circa 2014..."

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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