Caps are in the Playoffs!
The Washington Capitals made it into the NHL playoffs last night after a 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Fans have observed the Caps huge negative goal differential–the difference between the...
View ArticleSimplicity vs. Clarity
With many of my data visualization clients or classes, I like to begin with a simple exercise: draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper. On the left side, write down a list of the things you...
View ArticleBack to Viz Basics: Flourish Edition
Over the past three years, Eric Balash, a Tableau Visionary and Tableau Public Ambassador, has been running the “Back to Viz Basics” (B2VB) project. The idea is to create a community of people new to...
View ArticleBringing Data to Life: One Frustration with Academic Publishing
For the past year, I have conducted a weekly “data physicalization” project with my colleagues at the Urban Institute. Each week, I would devise a new research question and give my colleagues the...
View ArticleA Tale of Data Visualization: Inspiration, Imitation, and Tribute
An age-old data visualization debate reared its head again recently when The European Correspondent (EC) published a new graphic titled “Terrorism’s bloody toll,” which looked and felt strikingly...
View ArticleDataViz Style Guide Blog Series
For the last couple of years, I’ve been meeting pretty regularly with Max Graze, Amy Cesal, and Alan Wilson to explore and better understand data visualization style guides. There’s a lot to learn here...
View ArticleFact-Checking 60,000 Thoughts: The Mystery Behind a Misleading Statistic
In 2015, I wrote a thorough take down of the (erroneous) claim that humans “can process visuals 60,000 times faster than text.” which turned out to be one of the most popular posts I’ve ever published...
View ArticleIntroducing “Friends of Flourish”– Join The New Slack Workspace!
I am excited to announce the launch Friends of Flourish, a dedicated Slack workspace for the community of creators, collaborators, and Flourish enthusiasts! Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just...
View ArticleBeyond the Map: How Marimekko Charts Offer a New Perspective on Election Results
Maybe the most common data visualizations to show election results are maps. Maps, maps, maps. People love maps. The challenge with maps related to elections, however, is that they don’t always...
View ArticleIntroducing the Urban Institute Data Visualization Style Guide’s Open-Source...
Last week, the Urban Institute released an updated version of the Urban Institute Data Visualization Style Guide, including new details on Urban’s data visualization branding, best practices, and...
View Article