A “Taste” of What’s to Come
By: Claire Santoro
Tags: Data Visualization, Data Physicalization, Civic Engagement, Dataviz, Information Design

A “Taste” of What’s to Come

With the end of 2020 approaching, many of us are starting to turn our thoughts to our various holiday traditions. Unfortunately, those traditions will likely look different this year because of COVID. Fortunately, data visualization is here to answer all your pressing holiday-related questions, such as:

How long do I cook the turkey for American Thanksgiving? And what if I want prime rib roast instead?

Luckily, DVS co-founder Amy Cesal has those answers for you, beautifully crafted in Play-Doh as part of her award-winning #DayDohViz series:

Amy Cesal’s Holiday Meat Cook Times

Here at Nightingale we are big fans of creative, personal dataviz like Amy’s. In late November, we will be publishing a series of articles exploring how we can communicate data using senses other than sight — what we’re calling “Data Sensification” — so you can expect to read much more about data physicalization, sonification, smellification, and tastification in the weeks ahead.

Feeling inspired to visualize your own holiday traditions? Send us photos or screenshots of your creations (email pitchnightingale@gmail.com with the subject line “holiday dataviz”), and we’ll feature a few in subsequent issues of The ‘Gale.

Write All About It!

The end of the year is traditionally one of the busiest seasons for retail shopping. What can data visualization tell us about consumerism? How have data journalists covered the impact of COVID on retail? From a sustainability perspective — can data visualization help reduce consumerism? Nightingale is looking for a piece (or pieces) related to consumerism. Pitch us your ideas! Email pitchnightingale@gmail.com with the subject line “consumerism dataviz.”

Three Questions With… Simon Rogers

This week we’re chatting with Simon Rogers, a data journalist and data editor at Google News Lab. Simon is the author of Facts are Sacred and numerous infographics for children’s books, as well as the creator and former editor of the Guardian’s Datablog. Without further ado:

1. If you could be any type of chart, what would you be?

I would be a choropleth, a map, because it’s really easy to get them right but also really easy to get them wrong. I’m always striving to get the data visualisations right while simultaneously recognizing the possibility of getting them wrong.

2. If you were stuck on a desert island, what viz would you want to create and what would you use to make it?

First, I would map out the island. I would have to use what’s available, so — coconuts and palm leaves and things that aren’t going to blow around. I’d need a big flat rock. Once I’d mapped it, I’d want to get a sense of the biology of the island. I’d want to make sure there are no monsters hiding, and I’d need to know where there is food. After all of that, I’d be trying to distract myself with things like visualising song lyrics.

3. What is one visualization that has inspired you?

John Snow’s cholera map and Florence Nightingale’s rose chart — not because I want to make them, but because they show people the opposite of what they expect. With Nightingale, it was that more people died from preventable causes than from combat. John Snow wasn’t a visual artist and yet he created something so important that it changed the world, which is pretty unusual.

I’ve also always loved Dorling Kindersley (DK) cutaway books. Those are actually my favorite with which to just relax.

Cathedral cutaway from Stephen Biesty’s Incredible Cross-Sections

In the Wild

Here are some dataviz and dataviz-adjacent items that we thought were worth sharing:

Playing Arts asked designers to use playing cards as a canvas to illustrate what the world will look like 100 years from now

The Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals, an interactive datastorytelling and data visualization series summarizing global progress

“100 New Yorkers” by Mona Chalabi visualizes New York City demographics

In Case You Missed It …

A critique of the 2020 election night data storytelling

News websites consider audiences’ questions and focus the display on delivering answers as quickly as possible. Andy Cotgreave’s article explores the gulf between US news websites’ charts and those used by TV networks.

One of Andy’s example revisions for improved data storytelling on US TV networks

Exploring COVID knowledge, attitudes, and practices from 67 countries

Amanda Makulec reports on the KAP COVID study team’s analysis of individual behavior data to help policymakers and health communicators more effectively target perception, knowledge, and critical prevention messaging.

Map of the 67 countries included in the KAP-COVID Study from the dashboard

More from Nightingale

Information Design Round-Up: Election Edition

Highlights from IEEE VIS 2020

Celebrate #BlackInData Week from November 16–21, 2020

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Growing as Designers, with CLEVER°FRANKE

Visualizing India’s Public Health Infrastructure

What to Expect from Setting Expectations