5 Things I’ve Learned Posting a Data Viz Everyday in the First Half of 2020
By: Avery Smith
Tags: Data Visualization, Graph, Inspiration, Instagram, Charts

In 2020, I set out with a goal to post a cool data visualization to my Instagram every day. The goal was to be personally inspired by all your amazing data viz and then pass it along, to inspire others. I also wanted to learn and understand all the different techniques, charts, and ways to displaying data.

Six months later, I’ve scoured through, analyzed, and posted over 182 different data visualizations. What have I learned?

1) Data visuals are everywhere, if you are looking for them

Because I started this quest to post one data visualization everyday, I started looking for them. And guess what? They’re everywhere in the wild. It was super easy to find them. It seems like every app, website, and company has a “stats” page for you now days. Just open up your phone, do any of these pages look familiar to you?

Top Left to Bottom Right: Google Analytics, iRobot Roomba, Medium, Instagram, Apple Health, Apple Screen Time

Data viz is becoming a part of our daily lives. We are constantly seeing graphs and interpreting their meaning. With the rise of big data, there must be an equal rise in data visualization making and understanding. Data unvisualized remains relatively useless. We saw this to be extremely true with Corona Virus news. The media was constantly sharing the John Hopkin’s Dashboard or John Burn-Murdoch’s country tracker. Data is most easily digestible for humans through visual display.

I thought it might be hard to find something worth sharing everyday, but turns out, it’s more harder deciding what to share! Google searches, Instagram, FlowingData.com, Tableau Public, Twitter, Reddit, Data Viz Society, ect have made it very easy to find aesthetic, information rich charts.

2) People really like maps

Maps are powerful in data visualization for two fold. One, they portray multiple dimensions extremely well in a familiar fashion that everyone understands. Two, they allow viewers to relate the data. It lets users relate to the data by saying, “Oh, I live here…this is where my mom lives…oh, and man, look at what’s happening where Johnny lives.” It allows data to be personable.

For example, I’m currently playing Animal Crossing on my Nintendo Switch. It’s a lot of fun, but more importantly, it is incredibly therapeutic and relaxing. I made this map via Google Trends data and Flourish to show what states are most interested in the game. The results? The West Coast loves it! Oregon? Really likes it! Does your state like Animal Crossing?

Animal Crossing search map from my Instagram

3) People are amazed by animated data viz

Animations are fun, interesting, and informative. In the digital age, video is king. Turning a graph into a video proves for an engaged audience.

Take this silly animated chart I made about how successful Netflix originals are as a function of days after they were released. This little graph got over 170,000 view on TikTok (personal record)! It also proved to be one of my most viewed, liked, and saved Instagram posts. Sound on for the full experience 😉

Netflix Original Comparison (made via Flourish, data via Google Trends)

4) People enjoy dark mode

While the debates between dark and light mode rave on, I’m a huge fan of dark mode. The tiger king animation is dark screen and big fan favorite…but what about others? Do people seem to like graphs with a darker background, or the cleaner white?

While I don’t have any concrete analysis on this, I have my own empirical evidence suggesting dark mode is at least more likable on Instagram.

Insights from my Instagram

This screenshot shows my top liked posts on Instagram. Eight out of my top ten have been dark mode. Correlation or causation? I don’t have the statistical tests to prove it, but I believe. Dark mode for the win!

This is interesting as most data visualization tools start with a white background as a default. Is there evidence that starting with a dark background could make your visual more interesting?

Note that point two in this article holds valid here; five out of the top ten are maps.

5) People are intrigued by polar charts

Polar charts are often frowned upon by the data professional ensemble, but it seems like the public really enjoys them.

This amazing chart of sentiment analysis in the bible got people really intrigued:

Read OpenBible.Info’s Post about Making This

So did these plots from Google News Lab exploring The Rhythm of Food.

Kale’s Rhythm (Good News Lab)

I think people in general think circles are pretty aesthetic. I also think charts and graphs are usually predominantly thought of as rectangular. The geometry change is fun and is easy to understand, while remaining impactful

Half Way To Go

While the past 182.5 days have been awesome, I’m excited for the next 182.5. There are still themes to explore, tools to learn about, and a lot of data viz to slobber over and be inspired by.

Please join me on this journey! Send me some of your own data visualizations. Come be inspired by others’ work. Let’s learn together!