Home

Kosma Hess

Five Inspiring Data Visualization Galleries

If designed with care and preparation, data visualization can immensely improve viewers’ understanding of what is happening. Yes, data exploration and data analysis are essential,..

Or Misgav

Can We Understand Blood Test Results without Numbers? Ask Participant 23

About a year ago, I handed in my dissertation. I was examining new visualisation of blood test results amongst UK patients. The aim was to..

Sarah Clark

What’s Cookin’?

Years ago, I took the advice of a famous writer whose name I can’t recall. He suggested that for an idea to be thoroughly examined,..

Lisa Valade-DeMelo

Inspired by the Future: Star Trek and the Rise of Dataviz

The challenge of any piece of science fiction – be it literature, film or TV – is to present a complete and realistic view of..

Aaron Siegel

Dreaming of Data

For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with getting a good night’s sleep. I have often gravitated towards staying up late at..

Annick Rietz

How Long Does It Take to Fall in Love?

Humans have long been curious about the process of dating and finding the right person. Now that we can swipe left and right on the..

Latest articles

R
Joshua Pine
October 4, 2022

REVIEW: Cole Knaflic’s Storytelling With You: Plan, Create and Deliver a Stellar Presentation

We have all been on the receiving end of bad presentations. Slide decks with too much text, cluttered data visualizations and presenters who read from..
F
Kosma Hess
September 29, 2022

Five Inspiring Data Visualization Galleries

If designed with care and preparation, data visualization can immensely improve viewers’ understanding of what is happening. Yes, data exploration and data analysis are essential,..
C
Or Misgav
September 28, 2022

Can We Understand Blood Test Results without Numbers? Ask Participant 23

About a year ago, I handed in my dissertation. I was examining new visualisation of blood test results amongst UK patients. The aim was to..
Now’s the time!
Subscribe to Nightingale Magazine
Nightingale Magazine is a collectible community celebration! Our print magazine showcases some of the most compelling data visualization projects and stories from around the world.
SUBSCRIBE NOW! $40 for 2 issues
W
Sarah Clark
September 27, 2022

What’s Cookin’?

Years ago, I took the advice of a famous writer whose name I can’t recall. He suggested that for an idea to be thoroughly examined,..
R
William Careri
September 22, 2022

REVIEW: Be Data Driven by Jordan Morrow

Following up on his first book, which considered data from the individual level, Jordan Morrow’s Be Data Driven looks at harnessing the power of data..
D
Aaron Siegel
September 21, 2022

Dreaming of Data

For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with getting a good night’s sleep. I have often gravitated towards staying up late at..
Tablet with bookshelves and students searching and reading information. Digital learning, online database, content storing and searching, ebooks concept. Vector isolated illustration.A
Celia López
September 20, 2022

A Tale of Books and Bias

Books were one of our first methods of data storytelling-beyond speaking or paintings. Humans turned data into words, and now we have begun to turn..
I
Lisa Valade-DeMelo
September 15, 2022

Inspired by the Future: Star Trek and the Rise of Dataviz

The challenge of any piece of science fiction – be it literature, film or TV – is to present a complete and realistic view of..
H
Annick Rietz
September 14, 2022

How Long Does It Take to Fall in Love?

Humans have long been curious about the process of dating and finding the right person. Now that we can swipe left and right on the..
G
Milán Janosov
September 13, 2022

Game of Thrones — Network of the Dragon

One of my first data science projects was titled, Who Dies Next in the Game of Thrones?—a short article based on my data mining semester..
R
Kat Greenbrook
September 8, 2022

Reasons to Visualise the Same Data, Differently

You may have heard, “data visualisation should tell a story” – but this is not always true. Data visuals are created for many reasons: from..
I
Adam Korengold
September 7, 2022

Insights Of Their Own: Visualizing Women’s Baseball

Viz by the author.
S
Chimdi Nwosu
September 6, 2022

SPOTLIGHT: W.E.B. Du Bois Portrait Gallery

Chimdi Nwosu’s interactive visualization, the W.E.B. Du Bois Portrait Gallery, is a beautifully designed exploration of 20 re-created Du Bois charts. The gallery won Favorite..
Jigsaw puzzle partly assembled, with some linked pieces and some obvious gaps.M
J. K. Dru
September 2, 2022

Missing Data: Why Don’t We All Take the 2022 DVS SOTI Survey?

September 2022: the Data Visualization Society is running its annual survey about our diverse and dynamic field. I hope many of us will contribute our data this month, and invite people we know. To request your help on both counts, this article discusses three reasons we might *not* take this survey.
S
James Cheshire
September 1, 2022

Sewage Alerts: The Long History of Using Maps to Hold Water Companies to Account

This article originally appeared in The Conversation and refers to the huge criticism water companies in the UK are facing over their sewage discharge practices. Southern Water..

From our sponsors

From our sponsors

Symbol Sourcebook 2022
Sign up for The ‘Gale
Get our monthly newsletter! It's a fun overview of our content and community
Sign Up
SUBSCRIBE NOW! $40 for 2 issues
We love first time writers
Write for Nightingale!
Here’s a comprehensive list of everything you need to know to begin to (or continue to) write for Nightingale! After you submit your article, we will team you with an editor, publish your article, promote it on social media - and even pay you for your work!
Get started now

Great reads

I
Main Category

Interview with the South China Morning Post Infographics Team

One of the most interesting teams in the world has to be the Infographics team of the South China Morning Post. Based in Hong Kong,..
I
Main Category

Information Graphics in Action: Russian Agitational Postcards 1900–1960

The postcard originated in the middle of the XIX century and went through the development path together with the poster, following stylistic changes in the..
N
Main Category

None Of Us Are Free If Some Of Us Are Not: Catherine D’Ignazio on Data Feminism

I had the great pleasure of seeing Catherine D’Ignazio speak at EYEO festival this past summer. I was totally inspired by her message, and while I had..
Wall map depicting toe tags of migrants where remains were foundD
Main Category

Data Visualization As an Act of Witnessing

In late 2016, I read an article by Michael Brennan, principal of Detroit-based, nonprofit design firm Civilla, in the Harvard Business Review. I was haunted by this line: “I..
B
Main Category

Beyond Nightingale: Being a Woman in Data Visualization

If you conduct a quick internet search on “history of data visualization,” you’ll nearly always see Florence Nightingale included in the annals of history. Why?..
Resettlement Administration exhibitT
Main Category

The Influence of Isotype in New Deal Information Design: A Resettlement Administration Exhibition, 1936

How the design concept influenced the American government's campaign to help its vulnerable populations.
D
Main Category

Draw The Rest Of The Chart: Imposter Syndrome and Leveling Up in Data Visualization

Is It Ever Gonna Be Enough? A bright, energetic consultant stares intently at Microsoft PowerPoint. This hero, inexperienced but devoted, hears a door open nearby...
A
Main Category

A Poet’s Perspective: Seven Reasons Why Your Dataviz Team Should Include an Analyst from the Humanities

I was once auto-rejected from a job I had written for myself. After several interviews, my soon-to-be manager asked me to delineate the responsibilities I..

Spotlight on Community

D
Mary Pat Campbell
August 31, 2022

Dataviz Horror Story: How I Crashed the Top Exec’s Email

Have you ever made an embarrassing mistake in a data visualization? Did you utterly fail to meet your client’s or boss’s vision? Did you proudly..
R
Joshua Pine
August 30, 2022

REVIEW: Dan Bouk’ Democracy’s Data:The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them

The practice of data storytelling often focuses on weaving a narrative by highlighting themes from a dataset. Author Dan Bouk flips this conventional practice on..
D
Giorgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec
August 29, 2022

Dear Nightingale: Paper and NO Pencil?

This article originally appeared in Issue 1 of Nightingale Magazine. Purchase a copy, while supplies last. Paper and no pencil? An analogue data creation challenge!..
D
Nightingale Editors & Jeremy Singer-Vine
August 26, 2022

Data Is Plural Visualization Challenge

This article originally appeared in Issue 1 of Nightingale Magazine. Purchase a copy, while supplies last. The Challenge: We’re a community of data visualizers, so let’s do..
R
Chesca Kirkland
August 25, 2022

Reflections from Graphic Hunters

After seven years of leading Graphic Hunters, Goof van de Winkel’s data visualisation training programme will come to a close this autumn. We had the..
C
Joseph Ricafort
August 24, 2022

Creating Personas to Identify Yourself in the Community and Data

In this post, I am going to walk you through the process of creating the Data Visualization Society State of the Industry Survey 2021 Challenge..
Alt text: A large graph visualization titled “Cosmograph: visual analytics for big graphs"H
Nikita Rokotyan
August 23, 2022

How to Visualize a Graph with a Million Nodes

Large-scale graph visualizations are tricky. The more nodes and edges you have in your network, the more difficult it is to compute the layout for..
Y
Mary Aviles, datacitron, Jason Forrest & Claire Santoro
August 18, 2022

You Asked for It: Nightingale Magazine Issue 1 Alternate Covers

Many Nightingale Magazine readers have expressed appreciation for our first issue cover. We’re delighted with this reception — we love it, too — but, our..
A
Jenn Schilling
August 17, 2022

A Design Process for Dataviz

Design is a plan to create something that will be beneficial to people. Design involves considering both the form and the function of the final..
S
Erica Gunn
August 16, 2022

Step 3 in the Data Exploration Journey: Productive Tangents

This article is part IV in a series on data exploration, and the common struggles that we all face when trying to learn something new...
Simple cartoon outlines of people in a complex cave system. They use their smartphones as a light source to search the cave features and make sense of their surroundings.E
Brianna Wilson
August 11, 2022

Embracing Mobile to Make Your Data Visualizations More Equitable

Most of us have issues we care deeply about, whether they are large or small, individual or societal. When you think about the issues that..
T
Shachee Swadia
August 10, 2022

The Declutter and Focus Concepts – Popular Academic Opinions or Effective Design Principles?

Declutter and focus are two guidelines for creating clear and efficient visualizations. The declutter guideline suggests removing all the non-critical elements of the chart like..
I
Mary Aviles & Jason Forrest
August 9, 2022

Information Empowerment: A Reciprocal Data Literacy Case Study, Part 3

This is part three of a six-part series dedicated to sharing cross-functional ideas for design thinkers, data practitioners, business intelligence analysts, researchers, policymakers, and subject..
E
Letícia Pozza
August 4, 2022

Experimentação Para Gerar Novas Descobertas Em Dataviz

Find the English translation of this article here. Para algumas pessoas, criar uma visualização de dados incrível exige que os astros estejam alinhados. Mas a..
E
Letícia Pozza
August 4, 2022

Experimenting Can Lead to Great Dataviz

Encontre a tradução em português deste artigo aqui. Some may have the idea that creating an amazing data visualization requires the stars to align. But..
&
Jason Forrest, Jill A. Brown, Nate Coursey, Tristan Guillevin, Jeff Harrison & Eli Holder
August 3, 2022

“In the end, all data visualization ends up with a conversation” — A Joint Review of Eyeo 2022

The Eyeo festival has always held an interesting place in the community as, I’m told, it never really focused on any specific subject matter. At..
S
Main Category

Starting Out in Data Visualization Today

My career path in data visualization might best be described as meandering.  I started as a public health analyst, writing reports and web content for..
T
Main Category

The Ellis Puppy Olympics: A Kids’ Data Visualization Challenge

Recently, it has been HOT in Austin, Texas, with highs getting close to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. As a family, we are always looking ways to..
B
Main Category

Behind the Scenes with Axios Data Visualization

Axios launched in 2017 as a news organisation with the mission ‘Smart Brevity,’ emphasizing the power of saying more with less. Their method of storytelling..
T
Main Category

Three Questions with… Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2022 print edition of Nightingale Magazine. Didn’t get a copy? Purchase one while supplies last!Giorgia Lupi is an..
C
Main Category

Connecting Researchers and Dataviz Practitioners through Study Opportunities

The field of dataviz research is wide and deep, with academics studying everything from how to use machine learning to generate effective chart recommendations to..
“
Main Category

“Cut Short”: Visualizing Lives Lost with Empathy and Impact

In May 2022, the U.S. hit the grim milestone of 1 million COVID deaths. Newsrooms across the country reported this statistic, often accompanied by sobering..
V
Main Category

Visualizing Your Personal Gender Pay Gap: How Does Your Salary Compare?

Every year the Data Visualization Society (DVS) conducts a huge survey called the State of the Industry—collecting a rich array of data that paints a..
W
Main Category

What a Book Published in the 80s Taught Me about Data Visualization

I was on holiday recently in the Welsh border town of Hay on Wye, when I came across a book that instantly caught my attention...
A
Main Category

A Matter of Time: Linking Job Titles to Data Visualization Tasks

Is there any difference in the amount of time we allocate to the different phases of a data visualization project, depending on our professional role?..
E
Main Category

Early Sketches for Career Portraits in Data Visualization

This article is part of a larger effort to leverage the DVS Survey data to provide useful insights about data visualization to our members. Previous..
R
Main Category

REVIEW: Dr. Selena Fisk’s I’m Not a Numbers Person

When I came across I’m not a numbers person and learned about Dr. Selena Fisk, I knew that I would be interested in reading the..
B
Main Category

Beyond the Bar: Alternative Methods for Visualizing Two Points of Change

People love comparisons, whether between two groups or the difference in an outcome between two time points. Many data (visualization) designers use a clustered bar..
map of Paris showing noise levels in shades of pink with a decibel meter in the bottom rightN
Main Category

Noisy Cities: Behind the Scenes with Karim Douïeb

Karim Douïeb is a Brussels-based data scientist and co-founder of Jetpack.ai. He is also the creator of an unexpectedly-viral U.S. election map that he spoke..
I
Main Category

I Asked an Artificial Intelligence to Draw a Chart

A new generation of text-to-image generative models are rapidly changing what is possible in generative design. Two apps in particular, Midjourney and Dalle-E 2, have..
A
Main Category

Are Vertical Line Charts Ever a Good Idea?

I recently asked dataviz Twitter if anyone could point to situations in which a vertical line chart was the best chart type for that situation...
H
Main Category

How to Write for Nightingale

Everything you ever wanted to know to publish with us! In addition to helping writers to level up their skills, these guidelines provide alignment for..
N
Main Category

Nightingale Magazine, Issue 1 Retro: What We Learned

Now that the Spring 2022 issue of Nightingale Magazine is showing up in mailboxes all around the world, the editorial team wanted to share some..
B
Main Category

Behind the Scenes of the First Nightingale Magazine with Its Creative Director

Enjoy an exclusive interview with Nightingale’s creative director Julie Brunet (datacitron) on how the magazine came to life. This interview originally appeared in #ThePlot newsletter...
R
Main Category

Remembrances of Things EDA

Published for Tukey Day, June 16, the 107th anniversary of John Tukey’s birthThis article recounts the origins and influences of the movement in statistics and data..
W
Main Category

Watching for Peas and Carrots: Solving the Green and Orange Dilemma in Data Visualization

In this writing, I discuss the challenge of working with a green and orange color scheme in data visualization. Unfortunately, 99 percent of people with..
T
Main Category

Three Questions with… Jason Forrest

Jason Forrest is the Director of the McKinsey & Co. Data Visualization Lab and Editor-in-Chief of Nightingale. Check out his writing for Nightingale here.1. If..

DVS Member directory

DVS Fireside Chats

Archives

Check out the DVS Jobs Board!
Get Hired
G
Main Category

Get behind Me, Titivillus! How to Avoid Mistakes in Your Work

Meet Titivillus. His LinkedIn profile describes him as a demon who works for Satan to introduce errors into the works of scribes. Imagine if you..
S
Main Category

SPOTLIGHT: My Creation Process for the SOTI Dataviz Explanatory Challenge

I first heard about the Data Visualization Society’s State of the Industry visualization challenge when Loris Mat posted the design process behind his winning entry...
P
Main Category

Patrick Abercrombie’s “The Greater London Plan”

One of my favorite works of data visualization is a map from “The Greater London Plan” in 1944. This semi-abstract map by Patrick Abercrombie and..
T
Main Category

Timely Advice – How Long Does Dataviz Take?

Visualizing 3iap timesheets for 10 dataviz client projects. How much time goes into researching, data-wrangling, designing, and building different types of data visualizations? Every client..
Two square artworks next to each other, each showing a circle made of rhythmic lines on a blank background, one with a white circle on dark background and the other with a dark circle on white backgroundE
Main Category

Exploring Necessity, a Personal Data Art Project, by Tiziana Alocci

Tiziana Alocci, an award-winning information designer and lecturer based in London, recently launched a new data art series, Necessity. To learn more about the project,..
S
Main Category

SPOTLIGHT: The Pinterest of Data Visualisation

150 stunning chart examples, and growing! I’ve just created a website called dataviz-inspiration.com and it showcases hundreds of stunning dataviz projects I’ve encountered in the..
A visualization of the design elements of Amanda Rach Lee’s bullet journal over five years from 2017 to 2021, showing the consistency of some features, the parts that got discontinued, and the new sections that were added over the years.S
Main Category

SPOTLIGHT: Visualizing Five Years of Bullet Journaling

Bullet journaling is a style of journaling where you start with an empty dot grid notebook, and fill it with different pages that you create..
T
Main Category

Telling the Story of Urban Innovation and Pandemic Response with Data

In late March 2020, shortly after COVID-19 was recognized as a global pandemic, the National League of Cities (NLC) partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies to create..
S
Main Category

Step 2 in the Data Exploration Journey: Going Deeper into the Analysis

This article is part III in a series on data exploration, and the common struggles that we all face when trying to learn something new...
S
Main Category

SPOTLIGHT: How to Say ‘I Love You’ with a Graphic

For the past two years, the data visualization narratives we’ve become familiar with infection curves, maps of health zones, and models of how the virus..
B
Main Category

Building and Visualizing a Social Network through the Vikings’ Example

As an avid fan of the Vikings, I was extremely excited about the new spin-off on Netflix titled Vikings: Valhalla. Simultaneously, my network-and-data-scientist self was..