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Matteo Moretti & Alice Corona

Who’s on the Map? Using Data to Reimagine Street Name Diversity

In 145,933 streets in 30 major European cities and 17 different countries, our team explores who is included and who is excluded in our toponymy.

A photo of the wall straight-on, with a sign that says "The National COVID Memorial Wall."
Duncan Bradley

Taking Time Is an Effective Way To Process Large Numbers

A striking memorial to the victims of COVID-19 in the UK reveals a neglected temporal dimension of data visualisation.

Elena Etter

Data Visualization: A Subjective Lens on Reality

An analysis of three elements that influence data visualization  and that render the underlying data to be more subjective than objective.

Photo of fellowship recipients posing with leaders of Baraza Media Lab and Fringe Graph (10 people).
June Injete

Data Storytelling Is Empowering Female Journalists in Kenya

A fellowship program is teaching Kenyan journalists to use data sources and data analysis to do investigative work. Here are three examples.

A view of the final dashboard. At the top are the filter buttons to select countries by characteristics (region or income) and a shuffle button that randomized the selection for you. Below that is the radial diagram and to its right is a dot plot, allowing for a deeper dive into the metric.
Lindsey Poulter

Finding The Right Elements For an Award-Winning Dashboard

Lindsey Poulter won the World Data Viz Prize using a mix of dashboard features—including a shuffle button to randomize the view.

Details from an infographic and magazine article, showing the Warming Stripes on a page in the background with another page showing a red-and-blue polar bar chart laying over the top
Chesca Kirkland

The Making of “The Growing Influence of the Warming Stripes”

Chesca Kirkland shows the process behind her visualisation—from Nightingale Issue 2—that explores the growing influence of the Warming Stripes.

Latest articles

A highly complex graphic where the x-axis is population density (people per km^2) and the y-axis is energy consumption per person (kWh/d/p) Both axis are onlog scales. The countries are shown as colored bubbles that are sized according to land area. Diagonal lines show power consumption per unit of area.D
Satya Amaran
June 8, 2023

Defying Chart Design Rules for Clearer Data Insights

Sir David MacKay, a UK scientist, challenged conventional chart design and created a truly insightful data visualization about sustainable energy.
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Jiwon Kim
June 7, 2023

A Call to Women in Data Viz: Be a Techmakers Ambassador

After attending two conferences in May—DVS's Outlier and Google's I/O—Jiwon Kim reflects on how women can become more visible in tech fields.
Photo of students grouping colored squared pieces of paper together on a table.W
Antonia Hadjimichael
June 6, 2023

Weaving Data Viz Into Science and Engineering Education

A Penn State course introduced STEM students to data visualization, teaching them design fundamentals and how to be supportive practitioners.
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Elena Etter
June 2, 2023

Data Visualization: A Subjective Lens on Reality

An analysis of three elements that influence data visualization  and that render the underlying data to be more subjective than objective.
A photo of the wall straight-on, with a sign that says "The National COVID Memorial Wall."T
Duncan Bradley
May 31, 2023

Taking Time Is an Effective Way To Process Large Numbers

A striking memorial to the victims of COVID-19 in the UK reveals a neglected temporal dimension of data visualisation.
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Matteo Moretti & Alice Corona
May 30, 2023

Who’s on the Map? Using Data to Reimagine Street Name Diversity

In 145,933 streets in 30 major European cities and 17 different countries, our team explores who is included and who is excluded in our toponymy.
Cover of the Book "Friends Beyond Measure" featuring an illustration of two children sitting on a stack of multi-colored bars. One of the children is drawing dots on the wall behind them.L
Ana Paula Lamberti Bertol
May 25, 2023

Lalena Fisher: Telling A Children’s Story With Infographics

An interview with children's author Lalena Fisher, whose latest book introduces kids to charts and diagrams that tell a story of friendship.
yellow map showing the tour de france, but our of beer glass iconsB
Dan Petrovic
May 24, 2023

Building a Tour de France Beer Map With GPT-4: A Non-Developer’s Perspective

As a non-developer, it was challenging using GPT-4 to build a data visualization. Here are my lessons learned about working with the AI tool.
Data visualisation self-portrait. An abstract painting created by Thabata from Data Rocks, using graphite, ink and watercolours.I
Thabata Romanowski
May 23, 2023

Is It Data? Is It Art? It’s a Data Self-Portrait!

To step away from the constraints of her day job, a data vis practitioner made an introspective art piece with tools she hadn't used before.
A photo of the Outlier presentation stage in Porto, with a projector screen three chairs, a podium and an physical "Outlier" letter blocks set on the floor.O
Nightingale Editors
May 18, 2023

Outlier 2023: Changing the World, One Chart at a Time

DVS's 2023 Outlier Conference was held in Porto, Portugal, and virtually in early May. Here's what a few attendees say about the experience.
An isometric illustration of a library, filled with books and coworking tables, is enclosed by yellow police tape which read "lockdown."H
William Careri
May 16, 2023

Hachette v. Internet Archive and the Future of Data Access

A legal ruling raises issues about fair use in storing knowledge, the role of digital libraries, and balancing copyrights with open access.
Photo of fellowship recipients posing with leaders of Baraza Media Lab and Fringe Graph (10 people).D
June Injete
May 11, 2023

Data Storytelling Is Empowering Female Journalists in Kenya

A fellowship program is teaching Kenyan journalists to use data sources and data analysis to do investigative work. Here are three examples.
A view of the final dashboard. At the top are the filter buttons to select countries by characteristics (region or income) and a shuffle button that randomized the selection for you. Below that is the radial diagram and to its right is a dot plot, allowing for a deeper dive into the metric.F
Lindsey Poulter
May 9, 2023

Finding The Right Elements For an Award-Winning Dashboard

Lindsey Poulter won the World Data Viz Prize using a mix of dashboard features—including a shuffle button to randomize the view.
Details from an infographic and magazine article, showing the Warming Stripes on a page in the background with another page showing a red-and-blue polar bar chart laying over the topT
Chesca Kirkland
May 2, 2023

The Making of “The Growing Influence of the Warming Stripes”

Chesca Kirkland shows the process behind her visualisation—from Nightingale Issue 2—that explores the growing influence of the Warming Stripes.
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Nightingale Editors
April 27, 2023

Nightingale Issue #3: FAQ on Shipping and Subscriptions

A lot has changed at Nightingale, so here's an update to our FAQ. There are a lot of new ideas in here, so please let us know what you think!

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Some of our favorite articles:

“A Noxious Problem” by Federica FragapaneW
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What Makes A Data Visualisation Elegant?

On a dedicated channel, #dvs-topics-in-data-viz, in the Data Visualization Society Slack, our members discuss questions and issues pertinent to the field of data visualization. Discussion..
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Asterisk Nation: One Tribe’s Challenge to Find Data About its Population

The Yurok Tribe in far northern California needs to address a condition plaguing numerous rural communities in the United States: addiction and substance misuse. Across..
Equity illustration largeS
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Six Ways to Bring Empathy into your Data

One of the big challenges in visualizing data, and quantitative research in general, is helping readers connect with the content. Connecting directly with people and..
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Visualizing Small Victories

Everyone loves a trophy! Okay, it’s not that simple. Still, we humans love to mark milestones and accomplishments. Trophies are tangible reminders of those fleeting moments of victory...
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Indelible Impressions: Why You Won’t Forget the Map Room Project

In my quest to improve data fluency among those who think of themselves as non-data people, I am always on the lookout for physical manifestations..
Visitors test playing board gameW
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What Board Games Teach Us About Data Visualization

Recently I visited the biggest trade fair for board games in the world. The Internationale Spieltage (Spiel) takes place annually in my current hometown of Essen in..
On left is a textile with a typewritten phrase from the Book of Common Prayer: "FROM PESTILENCE FAMINE BATTLE MURDER AND FROM SUDDEN DEATH GOOD LORD FROM LIGHTNING AND TEMPEST, FROM PLAGUE DELIVER US." The phrase is overtyped 549 times on the textile surface and eventually obscures itself. On the right is the same textile, after washing.T
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The Soul of Data: Data Physicalizations on Fabric

When my area went into lockdown in March of 2020, initial case counts were relatively low in my state, even as the coasts were plunged into..
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Did Data Visualization Erase the Woman from Women’s Work?

As the world changed over the past two years, more and more of my friends took to handcrafts like quilting and knitting as a counterbalance..

Spotlight on community:

Cohabitation network (a collection of circled nodes connected by lines) where each node is a mammal. There are 5,286 nodes and 62,385 edges colored by the continent of the animal's primary habitat. The colors are shades of browns, blues and grays. The nodes are more clustered by color here than in the country-level network.U
Milán Janosov
April 26, 2023

Using Color to Interpret a Complex Network of Threatened Species

In a busy network diagram of threatened land mammals, different color treatments show how the animals' habitats are geographically connected.
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TK Sajeev Kumar
April 25, 2023

A Chat With New York Times Graphics Editor Marco Hernandez

Journalist Marco Hernandez shares tips on graphic storytelling, why you should doodle, and how to visualize 4 billion plastic bottles.
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Marília Ferreira da Cunha
April 21, 2023

Everything You Wanted To Know About The DVS 2023 Outlier Conference

Outlier is around the corner! Catch up on what's on the agenda and how to make the most out of the experience—whether in-person or virtual.
Assorted color fabric strips on a sewing table with grid and ruler.W
Teresa Hebron
April 19, 2023

Why Me? Or, How I Learned to Sew a Quilt from Ice Skating Stats

I was anxious about teaching a data viz workshop that involved data crafting. I pulled it off by transforming my favorite sport into a quilt.

Celebrating the dataviz of W.E.B. Du Bois:

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W. E. B. Du Bois’ staggering Data Visualizations are as powerful today as they were in 1900 (Part 1)

One of the most powerful examples of data visualization was made 118 years ago by an all-black team led by W.E.B. Du Bois only 37..
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Data Journalism in the study of W.E.B. Du Bois’s “The Negro Problem” (Part 2)

One of the most powerful examples of data visualization was made 118 years ago by an all-black team led by W.E.B. Du Bois only 37..
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Exploring the Craft and Design of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Data Visualizations (Part 3)

One of the most powerful examples of data visualization was made 118 years ago by an all-black team led by W.E.B. Du Bois only 37..
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Style and Rich Detail: On Viewing an Original W.E.B. Du Bois Data Visualization (Part 4)

An all-black team led by W.E.B. Du Bois made one of the most powerful examples of data visualization 118 years ago, only 37 years after..
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The Legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois’s “The Exhibit of American Negroes” (Part 5)

An all-black team led by W.E.B. Du Bois made one of the most powerful examples of data visualization 118 years ago, only 37 years after..
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Discovering an Unknown Chart from W.E.B. Du Bois’s “The Exhibition of American Negroes” (Part 6)

Activist and sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois created “The Exhibit of American Negroes” at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris in collaboration with Booker T. Washington, prominent black..
A slightly more zoomed in photo of the wall with the strings. The strings create a type of Sankey diagram. The strings start on the far left, grouped as either student or staff, then proceed to the next column in the grid—year group they are representing—then travel to a third column with options for number of assessments, and finally end at the type of preferred assessment (coursework, exam or both.)T
Elisavet Andrikopoulou
April 18, 2023

Touching Data: Conducting a Survey With Paper and Thread

To collect data on how students preferred to be graded, a professor ran a physicalization exercise that collected and visualised the results.
Image of the double diamond model which shows the steps in tackling design projects. The leftmost point of the first diamond is "question, interest or idea." The designer then travels through the "expand/ideate" phase to reach the top of the first diamond, which is "max risk of overwhelm." Then, the designer travels down from that top point in the "focus/consolidate phase," which is the phase in which this column about collaboration is most relevant. The next phases (in the second diamond) are in light gray font, suggesting that those steps are yet to come, but they include "building/producing" and "deliver/deploying").S
Erica Gunn
April 17, 2023

Step 5 in the Data Exploration Journey: The Magic of Collaboration

A good collaborator offers companionship, a fresh perspective, and can help balance skillsets. Here's how to make a collaboration successful.
Head shot of Monica GraggT
Nightingale Editors
April 14, 2023

Three Questions With… Monica Gragg

A quick introduction to Monica Gragg, who recently became education director at the Data Visualization Society.
A visual of the information graphic showing 200 countries as flowers of different sizes, with size representing GDP. Each flower is placed roughly in the geographic location of the country on a flat world map. Each flower has six petals, each representing a metric of governance. Each petal has 10 concentric petals within it, representing years from 2012 to 2021. Each petal is color coded on a shaded scale of red (worse) to white (middle) to blue (better).V
Andrzej Leszkiewicz
April 13, 2023

Visualizing World Governance Data as a Flower Garden

How to create a floral-themed visualization with Power BI tools that captures how we govern our world.
Book Cover: "Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web and Mobile Usability" by Steve Krug.R
Romana Popocovski
April 12, 2023

Review: Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited

Written for designers, the book breaks down the key principles of intuitive navigation and information design for web and mobile applications.
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Melissa Malguy
April 11, 2023

Visualizing Metal and Mayhem

Geared for modern day metal cover bands, this data viz project layers data from different sources to show which bands rock the charts.
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Nightingale Editors
April 10, 2023

Dear Nightingale Submissions: Physical Inspiration Train

This data visualization challenge was to create a "physical inspiration train" quantifying objects' attributes. Check out the submissions!
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Nightingale Editors
April 10, 2023

Data Is Plural Submissions: Bob Ross

This data viz challenge prompted readers to explore two data sets on Bob Ross's iconic television show. Check out the submissions!
Let's Talk Accessibility text in blue on a pink background, with an image of a piece of origami paper folded into a birdV
Nightingale Editors
April 10, 2023

Visual Accessibility Resources

Looking for guidelines to follow in your data viz accessibility journey? This curated list will help to get you to the next level.
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Kirill Osipenko
April 6, 2023

Revolutionizing Management Consulting With Data Visualization Tools

Management consultants are using data platforms to productize offerings, while their clients are using software to make data-driven decisions.
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Jeremy Ney
April 5, 2023

Mapping Inequality Can Drive Social Impact

The practice of "opportunity mapping" shows hotspots of inequality, helping government officials and social justice groups know where to direct their efforts.
The image is a map of New York city, the the five boroughs highlighted different colors and a dot for each gallery or museum location.H
Soonk Paik
April 4, 2023

How I Created a Data Visualization With Zero Coding Skills, Thanks to ChatGPT

An exercise in building a data visualization with ChatGPT writing—and debugging!—the code.
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Inclusion and Exclusion in Emma Willard, Maps of History

A critical look at Willard's depiction of American history and America’s place in the history of the world. Many of her choices are still with us in the way we view our present space and time.
A colorful book sits on a blue table next to a small plant. The book’s cover shows a visualization made of many different colors of paper showing distribution curves. About a third of the way down the cover is the title “Making with Data Physical Design and Craft in a Data-Driven World.”R
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Review: Making With Data, a Fascinating Dive Into The World of Physical Data Design

The book explores the world of tactile and hand-made data exhibits. It showcases inspiring physicalization projects and offers tips and tools to try your own.
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The #30DayChartChallenge Is Ready to Kick Off

The #30DayChartChallenge is a data visualization community challenge to create a visualization on a particular theme each day in April. The challenge began in 2021 and is about to launch its third year.
Book cover: Title is "The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power In America." Author is Philip Bump, National Columnist for the Washington Post. Text is black, set on a background that looks like a colorful sunset of blues (top), purples (middle) and yellows (bottom).P
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Philip Bump: Telling the Story of the Baby Boomers in Charts

Washington Post columnist Philip Bump tackled a whole generation in his book, The Aftermath. He used 127 charts to drive the analysis and the narrative.
An illustrated storm system moving over New England.A
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A Eulogy for Dark Sky, a Data Visualization Masterpiece

A deep look at how the Dark Sky weather app used simple but highly effective charts to report and contextualize the weather.
old sepia toned photograph of a crowded Brill Street filled with people, a cart, and tall buildings on either sideF
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From The Historical Archive To The Citizens: Visualizing Census Data From Brill Street in 1922

Inspired by historical census data from a former industrial city in Luxembourg, three researchers ventured into a project to turn population records into a tactile, 3-dimensional, and interactive exhibit.
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Recreating and Revising a Dashboard About Human Space Flight

A design exploration to improve a human space flight dashboard with a new layout and interactivity.
photo of smiling woman with red glasses and long brown hair in front of full bookshelves, with text "3 Questions With Guillermina Sutter Schneider"T
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Three Questions with… Guillermina Sutter Schneider

Nightingale meets the dataviz community! Today, we're hearing from data scientist and information designer Guillermina Sutter Schneider.
Hexagons on a dark sky backgroundV
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Visualizing the Dream Life of Russians During Wartime

When war with Ukraine ignited last year, a Russian journalist and sociology students turned dream recordings into data visualizations.
Stats_and_stories logo, red background, white textS
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Submit a Data Visualization to the Stats+Stories Podcast Competition!

The Stats+Stories podcast is ringing in 300 episodes and 10 years of programs—and it is celebrating with a data viz contest! Here are all the details.
An image of colorful network nodes on a black background, illustrated based on 10,000 tweets containing the hashtag #datascience over the last two weeks of 2022.W
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What ChatGPT (and Humans) Say About Data Science Trends

Milán Janosov asked ChatGPT about data science. Then, he analyzed Twitter to see what humans think about the topic. Here's how they compare.
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The Challenge of Designing Nuclear Waste Warning Markers to Last 10,000 Years

A group of experts had to propose visual warning markers for a radioactive waste site. Their design needed to be comprehensible, durable, and timeless.
A series of Braun items: a razor, a citrus squeezer, a radio, and a calculatorH
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How Dieter Rams’s Design Principles Apply to Dashboard Design

Legendary designer Dieter Rams established 10 principles of good product design. Here's how to interpret those principles when designing business dashboards.
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Pioneer in Black Data: Monroe N. Work and the Negro Year Book

Monroe N. Work exposed Black living conditions in the early 20th century by compiling data. Here's how he exposed inequalities in education through dataviz.
A kids drawing of a "Sick, sad family", generated by DALL-E 2, an AI system that can create realistic images and art from a description in natural language.I
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I Visualized My One-Year-Old’s Relentless Daycare Bugs and It Calmed Me Down

When viruses started coming home from daycare and making his family sick, this dad made a data visualization to keep things in perspective.

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Colleagues from the Kontinentalist news site, based in Singapore, pose on a tuktuk. Co-founder Pei Ying Loh is on far left; Editorial lead Nabilah Said is on the far right.H
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How One Team of Journalists Puts Visuals at the Center of Every Story

As journalism outlets increasingly adopt data-driven and visually compelling “scrollytelling” stories, Kontinentalist has made them a fixture of its coverage.
Image of a number-four helium balloon, with happy birthday text showing the Data Visualization Society turns 4.T
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The Data Visualization Society Turns Four Today. Here’s Our Birthday Wish

Happy birthday, DVS! Here's a look at all the things we are celebrating and what we have in store as we continue to grow and thrive

Dataviz Horror Stories

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Dataviz Horror Stories: Shirley Wu

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..
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Histórias Aterradoras em Visualização de Dados: Jorge Camões

Read this article in English here. Alguma vez cometeu um erro constrangedor numa visualização de dados? Passou por completo ao lado da visão do cliente..
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Dataviz Horror Stories: Jon Schwabish

Jon Schwabish, co-author with Alice Feng of the “Do No Harm” guide, tells his children five things: Be honest Be kind Be respectful Be hard..
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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..
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Dataviz Horror Story: Miriam Quick

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..
Illustration of a tombstone with a line chart dropping precipitously, with the letters WIP aboveD
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Dataviz Horror Story: Jacque Schrag

We’ve all made embarrassing dataviz mistakes, whether we’re beginners or superstars. This series of Horror Stories aims to normalize “failure” as part of professional development...
The Building Science Graphics book on a dark brown wood table. The book has a cover that is two-thirds blue and one-third white. On the white section of the cover, a series of overlapping half circles in yellow, pink, and blue are shown in varying degrees of rotation in a vertical arrangement.R
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Review: Building Science Graphics Is Not Just For Science Illustrators

This densely packed book is a must-have resource for science graphics designers. But it's also a great read for anyone working in infographics and visualizations.
Text reading "3 Questions With Will Careri" accompanied by a photo of Will, a smiling young man in a button-up shirt and tie with dark hair and glasses standing casually in front of a brick wall.T
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Three Questions with… Will Careri

Nightingale is expanding its team of and regular writers and contributors! Today, we're introducing our newest team member, columnist Will Careri
A poster for Love Data Week&
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‘Love Data Week’ is in Full Swing. Here’s How to Participate

When data geeks and Valentine's Day collide, it's Love Data Week! Running eight years (and going steady), this event is growing in scope and popularity.
Image from the cover of ColorWise book.<
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ColorWise: A Review and Interview with the Author, Kate Strachnyi

Color expert Kate Strachnyi shares the top tips from her new book—a reference tool for both beginners and experts, alike.
Two young boys wearing white lab coats, gloves, and safety goggles working with scientific equipment that is part of a museum exhibitR
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REVIEW: Visit a Local Museum for Dataviz Inspiration

In early September, I had a super fun time at a Meetup with the Denver Data Storytellers at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science! The..
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Exploring Hungarian Data Graphics with Attila Bátorfy

Geographical distribution of Hungarian manufacturing industry by the number of workers and value of goods produced (1938). In György Markos – Andor Berei: Magyarország gazdasága..
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Three Questions With… Emily Barone

The Nightingale team is thrilled to introduce our new managing editor, Emily Barone!  We’re excited for the new energy, ideas, and experience she is already..
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Early Career Corner: Meet Ana Cuza

Welcome to this installment of Early Career Corner, a space to learn from each other’s dataviz journeys and amplify the work of early career practitioners.The..
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Livable cities’ urban networks

Road networks are magnificent bird-eye view fingerprints of cities, age-old topics of urban planning, and stable cornerstones of spatial data science. As a primary goal..