In July 2019, a new publication emerged in the world of data visualization. Nightingale set out to fill a void in the community, offering a central hub where enthusiasts could share their research, stories, and insights. Back then the data viz landscape was fragmented, with narratives scattered across various platforms. Nightingale aimed to change that.
Five years later, Nightingale has blossomed into a vibrant community with over 1,200 articles published online and hundreds of contributors, many of whom are first-time authors. The journey began on Medium, where the first 700 pieces laid the foundation for what was to come. Writers, editors, and designers came together, united by a shared passion for data storytelling. Their collective efforts transformed Nightingale into more than just a publication—it became a home to a new generation of practitioners.
This month, Nightingale celebrates its fifth anniversary, but also proudly marks the milestone of 500 articles since moving to our own, fully-public website on WordPress. The publication’s evolution mirrors the growth of its community; each article a testament to the creativity and dedication of its contributors.
To honor this milestone, we’ve collected some of our favorite Nightingale articles from the past five years. Our editors and community responses highlight a mix of fan favorites and underrated masterpieces. As we look back on these standout pieces, we invite you to join us on this journey, celebrating the stories that shaped our community.
Start with our humble beginnings
- “Welcome to Nightingale” by Jason Forrest
- “Florence Nightingale is a Design Hero” by RJ Andrews
- “Beyond Nightingale: Being a Woman in Data Visualization” by Stephanie Evergreen
- “Topics in Dataviz: Striving for Productive Critique” by Alli Torban
- “An Illustrated Look at the Booker Prize” by Surasti Puri
A few fan favorites
- “Earth at a Cute Angle” by Robert Simmon
- “A Eulogy for Dark Sky, a Data Visualization Masterpiece” by Srini Kadamati
- “I’ve Stopped Using Box Plots. Should You?” by Nick Desbarats
- “How I Created a Data Visualization With Zero Coding Skills, Thanks to ChatGPT” by Soonk Paik
- “A Network Map of The Witcher” by Milán Janosov
Editorial team’s picks
“Some of my favorite articles come from Nightingale’s first year as a publication. There’s so much more to explore, but let’s not forget our beginnings.” — Jason Forrest, Nightingale Editor-in-chief
- “Political Systems Charts — an understudied chart form” by Arnold Platon
- “Visualizing Small Victories” by Jeff Harrison
- “How to Make Information Graphics With A Piano” by Brian Romer
- “Re-viz-iting the Receipt” by Susie Lu
- “What Are Data Visualization Style Guidelines?” by Amy Cesal
“My favorite pieces on Nightingale tend to be articles where we’re observing data viz through the eyes of someone else. Whether it’s a collection of students, an introspective, or conversational interview, the extra layer of contextualization is what makes a good article a great one.” — Will Careri, Nightingale Managing Editor
- “Data Design in Focus: Students Review Diverse Installations at Venice Biennale 2023” by David Skopec
- “Good Morning Data #1 | The Mystery Job” by Datacitron
- “‘Cut Short’: Visualizing Lives Lost with Empathy and Impact” by Claire Santoro
- “What Is the Bechdel Test and What Is Its Relevance to Today’s Film Industry?” by Gomathy Viswanathan
“There are a million excellent tool tutorials online—including on Nightingale—but it is the expertise and thoughtful approach to data viz as a practice that keep me coming back to Nightingale. Here are just a few articles I continuously return to when I’m knee-deep in a visualization and can’t seem to find my way out.” — Teo Popescu, Nightingale Sections Editor
- “The Lie Factor and the Baseline Paradox” by Hilje De Boer
- “Watching for Peas and Carrots: Solving the Green and Orange Dilemma in Data Visualization” by Theresa-Marie Rhyne
- “What Makes A Data Visualisation Elegant?” by Andy Kirk
- “Querying the Quantification of the Queer: A New Data Structure for Gender Spectra” by Fe Simeoni
“I’ve been thinking about which articles to promote but I think it’s more than an article, it’s the entire section “Historic Dataviz” that I love.” — Datacitron, Nightingale Creative Director
“This is one of the first Nightingale pieces that I read and really loved the project itself and how the author explained the process” — Alejandra Arevalo, Nightingale Interactives Editor
- “Acnephobic: Faces for a Feminist Data Practice” by Fe Simeoni
A note from Jason Forrest, Editor-in-chief
It’s difficult to pick only a few articles that I’ve enjoyed over the past five years, mainly because I’ve read more Nightingale articles than anyone else! It has been deeply enjoyable to read the articles from our community to edit many of them, and to be influenced by and to learn from so many more. When we started, it was the exciting beginning of the Data Visualization Society, so establishing Nightingale and watching the articles come in were part of that growth. But 5 years later, it is the steady publication of such high-quality articles week after week that continues to drive my sense of wonder. Sure, I’m very proud of our team, but I’m even more proud to be part of our community of practitioners who further the discourse with each article.
Our 5-year anniversary comes not only with our 500th article but also the release of our 5th issue of Nightingale Magazine! It continues to be my pleasure to help lead Nightingale and I still feel like we’re just getting started!
Support Nightingale by subscribing or purchasing the magazine here: https://shop.datavisualizationsociety.org/
Invest in the DVS community so we can continue to nurture and celebrate data viz. Become a member here: https://www.datavisualizationsociety.org/membership
Nightingale Editors
Our Nightingale editorial team currently consists of Alejandra Arevalo, William Careri, Jason Forrest, Elijah Meeks, and Teo Popescu. Reach us at Nightingale(at)Datavisualizationsociety.org
