Also known as trellis charts, lattice chart, or whatever you want to call them, the technique lets you compare several categories in one view. Read More
Twitter released a small JavaScript library to make density plots — for when you have a lot of overlapping points and could use some granular binning. Feed a method an array of thousands of x-y coordinates, and the library takes care of the rest. Tags: JavaScript, Twitter
With vaccines, we might be tempted to jump back into “normal” life before it’s really safe. The New York Times reports on why waiting until March instead of February might be the way to. This is based on estimates from Columbia University researchers, and you can read the preprint here (pdf) by Jeffrey Shaman et al. We’ve come this far already… Tags: Columbia University, coronavirus, model, New York Times, vaccine
Maybe you remember the SimCity-like views through satellite imagery from a few of years ago. Robert Simmon from Planet Labs returns to the topic discussing practical use cases and advantages over a top-down view: Satellite imagery surrounds us — from Google Maps and daily weather forecasts to the graphics illustrating news stories — but almost all of it is from a map-like, top-down perspective. This view allows satellite data to...
Thomas Mock explains how to extract and parse data tables in image files via ImageMagick and R: There are many times where someone shares data as an image, whether intentionally due to software constraints (ie Twitter) or as a result of not understanding the implications (image inside a PDF or in a Word Doc). xkcd.com jokingly refers to this as .norm or as the Normal File Format. While it’s far...
Jon Schwabish has a new book coming out: Better Data Visualizations. To kick things off, he’s running a video series on the many different chart types. There will be 50 videos released daily, each with an invited practitioner to briefly talk about what the chart is and how it’s used. They’re already 10 videos into it. Should be informative. Tags: chart types, Jon Schwabish, video
Let's explore an infographic by SCMP, which draws attention to the alarming temperature recorded at Verkhoyansk in Russia on June 20, 2020. The original work was on the back page of the printed newspaper, referred to in this tweet. This view of the globe brings out the two key pieces of evidence presented in the infographic: the rise in temperature in unexpected places, and the shrinkage of the Arctic ice....
I make most of my static charts in R, but I always bring them into Illustrator for polish, layout, and readability. Here's my process. Read More
The New York Times labeled all of the people sitting behind Joe Biden during the inauguration. It’s a straightforward but slick interactive that lets you pan and zoom the photograph. Click on a name for more details or use the list of names in a sidebar. Tags: guest, inauguration, Joe Biden, New York Times
Based on estimates from the MIT Trancik Lab, The New York Times plotted average carbon dioxide emissions against average cost per month for electric, hybrid, and gas vehicles. Each dot represents a vehicle type. While electric vehicles cost more upfront, the lower maintenance and electric costs make up the difference in the long run. The chart above only shows vehicles that retail for $55,000 or less, but you can see...