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We are at the end of yet another full year, folks! And once again we have decided to go around the world to see what has happened in vis in a whole range of countries.

It’s been a long journey. This year we have, Spe Chen from Beijing, China; Pia Faustino from Manila, Philippines; Pinar Dag in Istanbul, Turkey; Justin Yarga from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Harry Stevens in New Delhi, India; and Qristina Parjiani from Tbilisi, Georgia.

Let us know how your year was and what you expect from 2018!

Happy Holidays everyone and thanks for listening!

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Pia

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• Data Vis Around the World in 2016

On the show this week we have  Michael Gonchar of the New York Times Learning Network and Sharon Hessney of the American Statistical Association to talk about the New York Times’s project, “What’s Going On In This Graph?”

The project aims to improve students’ visual literacy by analyzing a specific chart and participating in online discussions. Each month the New York Times publishes a new chart and ask students to discuss it by answering a series of questions: What do you notice? What do you wonder? Are there items you notice that answer what you wonder? Where could you find the answers to what you wonder?

On the show we talk about how the project was born, how students participate in the process, what they learn, and our guests’ plans for the future of the series.

We strongly encourage you to participate! It’s fun and useful!

Enjoy the show!

[If you enjoy Data Stories, consider supporting us on Patreon. The show is now fully funded by our listeners!]

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[If you enjoy Data Stories, consider supporting us on Patreon. The show is now fully funded by our listeners!]

We have Catherine D’Ignazio on the show this week to talk about feminist data visualization. Catherine is Assistant Professor of Data Visualization and Civic Media at Emerson College, where she works across art, design, science and research.

On the show Catherine explains how feminist theory can be used as a lens to look at some interesting problems in visualization and data analysis in general. We also talk about the struggle between objectivity and relativism, methods to apply the guidelines proposed by Catherine to data visualization work, and some super interesting projects she has developed over the years.

Enjoy the show!

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We have Jessica Hullman from the University of Washington and Robert Kosara from Tableau Software on the show this week to share highlights from the IEEE VIS 2017 conference, which took place in Phoenix, Arizona in early October.

On the show, we discuss a number of interesting papers, panels and talks that were given at the conference. Of course, this is just a tiny portion of what took place in Phoenix! If you want to know more, take a look at the conference website.

Data Stories is brought to you by Qlik. Are you missing out on meaningful relationships hidden in your data? Unlock the whole story with Qlik Sense through personalized visualizations and dynamic dashboards which you can download for free at qlik.de/datastories.

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• Highlights from IEEE VIS'19 with Tamara Munzner and Robert Kosara
• Highlights from IEEE VIS'22 with Tamara Munzner

[Help us run the show by supporting us on Patreon!]

This episode we have Dan McGinn from Imperial College in London on the show to talk about visualizing Bitcoin data. Dan and his colleagues have developed real-time visualizations of transactions in the “blockchain,” the public ledger used by Bitcoin to create and document transactions.

The visualizations are displayed in their Data Observatory, a beautiful, high-resolution, 64-screen distributed rendering of a cluster with a canvas of 132M pixels.

On the show we discuss Bitcoin and how it works, the visualizations Dan and his colleagues have developed, and what can be done next to visualize cryptocurrencies.

Enjoy the show!

Data Stories is brought to you by Qlik. Are you missing out on meaningful relationships hidden in your data? Unlock the whole story with Qlik Sense through personalized visualizations and dynamic dashboards which you can download for free at qlik.de/datastories.

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• Data Visualization at Capital One with Kim Rees and Steph Hay

In this episode, we have artist and sculptor Adrien Segal on the show to talk about her beautiful, thoughtful, and engaging data sculptures.

Adrien is based in Oakland, California. Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and museums around the world.

On the show, we talk about some her great artwork, including Tidal Datum, which depicts tidal charts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Grewingk Glacier, an ice sculpture depicting “the shape of the terminus of Grewingk Glacier as it has receded over 150 years time.”

We also talk about the process Adrien follows for her sculpture production, her thinking about work in physical versus digital materials, the boundaries between art and science, and how listeners might experiment with their own data sculptures!

Enjoy the show!

A minor correction to the show: It takes 29 days for the moon to go around the Earth, not the Sun. 

Data Stories is brought to you by Qlik. Are you missing out on meaningful relationships hidden in your data? Unlock the whole story with Qlik Sense through personalized visualizations and dynamic dashboards which you can download for free at qlik.de/datastories.

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• Data Art and Visual Programming with Marcin Ignac from Variable

[Help us run the show by supporting us on Patreon!]

This week we have Krist Wongsuphasawat on Data Stories to talk about visualization projects at Twitter. Krist has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, where he worked with Ben Shneiderman. Most recently, he has been a Data Visualization Scientist at Twitter since 2012.

On the show, Krist describes the kinds of projects that the visualization team at Twitter develops. He also walks us through a few of the most popular of these projects, including their famous visualization of Game of Thrones.

Also, don’t miss Krist’s masterpiece post “How I carefully crafted a truly terrible data visualization”

Enjoy the show!

Data Stories is brought to you by Qlik. Are you missing out on meaningful relationships hidden in your data? Unlock the whole story with Qlik Sense through personalized visualizations and dynamic dashboards which you can download for free at qlik.de/datastories.

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Related Episodes

[If you enjoy our show, consider supporting us on Patreon! You pay the amount of one or two lattes for each episode we publish every two weeks.]

In our latest episode, we talk about “C’est La Vis,” a research project developed to teach visualization at the elementary school level. We have two of the project researchers on the show, Basak Alper from NASA JPL and Nathalie Riche from Microsoft Research, to tell us all about it.

On the show we talk about the inception of the project, the findings they discovered by both talking to teachers and analyzing visualization materials used in schools, and the “C’est la Vis” prototype they have developed as a way to teach visualization to kids.

Enjoy the show!

Data Stories is brought to you by Qlik. Are you missing out on meaningful relationships hidden in your data? Unlock the whole story with Qlik Sense through personalized visualizations and dynamic dashboards which you can download for free at qlik.de/datastories.

Links

• Data Visualization Literacy with Jeremy Boy, Helen Kennedy and Andy Kirk
• Touch Graphics with Steve Landau
• Data Is Personal with Evan Peck

[If you enjoy our show, please consider supporting us on Patreon! For the price of one or two lattes per episode, which we publish every two weeks, you can help make sure that Data Stories keeps getting made!]

This week we have Nicky Case on the show to talk about “explorable explanations,” interactive simulations that help people understand complex ideas.

Nicky has developed a whole set of projects over the years, including the popular “Parable Of The Polygons,” which describes how small biases can lead to segregation, and “To Build A Better Ballot,” which demonstrates the impact of various types of voting ballots.

On the show we talk about both of these projects in detail, the definition of explorable explanations, how simulation and interaction might play a role in visualization, and the future of this kind of project.

Enjoy the show!

Data Stories is brought to you by Qlik. Are you missing out on meaningful relationships hidden in your data? Unlock the whole story with Qlik Sense through personalized visualizations and dynamic dashboards which you can download for free at qlik.de/datastories.

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*** SUPPORT US ON PATREON! If you enjoy our show, consider supporting us on Patreon! You can contribute just the cost of one or two lattes for each episode we publish every two weeks. ***

In this episode we have famous cartoonist and comics theorist Scott McCloud. Scott wrote the popular books Understanding Comics (1993), Reinventing Comics (2000), and Making Comics (2006), which explain the theory and practice behind making comics and telling stories visually.

Scott has gained a big following among data visualization designers over the years. By following the strategies he describes in his books, one can develop rich narratives that are useful in data visualization as well as comics.

On the show we talk about his books, the power of frames, Scott’s definition of story, virtual reality, and what people in vis can learn from comic artists.

Enjoy the show!

Data Stories is brought to you by Qlik. Are you missing out on meaningful relationships hidden in your data? Unlock the whole story with Qlik Sense through personalized visualizations and dynamic dashboards which you can download for free at qlik.de/datastories.

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