Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: Deaths in America
Yesterday was murders in London and New York. Today, we have a nice article from FiveThirtyEight about deaths more broadly in America. If you recall, my point yesterday was that not all graphics need to be full column width. And this article takes that approach—some graphics are full width whereas others are not. This screenshot shows a nice line chart…
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London Beats New York
Read on…: London Beats New YorkIn murders. Not the best of news, no. But this past March London saw more murders than New York. But as I was reading the BBC article this weekend, I wondered why the graphic they chose to use received as much prominence in the article as it did. The chart as you can see occupied a full column width. But…
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Technical Data Visualisation
Read on…: Technical Data VisualisationI work with economists. And so I get to see working papers and other technical papers on a rather frequent basis. But I still have no way of verifying this premise. Though I most certainly believe in that dip… Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
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Baseball Is Back
Read on…: Baseball Is BackPraise the (baseball) gods. The 2018 season starts today with I think every team playing—the Red Sox open down in St. Petersburg against the Rays. So today’s post is on the light side as I could not find the awesomest baseball graphic. But FiveThirtyEight did at least preview the season and ran some projections. Naturally, I disagree with their projections. But I…
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Circle This
Read on…: Circle ThisLast week I met a friend for drinks and part of our conversation was about how on a trip to east Asia, he flew from New York and then over the North Pole. The North Pole! I then explained it was cool, but not unique. Instead aircraft typically fly between destinations via great circles. Basically, the shortest distance between two…
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Tech Economies in the USA
Read on…: Tech Economies in the USAEarlier this March the Washington Post published a piece looking at the twenty finalist contenders for the second Amazon headquarters. Specifically it explored how the cities rank in metrics that speak to a city’s technology and innovation economy. That in and of itself, while incredibly fascinating, is not noteworthy in and of itself. Though I will say the article’s online title…
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All Hail the Nurses and Working People
Read on…: All Hail the Nurses and Working PeopleLet’s start this week with a quick hit on popularity and politics. It ties in nicely with the fact that my local congressman, a Republican, announced on Sunday he would not be seeking re-election in a very competitive district. This piece in particular comes from the Economist and in terms of form, it is fairly simple. A scatter plot tackling the…
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Visualisation Types
Read on…: Visualisation TypesI laughed aloud when I read this. So I am just going to leave it here. Happy Friday, all. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
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Natural Decrease
Read on…: Natural DecreaseThe New York Times has posted a nice piece with an animated graphic. No, not that piece, I’ll probably cover that next week. This one looks at demographic changes in the United States, specifically in the population change at county levels. A number you arrive at by subtracting deaths from births and excluding migration. Basically what we are seeing is…