Tag: information design

  • Philadelphia’s Obesity Problem

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last week Philadelphia became the first large US city to introduce a soda tax. (Berkeley introduced one a few years ago, but is 1/10 the size of Philly.) The Guardian has a really nice write-up on how the tax was sold not on health benefits, but of civic benefits to the education system. But the…

  • Predicting the Electoral College

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    Brendan Barry
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    Well the Democratic DC primaries were last Tuesday and Hillary Clinton won. So now we start looking ahead towards the July conventions and then the November elections. Consequently, if a day is an eternity in politics we have many lifespans to witness before November. But that does not mean we cannot start playing around with…

  • Productive Fridays

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Funny story, a virus hit my workplace this week. And it basically cost us four days of work because nobody could actually access their work files. That made me remember this recent piece from xkcd, which is so very apropos at the end of this week. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.

  • Not All Charts Are Necessary Part 2

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    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    Monday I examined a chart from the BBC that in my mind needlessly added confusing visual components to what could have been a straight table. So here we take a look at some other options that could have been used to tell the same story. The first is the straight forward table approach. Here I…

  • Tables of Insight

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday I opined about how simple tables can convey meaningful information without the aid of unnecessary chart elements. And while we will get back to that post, I did want to take a moment to share an older piece from the New York Times I recalled and that has been updated since Orlando. The piece…

  • Not All Charts Are Necessary

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    I will be trying to do a longer piece on the data visualisations surrounding the shootings in Orlando later this week. But for starters, a simple point through this piece from the BBC—not that they are the only culprits of this. Not all data-driven stories need visualisations. Sometimes a nicely typeset table will do the…

  • Independent Candidates

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Well, the election battleground has been set: Trump vs. Clinton. (Yes, I know the District of Columbia has yet to vote.) For those unhappy with the choices presented, the question of “what about a third party candidate?” arises. (Yes, I know there is both a Libertarian Party and Green Party already.) Months ago, FiveThirtyEight looked…

  • Counterbalancing Presidential Support

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    The night after the California primary—or as an East Coaster should say, the night of the New Jersey primary—we take a look at how US presidents often experience a counterbalancing political force in state, gubernatorial, House, and Senate races. The content comes from the Washington Post and it makes use of nicely annotated graphics, including…

  • Fact Checking Trump’s Small Multiples

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Today marks the end of primary season for the US presidential election. By all accounts, at night’s end Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee, but Bernie Sanders, while unlikely to win, could make California interesting tonight. And then there is Donald Trump. He is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee and man, can that guy…

  • Your State and the Google

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Well today has arrived and it is finally Friday. So if you are a Pennsylvanian like me, according to research by Estately (hat tip to a good friend and regular reader), the question I am likely asking is “When is X-Files?”. What did your state enquire of the Google? I mean I liked the new…