Tag: interactive design

  • Unnecessary Extra Labelling

    Unnecessary Extra Labelling

    I frequently criticise labelling the data values on bar charts, a style seemingly everywhere on the internets. Labels provide precise values, but if you need to see the precise value in a graphic, you don’t really need the graphic—you need a table. Enter this interactive graphic in an article from the BBC exploring hotel bookings…

  • Maple Syrup Monday

    Maple Syrup Monday

    This morning over breakfast I was reading an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Pennsylvania maple syrup production. My breakfast was oatmeal with maple syrup, cinnamon, and all space along with orange juice and a cup of tea. They talked about Pennsylvania’s production and compared it to Vermont’s, which made me want nothing more than…

  • Rise of the Nutters

    Rise of the Nutters

    For most of my life I have been interested in British politics. I can recall talking with my mates about Tony Blair’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in high school and at university. During the Brexit debate, my American friends would frequently ask me just what was going on across the pond. Through that point in…

  • Go Fly a Kite

    Go Fly a Kite

    This past weekend I read an article over on Reuters about the cost of electricity for Americans, especially as it pertains to unfinished electrical generation projects. To be fair, I did not read it thinking I would be getting an opportunity to talk about something here on Coffeespoons. Rather, I just received a letter from…

  • AC to Philly Expressway?

    AC to Philly Expressway?

    And I am not talking about Atlantic City. No, on Saturday, the Red Sox fired their manager Alex Cora and his entire staff. Or, rather, the staff loyal to him. I wrote about that on Monday. Little did we know that Saturday night, Alex Cora and the chief of baseball operations for the Philadelphia Phillies,…

  • Born in the U.S.A.

    Born in the U.S.A.

    Last Wednesday, when I was more focused on the Artemis II launch, the Supreme Court held oral arguments about the administration’s attempt to end birthright citizenship and overturn the 14th Amendment to the United States’ constitution. Kind of a big deal. NBC News ran a live blog covering the arguments and included an interactive map…

  • Winter Is Still Here

    Winter Is Still Here

    Ah, a blizzard. Even if the worst of the storm that recently impacted Philadelphia struck mostly at night, it still left a picturesque mess for the morning. I, however, was struck by some of the maps of the snowfall totals and I figured that would be worth sharing today. What got me started on this…

  • The Philadelphia Beat is Pretty Big

    The Philadelphia Beat is Pretty Big

    Early last week I read an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about where the city’s police officers live, an important issue given the city’s loose requirement they reside within the city limits. Whilst most do, especially in the far Northeast, the Northwest, and South Philadelphia, a significant number live outside the city. (The city of…

  • Pour One Out—For Your Liver

    Pour One Out—For Your Liver

    Last month Vox published an article about the trend in America wherein people are drinking less alcohol. They cited a Gallup poll conducted since 1939 and which reported only 54% of Americans reported partaking in America’s national tipple—except for that brief dalliance with Prohibition—making this the least-drinking society since, well, at least 1939. Vox charted…

  • Racing to the Final Finish Line

    Racing to the Final Finish Line

    Thoroughbred racing is big business. And Philadelphia’s Parx Casino owns a racing track that, in a recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, has seen a number of horse deaths. The article includes a single graphic worth noting, a bar chart showing the thoroughbred death rate. The graphic contrasts rising deaths at Parx with a national…