Best of the visualisation web… July 2021

Since 2010 I have compiled and published monthly collections of links to some of the best, most interesting, or thought-provoking data visualisation-related content I come across. These collections are not always published immediately after the end of the month, but I try to do so as soon as my workload permits!

Here’s a collection of some of the best content I encountered during July 2021.

The items listed may not have been necessarily published in the month, rather I will have discovered them during the month to which this post relates. Note that some links point to paywall items so may not be accessible to everyone. The details included are the platform or site each item is published on – not necessarily the actual author – and a brief description.


Visualisations & Infographics

Covering latest visualisation, infographic or other related design works.

The Economist | ‘Our normalcy index shows life is halfway back to pre-covid norms’…

The Economist | … and here’s a link to the interactive companion to the above piece

Bloomberg | ‘What It Looks Like to Reconnect Black Communities Torn Apart by Highways’

Reuters | ‘The forgotten events: An illustrated guide to some of the Olympic disciplines that did not stand the test of time.’

Tableau Public | ‘In the spirit of vizzing what you love, I pulled out one of my favourite movies of all time – The Sound of Music! I dug into the theme, the songs, and its awards.’

Tableau Public | ‘New Jack Swing’ by Chimdi Nwosu

New York Times | ‘Since When Have Trees Existed Only for Rich Americans?’

@nytimes | ‘How unusual is the heat that’s been smothering the Pacific Northwest? Off the charts.’

Reuters | ‘The Reuters Polling Explorer’

NPR | ‘Feeling blah? Science shows you can boost happiness by taking time for small moments of delight. We’ve got ideas to try out right now. So let’s play!’

New York Times | ‘How Europe, After a Fumbling Start, Overtook the U.S. in Vaccination’

Flowing Data | ‘Counting Happiness and Where it Comes From’

@miss_magpie_spy | ‘I’ve been working on some infographics for my portfolio… I’ve created these using recent @ForestryEngland report findings’

@rozlivek99 | A wonderful thread of analysis and visuals – ‘This thread contains a preview of the match by highlighting key stats and styles from both teams.’

@RosemaryMosco | ‘I spent 6 months drawing every snake in the US & Canada with length to scale, arranging them taxonomically, and squeezing them onto a poster so that you can revel in their diversity & beauty’

Zeit Online | ‘Is This How the Pandemic Comes to an End?’

@USGS_DataSci | ‘Here’s a timelapse of the redesign process (so far!) of the USGS water cycle diagram’

IBM | ‘IBM Technology Garden: A realtime installation bringing Wimbledon Championships data to life.’

SCMP | ‘The mass arrest of Hong Kong’s opposition figures’

Plot Parade | ‘2021 Copa América chart gallery’

Articles

These are references to written articles, discourse or interviews about visualisation.

99 Percent Invisible | ‘Datascrapers: Vertical Filing Cabinets Set the Stage for the Information Age’

Medium | ‘What Worlds Are We Building With Our Charts?’

Nightingale | ‘Perceptual Uniformity with HCL Wizard’

Esri | ‘Did you notice that AR virtual globe in the @EsriUC Central Live show? JK, it’s realz!… Here’s how it was designed, printed, cut, sewn, and assembled!’

Datawrapper | ‘In defense of simple charts: Simple visualization types don’t need to be boring.’

Storytelling With Data | ‘My bars don’t start at zero’

Noteable | ‘Designing for the Data Visualization Lifecycle: Visualization touches every part of the modern business.’

Crunite | ‘Data visualisations: An interview with Marco Hernandez’

The Conversation | ‘Languages don’t all have the same number of terms for colors – scientists have a new theory why’

Learning & Development

These links cover presentations, tutorials, podcasts, academic papers, case-studies, how-tos etc.

House of Illustration | ‘Watch: Mona Chalabi Recreate Du Bois’ Infographics with Modern Data’ (from Feb 2020)

Maarten Lambrechts | ‘Building the Reuters Polling Explorer’

@adolfux | ‘We have worked quite hard on the project of mass arrests of opposition figures in Hong Kong. Here are some photos of the process in case you are interested.’

The Economist | ‘Between the lines: Data-vis tools we use’

Subject News

Includes announcements within the field, such as new sites or resources, new book titles and other notable developments.

Loud Numbers | A new ‘data sonification’ podcast from Miriam Quick and Duncan Geere

Flowing Data | ‘Still Flowing at 14′ – a remarkable contribution to the field, Nathan just keeps on bloggin’

Google AI Blog | ‘Today we are releasing the Open Buildings Dataset, a new open-source dataset containing the locations and footprints of >500M buildings with coverage across Africa’

@kennethfield | ‘My long-awaited (by me at least) new book #ThematicMapping is being released soon by Esri Press.’

Sundries

Any other items that may or may not be directly linked to data visualisation but might have a data, technology or visual theme.

McSweeney’s | ‘Are you allowed to criticize Simone Biles? A Decision Tree’

@tvaziri | ‘”Superman” (1978). This has always been one of my favorite shots in the film. As a kid, I was *certain* how they did it. I was wrong.’

@fkraeutli | ‘Sneak peek at a “voyage pittoresque” from the #BilderDerSchweizOnline project. Depicted places are aligned with
Wikidata, which gives us a map representation of the journey around Lake Lucerne’

Photochrome | ‘Word-based color palettes’

Science | ‘When plastics are precious: To prevent museum artefacts from falling apart, conservators experiment with preservation methods’

@TheDrum | ‘Ad of the Day: BT visualizes online hate spike with England flag’

The Athletic | ‘The Athletic’s football analytics glossary: explaining xG, PPDA, field tilt and how to use them’

UNSW Face Test | ‘UNSW Face Test: Are you a super-recogniser? Take our challenging test to find out if you are one of a small proportion of people with exceptional abilities in identifying faces.’