Data Viz’s Breakthrough Moment, Solving the Hassle of Parking, and Integrating Tools on Tableau

The practice of drawing charts and diagrams dates back hundreds of years. From William Playfair’s 1786 economic analysis of world trade patterns to Dr. John Snow’s map showing the 1854 cholera epidemic in London to Joseph Minard’s 1869 map showing the death during Napoleon’s army’s winter attack on Moscow, there have been several moments in history when data visualization contributed to solving some of the world’s greatest challenges. None quite like this, though.

During the COVID-19 crisis, data visualization researchers and professionals have risen to the challenge, delivering widely used tools for public explanations, pandemic modeling, and government policy-making. Professor Ben Shneiderman highlights many of these excellent contributions in his article “Data Visualization’s Breakthrough Moment in the COVID-19 Crisis.”

Along with data visualization’s breakthrough moment, we’re seeing the “Dawn of a Philosophy of Visualization” that will guide the discipline forward. Alberto Cairo writes: “Writing about visualization doesn’t mean just writing about how to design visualizations, but also about what visualization is, why it is the way it is — and what it could be.”

We spend so much time and energy learning different visualization tools that sometimes we can forget those tools’ limitations. Sometimes getting the most out of our data viz doesn’t require learning a new technique within the same tool, but rather using different ones altogether. Christopher DeMartini wrote a guide to integrating non-Tableau tools in Tableau to expand your viz possibilities: “Use the Right Tool for the Job.”

Mary Aviles wrote about how Nikki Sylianteng’s passion for data viz has shaken up the hassle of street parking in several cities. In “Small, But Thoughtful: The Power of Naive Optimism,” she chronicles how Nikki’s To Park or Not to Park project went from an idea to a great example of civic-minded information design.

Don’t miss the simple trick that can transform your data viz, an elegant alternative to radar charts, the Data Viz Practitioner’s Guide to Table Design, the importance of data literacy during COVID-19, and small-multiples Pizza Baby!

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