Data Stories

Photo Credit: Kris Tsujikawa We hope everyone is doing well! We finally decided to record an episode on visualization and covid19. It’s been a crazy several weeks and one of the most interesting developments has been to see how prominent visualization has been in the constant flux of information. Who expected visualization to be so relevant, uh?! And when we talk about data and pandemics we could not find a better person than Carl Bergstrom, Professor of Biology at University of Washington, with a background in epidemiology but also an expert in scientific practices and communication. You may remember Carl from an episode about three years ago (Episode 97). We interviewed him together with his colleague Jevin West to talk about their excellent “Calling Bullshit” project (and let’s face it, there is no lack of BS during these crazy times), a course (and soon to be a book) on how to spot BS in science. Carl has been a constant source of information and reasoning on Twitter. Commenting on the science behind pandemics but also about the way science is communicated and the many possible traps you may fall into. If there is one thing we all learned is that visualization without reliable data is a mess! In the show, we talk about a number of iconic covid19 visualizations, the “flatten the curve” ones, the tracking lines from Financial Times and several simulations. For each of these we discuss the many variations and nuances, what we have learned from them and the many intricacies of creating visualizations for such a sensitive topic with potential huge outcomes. [Our podcast is fully listener-supported. That’s why you don’t have to listen to ads! Please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon or sending us a one-time donation through Paypal. And thank you!] Links: Prof. Carl Bergstrom Siouxsie Wiles’ Flatten the Curve cartoon Medium: Don’t Flatten the Curve Vox: Coronavirus mitigation could kill thousands. Suppress the virus, don’t just “flatten the curve.” Scientific American: Leading with the Unknowns in COVID-19 Models WaPo: Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to “flatten the curve” Carl’s tweet on normalizing by population size (or not?) Matthew Fox’s Tweet on Uncertainty Bounds in the IHME model Stats and Tracking: COVID Projections Tracker FT’s tracker: Coronavirus tracked: the latest figures as countries fight to contain the pandemic Our World in data: Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) – Statistics and Research John Hopkins tracker: COVID-19 Map – Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center Visual Simulations: People of the Pandemic | a hyperlocal cooperative simulation game Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to “flatten the curve” What Happens Next? COVID-19 Futures, Explained With Playable Simulations Outbreak https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/160-covid19.mp4 Related episodes Calling Bullshit with Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West

        This is our second episode of our mini-series on data visualization agencies. For this episode we have Caroline Goulard from Dataveyes and Gabriele Rossi from Accurat. With them we talk about their quintessential projects, how to balance experimental with regular customers’ projects, and how the data visualization field changed over the years. [Our podcast is fully listener-supported. That’s why you don’t have to listen to ads! Please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon or sending us a one-time donation through Paypal. And thank you!] Enjoy the show! https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/159_Made_by_Headliner.mp4

        This is the first episode of a mini-series of Data Visualization agencies. After so many years producing this podcast we realized we never really focused on agencies and we decided it’s time to rectify! Agencies have slowly become one of the most relevant realities of the data visualization ecosystem and business landscape. In this first episode, we have Thomas Clever to talk about Clever Franke and Benjamin Wiederkehr from Interactive Things. They have been around for more than 10 years and they have produced some really amazing work. On the show we talk about their quintessential projects, what makes agencies different from individual freelancers and other organizations, the realities and challenges of running an agency and much more. [Our podcast is fully listener-supported. That’s why you don’t have to listen to ads! Please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon or sending us a one-time donation through Paypal. And thank you!] Enjoy the show! Links: IXT: Education Inequalities + Education Progress CF: Chicago’s Mobility Paper: Data Changes Everything Sensor lab (https://www.sensorlab.nl/) Blog post on the process boards used to organize work at IXT https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/158_Made_by_Headliner.mp4

We have Barbara Tversky with us to talk about “spatial cognition”; the way humans perceive space and how space perception is related to the many ways we think. Barbara is a renowned cognitive scientist and a Professor of Psychology and Education at Columbia University. She has an extensive literature on spatial cognition and specific research on how people perceive and use diagrams, maps and other visual representations. On the show we talk about her new book called “Mind in Motions” in which Barbara describes her research and the many fascinating ways space and motion play a pivotal role in the way we think. We also talk about the role of space in data visualization and the many fascinating ways in which spatial cognition can inform visualization design. [Our podcast is fully listener-supported. That’s why you don’t have to listen to ads! Please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon or sending us a one-time donation through Paypal. And thank you!] Enjoy the show! Check out Barbara’s book “Mind in Motion“. https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/157-barbara-tversky.mp4

  In this episode we have PhD students Yongsu Ahn and Alex Cabrera to talk about two separate data visualization systems they developed to help people analyze machine learning models in terms of potential biases they may have. The systems are called FairSight and FairVis and have slightly different goals. FairSight focuses on models that generate rankings (e.g., in school admissions) and FairVis more on comparison of fairness metrics. With them we explore the world of “machine bias” trying to understand what it is and how visualization can play a role in its detection and mitigation. [Our podcast is fully listener-supported. That’s why you don’t have to listen to ads! Please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon or sending us a one-time donation through Paypal. And thank you!] Enjoy the show! Links: Alex Cabrera Yongsu Ahn FairSight FairVis Google: “Attacking Discrimination with Smarter Machine Learning” Nicky Case: “Parable of Polygons” https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/157_FairML.mp4 Related episodes Visualizing Fairness in Machine Learning with Yongsu Ahn and Alex Cabrera

Duncan is the CEO of Flourish, a popular data visualization tool to help people create storytelling visualizations from data. Duncan founded Flourish together with Robin Houston in 2016 and since then they made a lot of progress and acquired a large user base. It’s always great to hear about successful data visualization companies! On the show Duncan describes what Flourish is, how it works and how it differs from other data visualization tools. We also talk about the unique playback option Flourish has and the “talkies” feature, which introduces audio and sound elements to add to a visualization. Finally, we also talk about their business model and future trajectories. [Our podcast is fully listener-supported. That’s why you don’t have to listen to ads! Please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon or sending us a one-time donation through Paypal. And thank you!] Enjoy the show! Links: Flourish Shipmap.org — Visualization of Global Cargo Ships by Kiln Carbonmap.org Why data visualization needs a play button Talkie – Talkies explained   https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DS_155_video.mp4 Related episodes Datawrapper with Lisa C. Rost and Gregor AischA New Generation of DataViz Tools

We have Angela Morelli and Tom Gabriel Johansen to talk about their effort in developing infographics for several reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Creating such reports entails a very complex and orchestrated process that needs to end with a total consensus of all the participating countries. In the show Angela and Tom tell the story of what it takes to generate such reports and handle the complex process of co-designing such important report with a large group of scientists. Angela and Tom also provide a set of lessons learned visualization designers can use. Enjoy the show! [Our podcast is fully listener-supported. That’s why you don’t have to listen to ads! Please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon or sending us a one-time donation through Paypal. And thank you!] Links InfoDesignLab Medium Posts IxDA Oslo Nº 129 :: Anna Pirani :: Co-designing the IPCC special report, Part 1 IxDA Oslo Nº 129 :: Angela Morelli :: Co-designing the IPCC special report, Part 2 IPCC   https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/DS_154.mp4 Related episodes Visualizing Climate Change Scenarios with Boris MüllerIconic Climate Visuals with Ed Hawkins

We have Marcin Ignac from Variable to talk about Data Art. Marcin and his studio have a very nice mix of data visualization and generative design projects creating stunning visuals for brands such as Nike and IBM. On the show we talk about the scope and unique features of data art, the process the studio follows, the specific set of tools Marcin developed for visual programming and tips to get started with this kind of projects. See the long list of pointers in the links below! [Our podcast is fully listener-supported. That’s why you don’t have to listen to ads! Please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon or sending us a one-time donation through Paypal. And thank you!] Links Variable studio website Variable’s Twitter profile Marcin’s Twitter profile Technology Garden (IBM) – bringing Wimbledon Championships tennis data to live Rat-Systems – visualizing a colony of naked mole rats Fibers – visualization of the Nike Fuel band fitness data Nine Point Five (earthquake visualization) PEX – set of JavaScript libraries for working with 3d graphics Getting started with data art and generative design: http://www.generative-gestaltung.de/2/ (v2 for p5js) https://frontendmasters.com/courses/canvas-webgl/ by Matt Des Lauriers Daniel Shiffman https://natureofcode.com/book/ and https://thecodingtrain.com https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Canvas_API/Tutorial https://www.programmingdesignsystems.com https://thebookofshaders.com https://www.dataisnature.com blog Computational – Drawing Book – http://lostritto.com/book https://inconvergent.net/generative/ https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/DS_153_video.mp4   Related episodes Data Art w/ Jer ThorpData Sculptures with Adrien Segal

Hi everyone! We are once again at the end of a whole year. After having “end of the year episodes” with other podcasters, going around the world, and chatting with Andy and Robert, we decided to try something different this time: we asked a group of data visualization professionals to send us an audio snippet summarizing what happened in specific areas of the field over the last year. The result is a great multifaceted collage of stories and personalities. See below who we have interviewed and what they talked about. Happy New Year! Thanks so much for listening to the show. We’ll see you in 2020 with a whole set of great new episodes! [Our podcast is fully listener-supported. That’s why you don’t have to listen to ads! Please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon or sending us a one-time donation through Paypal. And thank you!]   Links: Alberto Cairo on Data literacy Nightingale, a publication edited by the Data visualization society Improvement of free or freemium tools: Datawrapper, Flourish. Crowdsourcing of RawGraphs successful New popularizing books: Ben Jones’ “Avoiding Data Pitfalls” / Stephanie Evergreen’s “Data Visualization Sketchbook” / Cole Nussbaumer’s “Storytelling with Data: Let’s Practice!” / Alberto Cairo’s own: “How Charts Lie” The pace at which podcasts such as yours publish (not a new development, but still) Andy Kirk’s Little of Visualization design series (ongoing effort) Alberto’s own recent MOOC (12,000+ people) Upcoming conferences: IRE-NICAR, Malofiej, Computation+Journalism, the Data Visualization Society conference, etc.   Amelia Wattenberger on Learning data visualization from a newcomer’s perspective Data visualization society   Figma (UI design tool) Lots of free tutorials and ways to get started in data viz Amelia’s bird’s eye view of the library Challenge: awareness about where data comes from! The erroneousness of considering data as “facts” Show how data can be biased or misconstrued   Andy Kirk on Data tools The acquisition of Looker by Google   Flourish Data Wrapper Raw Graphs (fundraising for v2.0) Challenge: Data illustrator and Charticulator did not develop further How do you create outputs for multiple platforms More techniques to explore more encodings   David Bauer on Data Journalism Bar chart races! From data-driven to data-inspired stories (more about people behind the data) New focus on climate change / showing the data does not do the trick Teams invest in tools! + role of Data Wrapper David’s newsletter “Weekly Filet” Elijah Meeks on Data viz within the industry  Data visualization hitting the mainstream First datavis president / Trump interested in the actual chart Michelle Rial / beyond coffee table books / “Data Humanism” Giorgia Lupi and her fashion line Data vis no longer only a supplemental skill DVS has 10000 members! Tableau and Looker acquisition Technical maturity of viz No longer see the development of many new types of visualizations, we are more optimizing what we have Not only limited to technical people Jen Christiansen on Science communication  Scientists and designers are now speaking the same language! Visualization by Nadieh Bremer: In Many Places, the Sun Peaks Well after 12:00  Beyond data as “truth”, even in science! [Postmodern Data Science?] Article in Scientific American: How to Get Better at Embracing Unknowns, by Jessica Hullman Warming Stripes by Ed Hawkins   Jessica Hullman on Viz research Research Pierre Dragicevic et.al. Explorable Multiverse Analyses J. Hullman, P. Resnick, E. Adar. Hypotetical Outcome Plots N. McCurdy. Making room for implicit error: a visualization approach to managing data discrepancy N. McCurdy, M. Meyer. IEEE TVCG 2019.  A Framework for Externalizing Implicit Error Using Visualization Yea Seul Kim, K. Reinecke, J. Hullman. Explaining the Gap: Visualizing One’s Predictions Improves Recall and Comprehension of Data Yea Seul Kim, L. Walls, P.M. Krafft, J. Hullman. A Bayesian Cognition Approach to Improve Data Visualization. ACM CHI 2019 Michael Correll. Vis for Digital Humanities Workshop Keynote (at IEEE VIS 2019) Book Data Feminism, by Catherine d’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein   Lauren Klein on Data ethics  Book: Data Feminism, by Catherine d’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein  Biased algorithms Series of events: The new Jim Code ACM Fairness and Accountability Group + CRAFT Conference Kate Crawford’s Anatomy of an AI system Maarten Lambrecht on Xenographics Some of the charts in the xenographics collection pop up in the wild  Unsolved issue: data visualisation in education, both at lower as in higher levels of education Tools: RAWGraphs Maral Pourkazemi on Diversity and inclusion Gender diversity in the field (women in the field lead a lot!) More empowered. Taken more into consideration.   Mitchell Whitelaw on Viz localism Renewed attention to local data practices John Thackara: Bio-regional design     Paolo Ciuccarelli on Visualization & design Interest in design as a discipline Shift towards the human Automating design Data literacy Tools: Raw Graphs (fundraising for v2.0) Thomas Dahm on Data viz conferences Us by Night (Belgium)   Beyond Tellerrand (Germany)  Offf Barcelona  (Relatively) good mix of speakers Dataviz speakers booked as speakers at more general design conferences Agencies do conferences Unsolved challenges:  Swag Sponsors Thomas Dahm’s Neon Moiré https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/DS_Year2019.mp4

In this episode we talk about “future interfaces” with David Sheldon-Hicks: interfaces that are developed in futuristic movies. David is the founder and creative director of Territory Studio. They are the people behind the screen design of a lot of iconic movies such as The Martian, Blade Runner and Ex Machina. On the show, we talk about what it takes to develop this kind of interfaces and how they interact with film directors. We also talk about interaction paradigms and classic movies from the past. David also provides a few tips on how to get started in this space. Note: they are hiring! Enjoy the show! [Our podcast is fully listener-supported. That’s why you don’t have to listen to ads! Please consider becoming a supporter on Patreon or sending us a one-time donation through Paypal. And thank you!] Films in which Territory Studio was involved (in the order of their mentioning): The Martian (2015, Ridley Scott) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014, James Gunn) Blade Runner 2049 (2017, Denis Villeneuve) Ex Machina (2015, Alex Garland) James Bond – No Time To Die (forthcoming 2020, Cary Fukunaga) Prometheus (2012, Ridley Scott) Legends of the past: Minority Report (2002, Steven Spielberg) War Games (1983, John Badham) Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977, George Lucas)   https://datastori.es/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/151_video.mp4