My favourite charts and data things of 2023
Hello there!
Welcome to the Sweet Spot. Ahead of Chart Chat's year in review, I thought I'd share some of my favourite charts and data-adjacent content of the year. Enjoy!
My favourite charts
Back in January, Axios wrote about the changing shape and size of trucks in the US. Their visuals were eye-catching and imaginative, as I explained in this video. The impact on road fatalities and the environment is, alas, awful. The latest US road-fatalities data surely suggests trucks need better regulation.
It's a bar chart from the UK Treasury. It has a truncated y-axis that makes the decrease in UK inflation look much larger than it is. It's an egregious chart crime made by people who surely should know better. How on earth can this chart be my favourite? It's because it triggered a letter from the UK Office for Statistical Regulation. Perhaps it's not the best known public body in the world, but I am glad there are efforts to hold people in power to account for their chart deceptions. It's not even the first time they've called out the government.
This final one is a little meta: charts about charts. The above is just one diagram from Aurélien Vautier. He has been producing gorgeous, informative, quirky diagrams all year. In a series of sparse, simple diagrams he has managed to convey more wisdom than many of us do in the long, long books we write!
My favourite podcast
How will AI impact the future? That's been one of the bigger questions this year, and Hard Fork has become my go-to podcast. Kevin Roose and Casey Newton discuss AI and other topics in technology. It's not just that they're exceptional journalists, they have a joyous on-air chemistry that brings a smile to my face each episode. Their episodes before and during the ChatGPT fiasco were a highlight.
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My favourite book
Yes, I could share one of the books in the data field (Alberto Cairo and Alli Torban both have released books I'm excited to get around to reading, for example). Instead, I'd rather share Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Why this one? It's a love story spanning decades. Sam and Sadie experience love, betrayal, envy, and tragedy. So far, so generic. But the thing that unites them is that they are programmers. Specifically, they work on their generation's best video games. It is a great love story, but it's a geeky heaven as they go from coding in their bedrooms to writing AAA mega-titles.
Coming up:
Whether you've seen Spider-man Into the Spider-verse or not, check out my review of the amazing charts and dashboards in the film.
How about making your movie dataviz with data from IMDB? Check out Tableau's Data Plus Movies challenge. We can't wait to see what you all build!
The Iron Viz qualifier has seen some incredible entries. I'm excited to be announcing the 3 finalists and reviewing the entries on Jan 17, 2024. Sign up here.
That's all for now. Happy Vizzing and see you at Chart Chat! Let me know what your favourite data content has been this year.
Andy
Strategy & Insights Leader | Executive MBA
11moFantastic! What a brilliant F-150 chart. And I already loved Into the Spider-Verse as a comics fan; thanks for giving me a reason to watch it again as a data fan.
I Help You Master Dashboard Design.
11moThank you Andy. You've described what I do better than I ever could 👍
Should have Played Quidditch for England
11moGreat charts Andy Cotgreave
The inflation graph has another flaw that I think is overlooked and maybe worse, which is that inflation is felt cumulatively. Showing inflation going down has almost zero value if 1) it’s still high compared to historical values and 2) it’s been high for many months in a row.