The academic visualization community largely comes from computer science: most of the professors teach in computer science (or similar) departments, most of the students doing research are computer science students of some flavor or other. It's interesting to consider how the field might be different if visualization had emerged from a different discipline. [Read more...] about Visualization: Three Alternate Histories
How to Get Excited About Standard Datasets
It can be hard to get excited about the standard datasets that we keep using to show how visualization and statistics work. But if that's the case for you, it's not the datasets's fault, it's you! Here’s how to keep that spark going! [Read more...] about How to Get Excited About Standard Datasets
Visualization Potpourri, March 2018
Time to wake up from the eagereyes winter hibernation with an aromatic potpourri! This time, we have news about pies, stippling, colors, sorting algorithms, and a few more. Also a video of my collaborator Noeska singing the praises of medical visualization. [Read more...] about Visualization Potpourri, March 2018
EuroRVVV Call For Papers!
I'm delighted to be one of the co-chairs of the workshop on reproducibility, verification, and validation in visualization (EuroRVVV – quite possibly the worst-acronymed workshop in visualization) at EuroVis. The topic this year is uncertainty, and we're looking for all kinds of contributions to this important topic. [Read more...] about EuroRVVV Call For Papers!
A Smart Take on Election Maps
When maps are used to display data, there is often a discrepancy between the data being shown, which almost never relates to area, and the area of the different parts of the map. This is particularly common in election maps. This new map of votes in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election cleverly combines geography and data in a clear and compelling way. [Read more...] about A Smart Take on Election Maps
Speaking: How to Use A Microphone
When you’re speaking in front of an audience, you’re almost always using a microphone. The point of the microphone is to help your audience hear you. But it can’t do that if you don’t know how to use it or if you actively work against it. [Read more...] about Speaking: How to Use A Microphone
Vis Potpourri, October 2017
A potpourri isn't usually structured, since it's supposed to be thrown together and mixed. But this one has a section on reports from this year's VIS conference, plus various miscellaneous items like a tool to explore a brain atlas, some history on spreadsheets, and a celebration of Archer, among other things. [Read more...] about Vis Potpourri, October 2017
ISOTYPE Book: Florence, Only An Ocean Between
The book Only An Ocean Between by Lella Secor Florence contains some of the most iconic ISOTYPE charts. It was published in 1943, as part of a small series called America and Britain. [Read more...] about ISOTYPE Book: Florence, Only An Ocean Between
Portrait: Danielle Albers Szafir
Danielle Albers Szafir received the Best Paper award for her single-author paper, Modeling Color Difference for Visualization Design at InfoVis this year. She is assistant professor at University of Colorado Boulder and runs the CU VisuaLab there. [Read more...] about Portrait: Danielle Albers Szafir
IEEE VIS 2017: Machine Learning, Diversity, Parties
I've ignored the major new topic this year so far: machine learning. Another new thing this year, though way overdue, was that we finally started to talk about diversity. And then there were the parties. [Read more...] about IEEE VIS 2017: Machine Learning, Diversity, Parties