After writing about visualization for over a decade, it’s time to mix things up a bit and try a new medium: video. I just uploaded the first video to my new YouTube channel, which I’m calling eagereyesTV. Take a look and tell me what you think!
If you don’t watch videos because you think they’re all a waste of time, I understand where you’re coming from. I thought so too until recently. The vast majority certainly are. But YouTube is what you make it. If you follow the right people who cover topics that interest you, and who do so in a structured (or at least engaging) way, you will change your mind.
Photography has become more important to me as a hobby again over the last year, so I’ve been following a few photographers like Adam Gibbs, Thomas Heaton, and Ted Forbes. But what really convinced me that there’s a way to be highly structured, efficient, and still entertaining in video, are the high production values of Jamie Windsor and the efficiency of Gerald Undone. You will find that I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from Undone in particular, I really like the way he does things and I’ve also learned a ton from his videos about, well, video.
My videos will be short and to the point. The goal is to stay in the five- to eight-minute range, and rarely if ever cross ten minutes. I know that when I try to decide whether to watch a video, I’m much more likely to watch something short, and shorter than ten minutes. I rarely watch videos longer than 20 minutes, and I have a very low tolerance for rambling, long-winded introductions with no relation to the content, or poor production values (in particular sound).
I’m also going to focus on content that works in video. There is little point in making a video when there is little or nothing to show, or when I feel that words are sufficient (i.e., I’m no videos that of just my head talking the entire time). But since visualization is obviously visual, there are many topics that can be described and explained much more easily with visuals.
The topics I’m planning on so far include visualization of course, including uncertainty, various communication topics, etc., but also ones more related to data, like what even is data? And, obviously, pie charts.
This is an experiment. I’m really curious what people think. Does it work? Is it interesting? What’s working, what isn’t? Feel free to leave comments here or on YouTube. And if you think it’s worthwhile, please subscribe on YouTube and maybe give the video a like.
Watch it here and see this post for the show notes (those are also on YouTube)
Enjoyed the video.