Blog 2023

Rainbow Colormaps Are Not All Bad (Paper)

Rainbow colormaps are among the most derided ideas in data visualization, second only to pie charts. And yet, people use them. Why? A recent paper looks at some of the reasons why they are so popular and points to research showing that they might not be so bad if used for the right tasks. There's even opportunity for interesting research in rainbow colormaps! Read more…

Paper: Notebooks for Data Analysis and Visualization

Computational notebooks offer an alternative to the common GUI-based tools used for data visualization and BI today. In this new paper, I talk about what they are, their pros and cons, and how research could fill in some important gaps. Read more…

Course on Data Vis Fundamentals and Best Practices

I'm teaching a short course on data visualization for Observable. It's free, and you should join! Starts March 7. Read more…

New video: Exploring the connections between companies with They Rule

Josh On's They Rule is back, and I've made a video about it. Read more…