Redesigns

I saw this graph in a tweet from the Brookings Institution in mid-October and thought there might be a better way to present the data: Do you rent or own? Here’s what we know about American homeowners, renters, and prospective…

I saw this tweet from American University’s School of Public Affairs in early October: Survey Results: NGOs and local gov’ts working together in developing countries are likely to do so for the following reasons. @JocelynMJohn pic.twitter.com/NWWNq3VmPE — SchoolPublicAffairs (@AU_SPA) October…

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Urban Institute published two posts on gun violence in America I co-authored with a colleague (post #1 and post #2). One of the data visualizations in the first post was inspired not by the issue per se, but by…

I saw this map in a Washington Post article a couple of weeks ago about how much you need to earn to buy a house in different cities around the country. The map comes from an article at HSH.com, which is…

You may be aware that I have a “Redesigns” tab on PolicyViz, which consists of a collection of graphs to which I give a makeover. At some point in the next couple of months, I’m planning on taking that page down…

We’ve all seen it: The bar (or column) chart with 20 or 30 or 40 different groups, each with two, three, of four categories. Is that a good chart type? Is it useful? I’ve recently started to think that these…

New year, new ideas. This year, I’m launching a “Remakes” page to PolicyViz, which will serve as an ongoing repository for data visualizations that I think are in need a makeover. I’ll regularly post simple graphs and data visualizations that I…

I’m generally a big fan of slope charts (as is, apparently, Andy Kirk at visualisingdata.org)—they are visually appealing; for many people, they are easier to understand than a scatterplot; and, they can really draw in the reader to explore the…