Welcome to March!

There's not much left of those cold, cozy days at home that are perfect for sitting down to expand your design tool belt, so let’s make the most of it! We designers marry data with goals, which makes us a critical interface. To support you in forging convincing stories to enable others to decide less from gut instinct and more based on data, I’ll share some useful and sustainable resources that you can not only read once but also utilize as frequent tools. 

Meet our curator of the month

Sebastian is a Berlin-based positive multidisciplinary creative who loves to dig deep into data points, occasionally losing track of time when crafting visual stories for users to love and stakeholders to dig. His simple goal is to make data-based decision-making the standard which requires digestible data for broad adaptation as the basis for peoples’ thinking. He also is firmly convinced that interactive, tangible experiences are by far the most natural and exciting to humans. So to not be narrowed down by the terminological borders of “data visualization” he prefers to think about it as “information experience”. 

Sebastian's picks

Advance your data visualization skills

By Data Visualization Society

If you are into data visualization, you must check out the DVS. It’s a large community that organizes captivating data-viz challenges and produces great reports on the matter throughout the year. What I find so fascinating about Du Bois’s “Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America”, is the power of data, visualized in a simple way to communicate complex societal issues. As a designer, I draw inspiration from this timeless use of sociology, statistics, and compelling visual aesthetics to convey information effectively. The inclusive approach paired with the careful consideration of diverse audiences to address issues underlines that we have a responsibility to use data for good. If you are digging those challenges, also check out the 2023 Awards Ceremony on their YouTube channel.

Unveiling DataViz screenshot critique GPT

By Adam Mico

This article introduces DataViz Screenshot Critique GPT, a tool and assistant designed for feedback on data visualizations. It empowers users to create appealing, ethically sound, and universally accessible visualizations by offering detailed critiques, using score-based metrics for several categories, such as color schemes or audience adaptation. I see a bright future for tools like this since they can be transformed to fit a specific target user and then be asked to understand and evaluate visualizations to plug holes in the information you try to convey. As mentioned at the end of the article, ChatGPT Plus offers a similar product called the Data Viz Advisor behind the paywall.

The issue with pie charts

By Data-to-Viz

To be fair, this blog post is just a gateway to a platform that you should consider as one of your go-to resources when you need to transform data into a story. Data-to-viz offers a problem-first approach; which means the platform supports you in finding the right tool for your problem in an interactive way and helps you navigate through a vast selection of well documented visualization tools.

Know your curator better

How do you stay updated on the latest industry trends and technologies?

Never settle and remain curious — by trying out new things, not getting too comfortable in projects, and actively listening to stuff I am not interested in. This opened surprisingly many doors to new things for me and a hopefully never-ending learning journey across competencies. 

Do you have any tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance?

Having focused work hours goes a long way. After that, actively disengage. Learn to organize yourself and reduce distractions. Great AI-supported co-pilots are on the way and improving by the hour, so I recommend picking one up and establishing a workflow.

What emerging technologies or trends are you particularly excited about?

Making data and information a real multi-sensory experience has fascinated me since my studies. Therefore, I hope the maturity of AR/VR and the recent new winds in the sails of adaptation (looking at you Apple), are hyping me up to bring data visualization and interactive information experience closer together, especially in the B2B and expert tool sector. 

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