All blog posts by month

November 2024
- Nov 26, 2024 Should you avoid using “advanced” chart types? (+ Black Friday Sale!) Nov 26, 2024
October 2024
- Oct 30, 2024 “I don’t want red on my dashboards. It looks too negative.” Oct 30, 2024
- Oct 20, 2024 New video! Why I don't use Marimekko charts (and what I use instead) Oct 20, 2024
- Oct 8, 2024 Dashboards should only show the “most important” metrics… right? Oct 8, 2024
September 2024
- Sep 23, 2024 Avoid legends, footnotes, and other forms of "indirect" labeling in your charts! (whenever possible...) Sep 23, 2024
- Sep 11, 2024 Creativity is great in charts... except when it gets in the reader's way! Sep 11, 2024
August 2024
- Aug 27, 2024 Stop using confusing date formats in your charts! Aug 27, 2024
- Aug 21, 2024 I've stopped using colored-region ("choropleth") maps. Should you? Aug 21, 2024
- Aug 7, 2024 Free webinar recording: "How to choose a chart type (it's trickier than you think)" Aug 7, 2024
July 2024
- Jul 31, 2024 New video! Step-by-step makeover of an email subscriber count chart Jul 31, 2024
- Jul 28, 2024 New video: Redesigning a chart of ages of first-time mothers in European countries Jul 28, 2024
- Jul 26, 2024 How many slices can you put in a pie chart? (New video!) Jul 26, 2024
June 2024
- Jun 18, 2024 Big news! Practical Charts ON DEMAND will be available on June 25th! Jun 18, 2024
April 2024
- Apr 29, 2024 When to use a bar chart Apr 29, 2024
- Apr 15, 2024 The one (rare) situation in which it makes sense to use a single stacked bar chart Apr 15, 2024
- Apr 3, 2024 “Keep it simple” is NOT good chart-design advice Apr 3, 2024
March 2024
- Mar 5, 2024 How I wrote "Practical Charts" Mar 5, 2024
February 2024
- Feb 20, 2024 Video: Choosing a chart type is trickier than you think - A conversation with Enrico Bertini Feb 20, 2024
- Feb 14, 2024 Are “smoothed” line charts OK? Feb 14, 2024
- Feb 1, 2024 Avoid problematic date formats in your charts! Feb 1, 2024
December 2023
- Dec 13, 2023 New book announcement! "More Practical Charts" will be published on Jan. 16! Dec 13, 2023
- Dec 6, 2023 Have I resolved the pie chart debate? (New article in Nightingale) Dec 6, 2023
November 2023
- Nov 22, 2023 How to quickly teach an audience to read an unfamiliar chart type Nov 22, 2023
October 2023
- Oct 31, 2023 Six common pie chart formatting mistakes Oct 31, 2023
- Oct 17, 2023 You should probably be using “step charts” a lot more often. Oct 17, 2023
September 2023
- Sep 28, 2023 Interested in reading the Practical Charts book before Nov. 15? Sep 28, 2023
- Sep 20, 2023 The tricky business of designing charts that will be printed in black and white Sep 20, 2023
- Sep 13, 2023 The Practical Charts BOOK will be available on Nov. 15! Sep 13, 2023
- Sep 5, 2023 Connected scatterplots make me feel dumb. (article in Nightingale) Sep 5, 2023
July 2023
- Jul 19, 2023 There are no bad chart types... Right? Jul 19, 2023
June 2023
- Jun 20, 2023 Should you learn dataviz theory? Jun 20, 2023
May 2023
- May 23, 2023 Choosing a chart type is harder than you think May 23, 2023
March 2023
- Mar 28, 2023 Will AI automate data visualization? Mar 28, 2023
- Mar 8, 2023 "I'm using data storytelling, but my charts are still poorly received. Why?" Mar 8, 2023
- Mar 2, 2023 Thoughts on Alberto Cairo's "The Art of Insight" Mar 2, 2023
January 2023
- Jan 11, 2023 Labelling all the values in a chart doesn’t make a bad chart better Jan 11, 2023
November 2022
- Nov 3, 2022 Why I Stopped Using Bullet Graphs (and What I Now Use Instead) Nov 3, 2022
June 2022
- Jun 29, 2022 Are vertical line charts ever a good idea? Jun 29, 2022
- Jun 7, 2022 Are line charts liars? Jun 7, 2022
April 2022
- Apr 5, 2022 How many bins should my histogram have? Apr 5, 2022
February 2022
- Feb 4, 2022 Let's Make a Map of the Data Visualization Field! Feb 4, 2022
January 2022
- Jan 11, 2022 Why the NYT Spiral Graph Is a Failure. And a Success. Jan 11, 2022
December 2021
- Dec 17, 2021 Does Data Visualization Have Rules? Or Is It All Just “It Depends”? Dec 17, 2021
- Dec 7, 2021 Do I need to include zero in my chart’s scale? (It’s surprisingly complicated…) Dec 7, 2021
November 2021
- Nov 16, 2021 The biggest misconception in data visualization Nov 16, 2021
- Nov 4, 2021 I’ve Stopped Using Box Plots. Should You? Nov 4, 2021
September 2021
- Sep 21, 2021 The two completely different chart types that are called "scatterplots" Sep 21, 2021
August 2021
- Aug 2, 2021 Why “% deviation from trailing average” indicators on dashboards aren’t helpful (book excerpt) Aug 2, 2021
July 2021
- Jul 13, 2021 Why are so many beautiful charts also bad? Jul 13, 2021
June 2021
- Jun 22, 2021 My dashboard users don’t even know what they want! Jun 22, 2021
- Jun 18, 2021 Remembering Charles Assey Jun 18, 2021
- Jun 15, 2021 The (Scary) Power of Data Storytelling Jun 15, 2021
April 2021
- Apr 20, 2021 What, exactly, makes one chart better than another? Apr 20, 2021
December 2020
- Dec 28, 2020 Why a dashboard on its own won’t improve performance Dec 28, 2020
- Dec 9, 2020 Highlight “obviously wrong” values on dashboards! Dec 9, 2020
October 2020
- Oct 20, 2020 The problem with slope charts Oct 20, 2020
August 2020
- Aug 19, 2020 How to hire a data visualization pro (or become one) Aug 19, 2020
July 2020
- Jul 24, 2020 Why expert graphic designers, data analysts, and software power users can still make bad charts Jul 24, 2020
June 2020
- Jun 23, 2020 Watch the first part of my Practical Charts course… for free! Jun 23, 2020
- Jun 16, 2020 My favorite chart type Jun 16, 2020
- Jun 9, 2020 New Course: "Practical Charts" Jun 9, 2020
December 2019
- Dec 12, 2019 Why I can’t teach you data visualization in an hour (but I can in two days) Dec 12, 2019
October 2019
- Oct 24, 2019 Practical Dashboards video now available! Oct 24, 2019
- Oct 17, 2019 New article: “All charts are biased, but some are useful” (plus upcoming speaking engagements) Oct 17, 2019
July 2019
- Jul 23, 2019 Brand new workshop: “Practical Dashboards”! Jul 23, 2019
June 2019
- Jun 4, 2019 Automatically flag metrics that require attention on dashboards using statistics (book excerpt) Jun 4, 2019
February 2019
- Feb 21, 2019 A friendlier dot plot? Feb 21, 2019
November 2018
- Nov 19, 2018 Why I now use “four-threshold” flags on dashboards (book excerpt) Nov 19, 2018
- Nov 13, 2018 Good/Satisfactory/Poor ranges on dashboards: Not as effective as they seem (book excerpt) Nov 13, 2018
- Nov 6, 2018 "% Deviation from Target" flags: Confusion masquerading as context (book excerpt) Nov 6, 2018
- Nov 6, 2018 Single-threshold flags on dashboards: Very common and very problematic (book excerpt) Nov 6, 2018
October 2018
- Oct 30, 2018 “% Change From previous day/week/month” on dashboards: Worse than useless? (book excerpt) Oct 30, 2018
- Oct 23, 2018 Performance targets aren’t the same as alert thresholds (book excerpt) Oct 23, 2018
- Oct 17, 2018 Include visual flags on dashboards!!! (book excerpt) Oct 17, 2018
September 2018
- Sep 4, 2018 Stop trying to create “general purpose” charts (because they don’t exist) Sep 4, 2018
July 2018
- Jul 24, 2018 Artistically impressive doesn't equal informative Jul 24, 2018
May 2018
- May 28, 2018 Video: Why dashboards for Problem Scanning AND performance monitoring don’t work May 28, 2018
October 2017
- Oct 17, 2017 A graph redesign Oct 17, 2017
September 2017
- Sep 15, 2017 New book coming in 2020: "Practical Dashboards" – feedback needed! Sep 15, 2017
August 2017
- Aug 31, 2017 Deep dive: Visualizing wide-variation data Aug 31, 2017
- Aug 16, 2017 Mindware: Tools for Smart Thinking (book review) Aug 16, 2017
July 2017
- Jul 31, 2017 Do tooltips reduce the need for precision in graphs? Jul 31, 2017
- Jul 12, 2017 Avoiding quantitative scales that make graphs hard to read Jul 12, 2017