Allgemein

2020 – My year in vizzes

22. Dezember 2020 /

2020 has been my first full year in the data viz community. I first started using Tableau at my new job in September 2019. I spent a few months deep-diving into the tool and by the end of 2019, I decided to become more active in the community. I wanted to keep practicing and improving my skills and consistently produce content. The initial goal I set myself for 2020 was to participate in every #MakeoverMonday in 2020 – a goal I (almost) reached (still missing 3 at this point, I think) and which I’ll write a separate blog post about. But overall, I ended up publishing more than 70 vizzes to my Tableau Public profile:

  • 50 MakeoverMonday vizzes
  • 8 WorkoutWednesday vizzes
  • 1 IronViz feeder submission
  • 5 IronQuest submissions
  • 13 vizzes just for fun

Let’s take a look back at some of my personal favorites…

My two Vizzes of the Day

We’re starting with something I have very conflicting feelings about. So… I got two #VOTD! That’s obviously an incredible honor and on paper probably my biggest success. #VOTD is a big source of inspiration for me and it features some incredible work. So getting it twice and this early in my data viz journey is mindblowing to me.

But I guess that’s where my conflicting feelings start. See, I got the first one for my Week 5 #MakeoverMonday viz and the second one in March for my first ever #IronQuest submission. Which is crazy. But the point is I don’t think those vizzes are in any way exceptional. I don’t dislike them. I think they’re fine. But compared to other VOTD they are pretty boring. And I think even within my own portfolio they don’t stand out to me. I’ve done better things since. At least I hope I’ve improved since. So, yeah, I’m just not quite sure what to make of this…

Diverging Bar Chart about Brit's opinions on James Bond
Click on the image to see the interactive version.
The viz I would frame and hang on my wall

This is the one viz in my portfolio I might consider data art. I love Van Gogh and felt inspired by his iconic use of color. I like how minimalistic and abstract this viz is and that it doesn’t even look like a data viz at first.

The viz is best enjoyed while listening to this:

My first multi-part viz series

I always wanted to combine data viz with my love for Broadway and musicals. So I spent a few evenings collecting data on one of my favorite musicals – Hamilton and chanelled the results into a three-part viz series.

My most underrated viz

My ‚Hot 100 again‘ viz barely got any attention on Twitter and has a whopping 18 views on Tableau  Public (most of which I probably generated myself). However, I still like it. The topic is interesting – why do some hits reenter the charts years after they have first been successful? The colors are fun and I tried that kinda storypoint interactivity for the first time. So maybe give this one a try if you’re reading this? 

My proudest moment

My proudest data viz moment this year came when I published this viz. Somehow it found its way to the man himself Steve Wexler who messaged me on Twitter and called it a rare good use case for pie charts. 

Goodbye 2020

Even though 2020 sucked in many ways, it was a good year on my own data viz journey. I feel so much more confident in my data viz abilities. Even though I still feel like I have a lot to learn or still struggle to find my voice at times, this look back at the year that was showed me that I did make progress. I’m so grateful to be a part of the #datafam and am excited to see what we’ll all come up with next year!