2026-04-17 04:29:57
Some occupations have more turnover than others. See how it varies for your occupation and others.
2026-04-17 00:39:22
To make India’s census documents more accessible to the public in the 1970s, the government worked on the Portrait of Population for the 1971 Census. Aman Bhargava and Vivek Matthew, for Diagram Chasing, explain the history of the publication and provide an archive of 700 hand-drawn charts from the publication.
Half a century later, what makes these documents worth looking at is the tremendous and earnest effort being made to render this data interesting and engaging. This was before data visualization became cheaper to produce digitally, which means every chart, every pictogram, and every illustrated comparison was an expensive decision in terms of time and effort, especially within the already stretched departments of the government. One can imagine the writers, artists, and designers (because that is what they were, even if the bureaucracy had not used those words) who produced these documents thinking about what would land with a reader holding this pamphlet.
Bring back efforts like this for all countries.
Tags: census, Diagram Chasing, illustration, India, population
2026-04-16 20:05:54
Hi everyone. This is issue No. 384 of the Process, where we aim for data graphics that provide more signal than the defaults. I’m Nathan Yau. This week we put more information in the background to improve the signal in the foreground.
Become a member for access to this — plus tutorials, courses, and guides.
2026-04-15 17:28:47
For most of history, maps of the Moon were based only on the near side, because that’s all we could see from Earth. Danny Robb of Inverting Vision gives a visual history lesson on how we eventually saw the rest.
We wouldn’t be able to get a better look at the far side of the Moon until we invented a way to send cameras there. At the dawn of the Space Age, rockets gave us the ability to do just that. In 1959, Soviet engineers created a series of robotic probes, and launched them toward the Moon. One of these managed a lunar flyby, and was named Luna 3. Engineers equipped Luna 3 with a film camera, capable of developing the exposed film, scanning the images, and transmitting them back to Earth by radio.
Tags: cartography, Inverting Vision, moon
2026-04-14 17:10:01
Over four years, Barbara Iweins cataloged every object she owns — all 12,795 of them — with a photo.
Longing for more stability in my life, I felt the urge to really lock myself into my new place. I decided then and there to push the limits of my inertia and neuroticism by getting up close and personal with my belongings and analyze all of them in detail.
From then on, for four years, room by room, drawer by drawer, I photographed, indexed and classified my entire house. Absolutely everything: from my daughters torn sock to my sons Lego, but also my vibrator, my anxiolytics… absolutely everything.
Tags: Barbara Iweins, photograph
2026-04-14 15:01:35
William S. Cleveland, one of the most respected statistical visualization researchers of all-time, passed on March 27, 2026 at 83 years old. From his obituary:
A pioneering statistician, Bill helped reshape how scientists analyze and visualize data, and was among the first to articulate the intellectual foundations of what is now called data science. Over a career spanning academia and Bell Laboratories, he championed the idea that statistics should center on learning from real data rather than on mathematical theory alone. His work on graphical methods transformed data visualization into a rigorous scientific discipline, and his books, The Elements of Graphing Data and Visualizing Data, became foundational texts for generations of researchers.
At Bell Labs, Bill worked alongside John Tukey and John Chambers. He contributed to a culture focused on hands-on data analysis and innovation in computing. In 2001, he outlined a vision for expanding statistics into “data science.” This vision integrated computation, subject-matter knowledge, and analytic thinking and has since become central to modern scientific practice.
Bill was a deeply respected scholar, colleague, and mentor, and his contributions to the field and to the institutions he served will be long remembered. His impact extended far beyond his research accomplishments. His insight, vision, and generosity influenced many, and his legacy will endure in the people and ideas he inspired.
If you work with charts, you’ve come across Cleveland’s research in one form or another. His studies on graphical perception influenced a generation of visualization researchers, which trickled down to the design of tools that data workers use every day.
Tags: obituary, William Cleveland
