Is an average always the best way to summarize data? No! It can be useful to look at the underlying distribution of data and sometimes makes sense to show the variation. This month’s challenge is to visualize the variability in data. There are numerous ways to do so: the recap post this time around should be a good collection of approaches!

We saw a wide variety of tools used in the first challenge of 2019: from the familiar to new players on the market and from drag & drop GUI solutions to programming languages. Read on to see the wide array of instruments available for visualizing data and learn from others as they attempt these tools for the first time.

Holiday music, cookie calories, winter temperatures, and more! Many tools, graphs, and festive encodings were used to visualize data related to the holidays. Hope you enjoy browsing the great variety of topics and designs—happy holidays!

‘Tis the season to be merry (irrespective of which holiday you celebrate), so let’s combine that festive cheer with something near and dear to us all: data visualization! This month, your challenge is to visualize data related to the holidays.

People shared examples of sticky notes used in a variety of ways in response to the November challenge. They are small, which forces concision, lend themselves to being easily rearranged and remove the constraints of our tools. Pick up a pack of post its the next time you find yourself needing to communicate with data! Check out the post for inspiration of how others have used stickies as a strategic tool.