Data Stories

Hi everyone,

We have graphic editors Mike Bostock and Shan Carter in this dense and long episode. It’s great to finally have someone from the New York Times!

We talk about many practical and more philosophical aspects of publishing interactive visualizations on the web. We also spend quite some time discussing the past, present and future of D3.js.

(On a side note: apologies for starting a bit abruptly and for the weird noises. Enrico was desperately and unsuccessfully trying to find a quiet and calm spot at the CHI conference.)

Take Care,
Enrico & Mo.

P.S. Many thanks to all of you guys who sent us Twitter questions for Mike and Shan.

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Episode Chapters

00:00:00 Intro
00:00:12 Our guests today: New York Times graphics editors Mike Bostocks and Shan Carter
00:01:54 About the NYT graphics department
00:06:56 Map wrangling
00:08:47 QA, evaluation, fact checking,…
00:11:23 Twitter question: Post the data set along with the graphic?
00:15:51 Exploratory or explanatory?
00:19:56 User tracking, user feedback
00:25:53 Balance of familiarity vs. new visual vocabularies
00:29:52 Workflow, on the example of the 512 paths graphic
00:38:05 Hybrid workflows between automation and manual layout
00:45:12 d3
00:45:49 History and philosophy
00:56:19 Value of examples
00:57:31 Community adoption
00:59:25 Vega
01:04:53 More d3 books or tutorials for advanced users?
01:08:15 Developer community
01:09:45 Sustainability
01:11:51 Future development
01:15:10 Enrico is back!
01:16:13 Is d3 complete?
01:18:52 When does Mike sleep?
01:19:45 Wrapping it up

Links to discussed NYT projects

• • 512 Paths to the White House / Shan’s talk on the making of 512 paths
  • Over the Decades, How States Have Shifted
  • China Still Dominates, but Some Manufacturers Look Elsewhere
  • Among the Oscar Contenders, a Host of Connections
  • Ralf Straumann on hexagonal cartograms

  Related episodes

• Xenographics with Maarten Lambrechts
• svelte.js for web-based dataviz with Amelia Wattenberger