blog/Data Visualization

Weaving together plants and people: developing a touchscreen installation for the Exploratorium

| 04.04.23

¡Plantásticas! is now open at the Exploratorium! This exhibit introduces visitors to the world of plants through a diversity of perspectives, and features an installation by Stamen design. The Exploratorium came to Stamen with two rich sets of data: the lived experience of plants through the eyes of Latinx and Indigenous communities, and high resolution...

Connecting the Dots: How Data Products and Design Help Address Systemic Threats

The myriad and complex challenges of addressing climate change can feel overwhelming, but when you combine the wealth and power of data available with communication strategies, it becomes possible to imagine a future where we are valuing conservation, relying on renewables, promoting efficient industrial, consumer, and agricultural processes, and not pumping greenhouse gasses and pollutants...

Visualizing critical disaster data with ReadyMapper

| 03.08.23

With climate-related natural disasters on the rise, it has become increasingly obvious that we lack the tools to provide useful information as crises unfold—the venn diagram of crucial data and real-time communication has painfully little overlap. Since early 2022, Stamen has had the pleasure of working with CrisisReady and Direct Relief to create ReadyMapper, an...

Data Hierarchy Best Practices to Elevate Your Data Visualizations

| 03.02.23

At its very core, data visualization has two main components: representation and interaction.

2022!

| 02.22.23

Remote dataviz & maps in the cloud 2022 was our first full year at Stamen being really remote. We’ve been out of our beautiful San Francisco office since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which I’ve reflected on before, but for the first year or two, we all assumed being remote was temporary. 2021 saw...

Down In the Sewers Tracking Viruses with WastewaterSCAN

| 02.16.23

Late last year, Stamen worked with the group WastewaterSCAN to build a new home for the group’s public-facing charts that visualize the data they collect from wastewater treatment plants across the US. If you’ve been keeping an eye on the latest data regarding COVID-19 and other viruses like RSV, you might have noticed that there...

Mapping the Changing Coast with the Southern Environmental Law Center

| 02.07.23

In 2022 we had the pleasure of sitting down with Jovian Sackett from the Southern Environmental Law Center to talk about our collaboration on The Changing Coast and the work Jovian does more broadly. The conversation ranged from the decisions that went into making The Changing Coast map, communicating with data, and the data questions...

How the Vast Spectrum of Data Fuels Your Data Visualization Project

| 02.03.23

One of the biggest myths about data visualization is that you have to have the “right” kind of data to tell compelling visual stories.  But, when data visualization only focuses on leveraging numerical facts, it becomes inherently limiting in ways that science, research and discovery were never meant to be.  There’s a better way.  Researchers...

Why Data Gaps Are Often the Missing Link for Data Stories

Researchers are quick to abandon data gaps or anomalies when creating data stories. Learn why digging into missing data helps you tell a more complete story.

Pollinate Ep. 13- RJ Andrews & The History of Information Graphics

| 12.08.22

The field of data visualization and information mapping has historical roots that date back far earlier than most people would imagine. Micronesian explorers created navigation charts with sticks and shells for thousands of years before the introduction of electronic navigation technology. Hundreds of years ago, humans had the means to mechanically collect data on everything...