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This is the place where you will regularly find new articles about the practice of data visualization in organizations, effective alternatives, visual explorations, and relevant charts on current topics.

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Housing expenses: there were signs
Topic: Territory

Housing expenses: there were signs

The evolution of the proportion of housing expenses seems to show that the problem has been ignored for decades, leading to the current crisis.

· Jorge Camões

The Tagus River
Topic: Lab

The Tagus River

A data integration experiment featuring geographical references of the Tagus River and the population of the municipalities along its banks. It includes the Fernando Pessoa poem to which the title refers.

· Jorge Camões

Redesigning the RASI
Topic: Visuaization Design

Redesigning the RASI

I decided to take a break and spend an hour remaking the charts (right side of the image). The entire page is a quick draft in Excel (also to show that in-house work doesn't have to be... like that).

· Jorge Camões

Data? We don't have
Topic: Practices

Data? We don't have

The lack of data in Portugal is something extraordinary. There isn't a single conference or debate where the conclusion doesn't boil down to: "It would be cool to do this, but the data isn't there".

· Jorge Camões

Imagem de cabeçalho ilustrativa de um post: Mapa de NUTS3 simplificadas da Península Ibérica
Topic: Tools

The new silver route

Experimenting with simplified NUTS3 regions showing the proportion of the elderly population in each region of the Iberian Peninsula.

· Jorge Camões

I asked ChatGPT to make a chart
Topic: Tools

I asked ChatGPT to make a chart

An attempt to create a chart with ChatGPT. Clearly aligned with some somewhat outdated ideas, it failed to understand what was intended.

· Jorge Camões

The known unknowns
Topic: Practices

The known unknowns

European Union publications (as well as those from many statistical agencies) tend not to apply data visualization suggested practices that are widely agreed upon among experts.

· Jorge Camões

Data visualization and creativity
Topic: Visuaization Design

Data visualization and creativity

Where it is argued that creativity in data visualization is not just about an aesthetic outcome.

· Jorge Camões

The problem with bar charts
Topic: Visuaization Design

The problem with bar charts

Clarifying what we want to communicate with the data makes all the difference when deciding on the right chart type.

· Jorge Camões

Imagem de cabeçalho ilustrativa de um post: Gráfico de pontos mostrando o peso das despesas em restaurantes e hotéis em países europeus e como variaram entre 1999 e 2020.
Topic: Visuaization Design

Dumbbell plot: effective and elegant

The dumbbell plot is an effective, efficient, flexible, and elegant chart, four qualities that are difficult to find in bar charts.

· Jorge Camões

Imagem de cabeçalho ilustrativa de um post mostrando um gráfico Sankey e um gráfico circular alternativo
Topic: Practices

An age-old question

'What is the most appropriate chart to represent x?' is the question I am most frequently asked in data visualization courses, and it is both the easiest and the most difficult to answer.

· Jorge Camões

Imagem de cabeçalho ilustrativa de um post: "A falta de Visão dos crimes"
Topic: Demography & Society

A lack of Vision on crimes

An article published in Visão magazine managed to choose the worst possible option for a data-driven discussion: throwing out four random figures when they could have presented a 30-year series with a much clearer message.

· Jorge Camões

Ideas that refuse to die
Topic: Practices

Ideas that refuse to die

There are some old and wrong ideas about data visualization that refuse to die. What can we do to finally lay them to rest?

· Jorge Camões

Imagem de cabeçalho ilustrativa de um post: Gráfico de linhas com 438 séries, ultrapassando o máximo que o Excel permite
Topic: Visuaization Design

Number of series in Excel line charts

Qual o máximo número de séries num gráfico? Leia sobre uma combinação de boas práticas de visualização de dados com a sua aplicação em Excel.

· Jorge Camões

The RASI as the absolute zero of graphic literacy
Topic: Practices

The RASI as the absolute zero of graphic literacy

The RASI, the Portuguese Annual Internal Security Report is, unfortunately, the best example of bad practices in data visualization I have ever encountered.

· Jorge Camões