Nick Desbarats

A recent exchange that I had on LinkedIn underscored a humbling but crucial truth: the same chart design can seem clear and obvious to some but genuinely confusing to others, even among smart, well-intentioned people. Full article: www.practicalreporting.com/blog/2025/9/...

I avoid using radar/spiderweb graphs. Find out why and what chart types I use instead in my latest post: www.practicalreporting.com/blog/2025/8/...

For a while now, I've been trying to think of ways to visually and viscerally communicate just how ludicrous the wealth that the top 1% has accumulated is. This one (not mine) is pretty good...

Just heard Musk say that xAI's latest benchmark testing proves that "...Grok 4 is better than PhD-level at everything...". I guess PhDs don't know that showing bars on truncated scales is a bad idea.

Imagine receiving a letter that threatens your country's entire economy, and that also contains so many grammatical errors and poorly constructed sentences that it would get an F if it were submitted in a high school English writing class. Just... surreal.

"How to rescue your failing dashboard" webinar recording now available! My 47-minute interview with Ian Stuart of Rupe Ltd covers the top reasons why dashboards die, and what you can do about them. youtu.be/xL7qHCy-CEE

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗰𝘂𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 😬 Unfortunately, many dashboards end up under-used or (worse) abandoned entirely. Why? I'll be covering the top reasons in a FREE webinar at noon BST Jun20. Hope to see you there! Pre-register for the webinar here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/4908a1...

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀? Check out three common-but-not-ideal methods and one good one (IMHO, anyway) in my latest post: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Inset charts are my favorite #dataviz trick🔥 Many chart creators aren't aware of them but I use them all the time. What are they? Find out in my latest video (5 mins): youtu.be/n1RCV-NMct0 BTW, registration is now open for my Jun2 live online workshop! www.practicalreporting.com/june-2025-on...

😱 Don't make these mistakes when showing missing values in your charts! 😱 Are there missing values in your data? Many charts don't show these properly, which can confuse and even mislead readers. How can you avoid this in your charts? Check out my latest post: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

The discussion and engagement was so good on this over the last few weeks that I went ahead and added 2 whole new sections to this blog post (worth checking out if you already read this!): I reflect on the discussions and fun that we had as well as provide more resources and a call to action.

"𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗼𝘀" 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗡𝗼𝘄! Until May 20, get 𝟮𝟱% 𝗼𝗳𝗳 on... 👉 Upcoming live online workshop (kicks off June 2) 👉 Practical Charts On Demand (6.5 hrs of video in 45 lessons) 👉 Practical Charts + More Practical Charts books (PDF+eBook editions) www.practicalreporting.com/blog/2025/5/...

▶️ New video (4 mins) ▶️ Should you put key insights in chart titles, on in annotations directly in the chart? I've recently been leaning toward the latter, but would love to know your opinion in the comments. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU3s...

▶️New video!▶️Why I don't use colored category labels in my charts (4 mins) You've probably seen charts where the colors in the chart are identified by coloring category name labels instead of using "traditional" color swatches. I don't use this technique in my charts, though. youtu.be/RLdsgluOqnM

I wrote about the data-to-ink ratio and a new game I've invented called "ink golf" for data visualization. I hope you enjoy: www.frank.computer/blog/2025/04...

⏯️New video!⏯️ Watch me redesign a chart so that it "does its job" (10 mins) youtu.be/QnqpuGeKIxw BTW, live online workshop kicks off on June 2 with early-bird prices ending May 9! Info/registration: www.practicalreporting.com/june-2025-on...

😱Unpopular opinion warning: 😱 GenAI has made shockingly little progress in the past 24 months when it comes to many/most *real world* tasks: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Friendly reminder: LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude still f*$k up SIMPLE tasks all the time. All the failures in the screenshots below happened in a single day of typical usage for me. Full-res screenshots: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

I went on X for the first time in months to see if there was still dataviz activity. I'm happy to report that it's very very low, in quantity and quality. A few cross-posters, too many institutions, and almost none of it gets good engagement. The discussion has moved away. I'm relieved.

Why it wouldn't make sense for me to adapt my "Practical Charts" course to Power BI's limited visuals (new blog post). www.practicalreporting.com/blog/2025/3/...

Canadian and thinking of travelling to the US? Read this first.

Silver linings, I suppose, but going out of my way to buy Canadian has allowed me to discover that Canadian retailers can be LESS expensive than Amazon. Delivery takes a day or two longer but, personally, I'm fine with that. Buhbye, Jeff.

NEW 🧵 Is human intelligence starting to decline? Recent results from major international tests show that the average person’s capacity to process information, use reasoning and solve novel problems has been falling since around the mid 2010s What should we make of this? www.ft.com/content/a801...

▶️ 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼 ▶️ When should you use a table instead of a graph? (10 mins.) BTW, 🇪🇺 European friends! 🇪🇺 I'll be your continent of the woods in May. Interested in a private in-person workshop for your team? DM me! youtu.be/TeZx7yMRmy0

From Opinion “Politicians are allowed to criticize the press,” writes the editorial board. “But there is a difference between using language and using muscle.” The Trump administration “is mustering the arms of government to suppress speech it doesn’t like and compel words and ideas it prefers.”

Just spent 10 frustrating minutes trying to figure out why there was a tiny block of dark pixels on an important slide in my deck. It was a fleck of cereal on my monitor.

𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗽𝗶𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗴𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲? BTW, European friends! I'll be in your neck of the woods in May. Interested in a private in-person workshop for your org or in hosting an open-registration workshop? DM me...

I desperately hope a lot of people in the US watch this. 3.6M views and counting, so maybe... www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKBM...

I just signed a petition: Investigate X and Elon Musk for interference in the upcoming Canadian election. Sign here: leadnow.ca/campaigns/el...

From @nickdesb.bsky.social a handy guide to which charts people can (and can't!) read: www.linkedin.com/pulse/basic-... #charts #DataViz

XmR charts are an incredibly powerful chart type for telling the difference between random fluctuations and meaningful events in a time series. Check out this video in which I update the design of this essential chart type with performance measurement guru Stacey Barr youtu.be/nZowjYx61DE

Ready to level up your #dataviz and #dashboarddesign skillz and become a true pro? Still a few spots left in my "Practical Charts" and "Practical Dashboards" course, which kicks off on Tuesday (Feb4) Info/registration page: www.practicalreporting.com/feb-2025-wor... . See you (online) there!

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗜 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘁𝘀? In 2021, I wrote an article about why I stopped using box plots, which became Nightingale's (the journal of the Data Visualization Society) second-most-read article of all time 🤯 This is what happened next: nightingaledvs.com/i-stopped-us...

Finally caved and decided to try Gemini for Gmail after Google's incessant nagging to use it. Nice work, guys.

𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀! I regularly see deviation values (deviation from target/budget/etc.) over time shown as line charts, but this can be 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 confusing for readers. My latest video (5 mins) shows how to visualize this common type of data "safely." Thoughts? www.youtube.com/watch?v=69G8...

Let’s kick off 2025 with two absolute gems from our Antwerp conf! 💁‍♀️Facilitation Tools for Everyday Productivity with Dee Scarano youtu.be/vBjjcxKHSps 📊 How to Create Truly Great Charts @nickdesb.bsky.social youtu.be/UuesXlalJdg Here is to a year with many fun events and lovely people. 😘💖

Happy New Year! Kick it off by enjoying my rant about beautiful but unintuitive hotel shower faucets and what they might teach us about charts that prioritize beauty over usefulness. www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-kind...

My first impressions using Sora, along with an attempt to demo and explain its problems with…well, the laws of physics. 👇

My latest post: "Basic" chart types that many audiences don't know how to read: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Off topic, but if you're as obsessed as I am about the war in Ukraine, this analyst provides by far the most useful, clear-eyed analysis of what's actually happening and why. Follow him on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@anderspuck

Most people (even many in leadership roles) don't know how to read chart types such as scatterplots or histograms. Don't believe me? Check out my latest post: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Great opportunity to win two great books!

Oh look. A new tweet... er, I mean, "truth" (or whatever tweets are called on that platform) from the premier of the 14th Canadian province. I wonder if he can see my maple-syrup-covered middle finger from down there?

Delivered a workshop in the beautiful country of Georgia 🇬🇪 a few wks ago. Heartbreaking to see that they're living on the razor's edge, with the constant threat of a Russian invasion that would wipe away the democracy that they so dearly cherish.

New video about choosing chart colors based on what the values should *mean* to the audience, rather than the values themselves: youtu.be/4grY0oerhFg BTW, my on-demand #dataviz course and books are on sale for Black Friday week! Get 25% off at www.practicalreporting.com/store

Still time to join the @datawrapper.de data vis book club in reading my book, "Practical Charts," before the live chat on Dec9! Interested? Registration (free!) link in the post below.

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿! When choosing chart colors, think about what those colors should 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 to the audience. BTW, my 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 on-demand course and books are now on sale for Black Friday week! 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝟮𝟱% 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝗗𝗲𝗰. 𝟮 in our online store: www.practicalreporting.com/store

Walmart can do it, so why can't I? 😊 Been on the fence about taking my 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥 course, or buying my books? They're all 𝟮𝟱% 𝗼𝗳𝗳 until Dec. 2 in my online store: www.practicalreporting.com/store