Blog

  • Building Physical Maps…with LEGO

    Building Physical Maps…with LEGO

    This post first appeared in the Data Visualization Society’s Medium publication “Nightingale” as part of their “Data Sensification” series. The content is the same with the exception of a little update at the end. In the beginning of 2020 I decided to attempt using LEGO bricks as a map-building material for a map of Aotearoa… Read more

  • New Zealand LEGO Map

    New Zealand LEGO Map

    People sometimes have weird ideas. This was definitely one of them. I didn’t even set out to build a LEGO map of New Zealand…it just happened. In January this year I was working on something completely unrelated, based on a quick map I did a bit earlier. I had created a map in Tableau but… Read more

  • When can a line be a bar?

    When can a line be a bar?

    When you work in Data Visualisation, there is no way around bar and line charts! They are arguably the most fundamental and versatile graphs out there. They are so versatile that Tableau’s Andy Cotgreave formulated a law around them: The longer an innovative visualization exists, the probability someone says it should have been a line/bar… Read more

  • Data Visualisation is not (only) about creating charts!

    Data Visualisation is not (only) about creating charts!

    The other day I realised something! It wasn’t a very innovative thought but it helped me to better contextualise what I (and most others who will read this) do. When talking about data visualisation, the first thought which comes to many peoples minds is “creating charts”; that’s – understandably – what many people associate with… Read more

  • #TC18 – not your ordinary conference!

    #TC18 – not your ordinary conference!

    #TC18 ended more than a week ago and by now I had some time to reflect the experience attending my first Tableau Conference. It was a great experience and I plan to attend again next year, so much is clear! It wasn’t only my first Tableau Conference, it was my first conference in general and… Read more

  • Triangles in Data Visualisation

    Triangles in Data Visualisation

    I recently gave a guest lecture at the University of Auckland for the Data Visualisation Students. Andrew Eberhard, the lecturer, asked me to talk about myself and my background, my job and the industry, data visualisation in general and Tableau in particular. It was a bit strange to actually describe my job and how the… Read more

  • Project Maestro – Delivering on Alteryx promises

    Project Maestro – Delivering on Alteryx promises

    Ever since one of my contacts at Tableau mentioned Project Maestro, I was keen to get my hands on it to see how data transformation can – hopefully – seamlessly be integrated with data visualisation. Now, since the first beta versions have been released I wanted to write down my initial thoughts as somebody who… Read more

  • Everybody’s a Hacker

    Everybody’s a Hacker

    This post is based on a presentation that I originally created for the Auckland Tableau User Group (#AKLTUG) in December 2016 and then extended for the Tableau Fringe Festival APAC (#TFFAPAC) in August 2017. It’s best consumed as what it is: a talk! So I encourage you to watch the recording of the #TFFAPAC talk… Read more

  • Responsibility in data visualisation

    Responsibility in data visualisation

    This weeks #MakeoverMonday was all about dietary requirements. A really simple data set about the percentage of people in the different regions of the world who follow certain special diets (kosher, low sugar, dairy free, etc.).  While working on it I started thinking about the message I communicate and how that relates to any other… Read more