I judged 40 viz projects. Here’s what struck me.

It's been published!

A few weeks ago, I took on one of the hardest tasks I’ve ever had: judging 40 entries for the Pacific Dataviz Challenge.

Yesterday, the results were published, so I can finally tell you about it!

The challenge

In case you missed it, the Pacific Dataviz Challenge is an annual competition where anyone can turn open Pacific data into visual stories. This year’s theme was climate change.

I won the challenge two years ago, so I was invited to join the jury. Now winners are finally official!

See all the winners

The main takeaway

There are a zillion lessons I’d love to share, but one thing really struck me: the level of the entries was insanely high.

Here are a few screenshots of the winning entry to illustrate.

The story is crystal clear. The design is original and fully custom. The charts are to the point, with just the right amount of interactivity. And the technical level is massive.

A few years ago, most entries were so-so.

Today, nearly all of them are technically stunning. You can definitely tell AI is shaking up the dataviz world too!

D3 + AI is everywhere

I wasn’t surprised, but it’s a strong confirmation.

I keep talking about the AI + D3.js stack because I believe it’s the only logical way to build data stories today, and these entries proved it: almost all of them relied on this stack.

It also warms my heart that two of my favorite finalists were built... by students of my D3 + AI course!

Check them out, I’m so proud, and I promise you’ll have a great time. It took me years to build things like this, and now people learn it in a few weeks. ☺️

I’m still skeptical about the impact of AI on humanity, but for dataviz... what a time to be alive!

Coming next

Next week, I’ll share more in-depth thoughts on what these entries can teach you for your next viz project.

But for now, take a bit of time to explore the entries.

You’ll learn a lot about the Pacific and climate change, and sharpen your design eye along the way!

PS: this week I published a brand new version of the Python Graph Gallery. No ads, editable code, cleaner design, bug fixes... Would love to hear your thoughts!

PPS: Someone just asked me to turn their Shiny app into a real web app built with D3.js. It’s getting really easy to do, and the improvement is hard to believe. Drop me an email if you’d like the same for your app!

Best,
Yan