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Pie and donut charts get a bad rep, but they’re useful for some data and tasks. We look at what they’re good for, as well as the research on how they work, to dispel some of the myths and prejudices against them.

Everything you think you know about pie charts is wrong

Kelsey Nanan transforms complex data into impactful stories through creativity, collaboration, and data driven exploration.

From Urban Science to data storytelling: Inside the work of Kelsey Nanan

A look back at 2024 in 24 insights, from our Insight conference to many amazing data apps built by our community, and a look at our own data

Observable Wrapped: 24 insights from 2024

Jason Forrest, data visualization designer and Editor-in-Chief of Nightingale, shares his thoughts on creating empathetic visualizations that inspire conversations.

Jason Forrest: all data visualization is a dialogue

Animation can be a distraction in data visualization. Or, when applied effectively, it can enhance user engagement, reveal trends, and help viewers track patterns across metrics. Here are five ways to use animation for better data viz.

Five ways to effectively use animation in data visualization

Bring rich, interactive visualizations to your app with Observable’s embedded analytics. Powered by baked data architecture, they deliver instant, scalable performance. Integrate easily with vanilla JavaScript modules while maintaining secure, personalized data experiences at scale.

Announcing embedded analytics

Ben Welsh, award winning data journalist and news applications editor at Reuters, shares how he’s building automated data pipelines to help journalists put their energy where it matters most.

Ben Welsh nerds out about building better data pipelines for data journalism

Truncating the vertical axis in a bar chart is still a bad idea, but in this follow-up post we look at how to do it in a visualization grammar like Observable Plot. We also discuss alternatives, such as the relative bar chart, and show a similar issue when using size encodings in scatterplots and on maps.

Why to never crop the y-axis, part 2: how to do it, and what to do instead

Developer Ryan Murphy shares a behind the scenes look into the motivation for, implementation of, and insights from his popular ActBlue Ticker Tracker dashboard.

Behind the scenes of the ActBlue Ticker Tracker with Ryan Murphy

A common rule of creating charts says to never cut off the y-axis for bar charts, but that it can start at any point for line charts. Research shows that cropping the y-axis leads to confusion, even with line charts. There is a useful rule of thumb that helps make this choice, though.

Observable blog

Everything you think you know about pie charts is wrong

Everything you think you know about pie charts is wrong

From Urban Science to data storytelling: Inside the work of Kelsey Nanan

Observable Wrapped: 24 insights from 2024

Jason Forrest: all data visualization is a dialogue

Five ways to effectively use animation in data visualization

Announcing embedded analytics

Ben Welsh nerds out about building better data pipelines for data journalism

Why to never crop the y-axis, part 2: how to do it, and what to do instead

Behind the scenes of the ActBlue Ticker Tracker with Ryan Murphy

It’s never okay to crop the y-axis, except when it is