Insights from the IIB Awards
Insights from the IIB Awards
Some stunning dataviz projects and the rise of scrolly-telling
Hey 👋!
Ever wondered about the Information Is Beautiful Awards (IIB)?
They're a global platform celebrating the most innovative data visualization projects.
And guess what? The latest winners have been announced and I am just a little bit late to the party 🙃!
You might not have the time to dive into all the winning entries, but I've got you covered.
Here are my key takeaways!
Raising the Bar
There are 27 winner projects.
The quality of entries this year was incredibly high, showcasing not just technical skill but true creativity.
I find it very interesting to see how dataviz items are now blend with other media formats like beautiful pictures, diagrams or drawings.
For example, Turkey’s toxic dust compellingly illustrates the health crisis from recent earthquakes.
It uses a stunning animation of sand grains and a mix of mediums, immersively portraying the dusty aftermath and its impact on a generation.
The Rise of Scrollytelling
Astonishingly, a significant portion of the winners (at least 13 out of 27) embraced scrollytelling.
Scrollytelling is a narrative technique that unfolds a story as you scroll down a webpage, making for an engaging and interactive experience.
Notably, Reuters, a major contributor to the awards, seems to favor this approach – six of their entries made it to the winners' circle 😳!
Scrollytelling used to be a niche technique due to its complexity. It has impressively become widespread and popular.
The Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals exemplifies this with its 17-page span, where scrollytelling is used extensively. The project particularly stands out for its seamless and innovative transitions between various chart types.
This trend highlights how JavaScript has become a staple in media and storytelling.
The Absence of Static Visualizations
This year, there were no static visualizations among the winners.
This is quite surprising, especially considering the past recognition of work from the R statistical and data visualization design community.
Are we witnessing a shift where static visuals no longer have the same impact in the data visualization field?
Unconventional Approaches
I was struck by the originality and innovation in many projects.
Six entries, in particular, stood out for their unique data usage and visualization methods:
Sound of Mexico explores the informal street vendors' impact on the sonic landscape of Mexico City.
My Digital Double and Me uses data from the author’s Spotify's to infer a fake Instagram account.
Jesus Christ Superstar reimagines a classic in an unexpected way.
This is Time for Us is a personal exploration of time, using visualizations of tide, moon phase, and sunlight data overlaid with significant relationship anniversaries, reflecting on the creator's journey through love and loss. Outputs are pretty!
Screens of August is a tangible data visualization using acrylic cards and stacked line graphs to represent the creator's phone usage patterns, categorized by app types
Ripple Effect is an art installation that visually and audibly demonstrates water contamination levels, using software to translate these into sound waves
Conclusion
The IIB Awards are a treasure trove of inspiration and innovation. Visit their website to see these masterpieces for yourself!
Oh and of course I will add most of those entries in dataviz-inspiration.com in the near future!
The world of data visualization is constantly evolving, and these awards are a testament to the endless possibilities and creativity in the field.
Stay curious!
Yan