#MakeoverMonday

Introduction

“Practice makes perfect.” Our parents, teachers and coaches have said this simple phrase ever since we were old enough to think for ourselves. And we all know now that if you want to be great at anything, you have to practice, over and over and over again. Whether it is data visualization, golf, or underwater basket weaving, in order to be great you have to dedicate time to perfecting your craft. On top of practice, you need to engage with a community that can help you learn, provide you with feedback, and inspire you. This is what Makeover Monday is all about. Makeover Monday will help you go from good to great at data visualization, data analysis, communication, and storytelling, as long as you make the effort, week after week.

What Is Makeover Monday?

Makeover Monday, the social data project, started in January 2016 as a collaboration between me (Andy Kriebel) and Andy Cotgreave. Makeover Monday as a concept, however, had been around for several years as a weekly project I did by myself to advance my learning and practice my craft.

Makeover Monday is simple: take an existing chart and make it better. The goal is straightforward: improve how we visualize and analyze data, one chart at a time. Here is how it works:

1. Eva Murray (my partner from January 2017) and I find charts that we think do not communicate information as effectively as they could.
2. We prepare the necessary data for each chart so that people can focus on visualizing and analyzing the data (without ...