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cararthompson.bsky.social
Data visualisation consultant with an academic background, helping others maximise the impact of their expertise
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Hey R Shiny enthusiasts! Any suggestions on resources for jazzing up #RShiny apps for someone who isn't a naturally great designer? (in addition to the bslib docs). I'm not looking content-entry or consultant quality - happy to start at 'a bit spiffier than defaults.' Thanks! #RStats

submitted 3 days ago • 2 comments

How do you make sense of large numbers, and create something that will draw people in, when these numbers aren't ones we like to dwell on? And how do you humanise those numbers to honour the people they represent? "Could you make a data-driven visual for my new song?" youtu.be/ccnIUL5Z3Y4

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

It's pretty wild what you can do with geom_text(), transparency, and some careful rescaling of superimposed images at different rates. Here's an extract from a video I'll post more about tomorrow. One of the most challenging projects I've had the privilege of working on.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

A few weeks ago, a client asked me for advice on how to make use of his new colour palette within spaghetti plots. What seemed like a simple question morphed into a full blog post! www.cararthompson.com/posts/2025-0... Colour can be used to emphasise different stories - pick the approach you need!

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

This week in #rstats: - an R->Fortran transpiler from @t-kalinowski.bsky.social - @posit.co's Opportunity Scholarships - better spaghetti plots with @cararthompson.bsky.social - {httr2}s newest feature - learn {targets} with @rladies.org Philly #data #coding #news www.linkedin.com/pulse/week-r...

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

For today's project, I'm having to do a bit of copy-pasting of text from a PDF to add information to a quarto website. Which brings me back to one of my favourite #rstats tricks, and possibly my favourite function name! stringr::str_squish()

submitted 42 days ago • 5 comments

Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄 🎵 Name the tune! All done with #rstats + #ggplot2 🤓 I finally got round to exploring using grid::linearGradient()! Here's the code: gist.github.com/cararthompso... P.S. There was some controversy in my family about the tune, but this version looked nicer 😊

submitted 62 days ago • 4 comments

Festive mode activated 🥳 This has been a brilliant year at Building Stories with Data. I'm so grateful for all the projects I've been able to work on, for the encouragement from my peers, for inspiring conferences and for reconnecting with everyone on here!

submitted 66 days ago • 1 comment

I use toggl to track the time I spend on projects - but don't always tracking things as much as I should (talk prep / pro bono work, etc.). Has anyone built a tool that automatically tracks how long they spend in #rstats projects? Feels like the stuff of the future, but someone will have done it...

submitted 91 days ago • 2 comments

"I loved your talk. Can we stay in touch and keep chatting dataviz?" "Actually, I'll be in Edinburgh soon. Let's do coffee!" Lovely to catch up with @hellopeiying.bsky.social today. Career & coding paths, & snow! If you're after creative explorations of important data stories, 👉 kontinentalist.com

submitted 91 days ago • 2 comments

"I really like the overall look, but I'm finding it hard to tell the difference between the turquoise and the green - is it possible to redo all the graphs with a different colour?" A happy reminder of the joy of setting up colours sensibly when creating dataviz with #rstats. Thank you past self!

submitted 95 days ago • 1 comment

This looks like a brilliant resource. Thanks for highlighting it!

submitted 97 days ago • 0 comments

The EU only with letters. 🅰️🅱️©️ 🇪🇺 #30DayMapChallenge Day 19 Typography #rstats #maps

submitted 98 days ago • 7 comments

I often talk about choosing colours for #dataviz with #accessibility in mind, but in yesterday's workshop, I was asked a question that came from a different starting point: "I'm colourblind. Are there any tools you can point me to that will help me know if colours look good together?"

submitted 98 days ago • 4 comments

I really enjoyed today's #dataviz workshop with The Data Lab - Innovation Centre. The recording is out already! I've uploaded it along with the slides and possibly the most comprehensive set of tool-agnostic resources I've compiled to date. www.cararthompson.com/talks/datala...

submitted 98 days ago • 2 comments