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Read My Writing: Books, Articles, Publications, and Press

​My writing and my visualizations have appeared in many places over the years. Most recently, since joining storytelling with data in 2019, I have written on a variety of data visualization and communication topics for the company's official blog. Some of my articles are linked in the pertinent section below. In addition, I have been invited to contribute articles to other corporate blogs, which are noted in the "guest author" section. Finally, my visualization work has appeared and been referenced in multiple books, magazines, and online publications. 

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Books

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FOR ADULTS​:

storytelling with data: before and after — practical makeovers for powerful data stories 

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How do you turn a forgettable graph into a compelling data story?

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For more than a decade, the team at storytelling with data has helped leading organizations and countless professionals transform their business communications into action-inspiring narratives. Now, they're bringing the best of those lessons to you―in the beloved before-and-after format synonymous with their popular workshops. Through twenty powerful makeovers, watch ineffective charts evolve into engaging visuals that captivate, inform, and lead to smarter decisions.

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World-renowned data storytellers Mike Cisneros, Alex Velez, and SWD founder Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic guide you through proven methods to strengthen your communications, sharing the thought process behind each redesign so you can confidently apply the concepts to your work. Building on core principles from the international bestseller storytelling with data, refined through thousands of workshops, they demonstrate the straightforward, intentional changes―like simplifying visuals, eliminating clutter, and emphasizing key insights―that will transform your graphs and slides from the expected to the extraordinary.

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In the best-selling storytelling with data: before and after, you'll learn how to:

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• Structure stories that connect with your audience
• Create visuals that clarify complex information
• Apply color, layout, and design to focus attention on what matters most
• Overcome common challenges like time constraints and poorly designed templates
• Craft narratives that make an impact and influence outcomes


Every page of storytelling with data: before and after is packed with insights drawn from real-world experience, distilled into easy-to-implement strategies. No matter your role, experience level, or comfort with data, you'll learn practical lessons you can apply right away. Each transformation delivers meaningful takeaways to help you create data stories that resonate―and get results.

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FOR YOUNG READERS: THE RUBY MARKS ADVENTURES

 

10-year-old Ruby Marks is intelligent and unnaturally gifted at understanding and explaining complex ideas in a way that is clear and simple for everyone. She lives with her parents and her younger brother Royal in a quaint, coastal New England town called Rocky Ledge. Ruby's favorite place in her little village is the Off-Axis Bookshop, an interesting and cozy place owned and operated by Ruby's grandmother, Nana Rose.

The offbeat residents of Rocky Ledge are often dropping by the Off-Axis Bookshop, and it's there that Ruby finds out about many of their problems. With the help of her friends and classmates Drew, Manisha, and Ridley—and with very little help from her nemesis, Mason Mellon—Ruby uses logic, math, statistics, and data visualization to help her fellow Rocky Ledge residents tackle the challenges they face.

With a cooperative attitude, a whimsical charm, and a sharp logical mind, Ruby Marks brings a positive energy to her adventures that is sure to delight young and old readers alike.

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In the quiet coastal town of Rocky Ledge, 10-year-old Ruby Marks is well known among kids and adults alike as a superstar puzzle-solver, with an amazing ability to make complicated things easy to understand. She spends every afternoon in her favorite place: the Off-Axis Bookshop, a quaint little store run by her Nana Rose. It's the perfect way to spend time with her eccentric grandmother and the Off-Axis customers—the most interesting people in town.

One day, Ruby meets John Winter, an old friend of Nana Rose who is struggling to solve a pesky problem that is affecting the entire community. With her classmate and nemesis Mason Mellon seemingly working against her at every turn, Ruby must use all of her logic, creativity, and communication skills to find the solution—not just for Mr. Winter, but for the good of the whole town.

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Ruby Marks is having a heck of a week.

First, her trusty bike lets her down while out riding with her friends, which means she has to drag it to the Rocky Ledge Bike Shop for repairs. There, she finds her classmate and nemesis, Mason Mellon, unusually excited about some papers that his cousin Sander Beech has shared with him—and whenever Mason gets excited, Ruby knows that he's up to something that she's probably not going to like. Then, at school, she discovers that a huge part of the fourth grade has suddenly started themselves the "Dream Team," believing that one simple trick is going to help them get perfect scores on their spelling quizzes without even trying.

With her bike down for the count, her enemy up to no good, and her entire class believing in something that makes no sense to her, it's up to Ruby to use her brains, her charm, and her creativity to bring everyone together again and prevent the entire fourth grade of Rocky Ledge Elementary from a scholastic disaster.

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  • Book 3: Ruby Marks and the Diamond Dolittle (Publication date Spring 2026)

 

Articles

 

for storytelling with data

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2025
 
2024
 
2023

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2022

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2021

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2020

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2019

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as a guest author​

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2019
The Beyond Design Series for Tableau Software

A series of articles co-authored with Layla Manheim discussing the philosophy behind our design decisions, and an accessible approach to design in data visualization that focuses on the information experience for the audience, rather than the mechanics of the visualization itself. It formed the core lessons of our eventual Beyond Design presentation at the 2019 Tableau Conference (and elsewhere).
 

  1. Effective data visualizations share this magical hidden structure 

  2. Creating, not designing: the four goals of every information experience

  3. Beyond the hook: building information experiences for attention and engagement

  4. Usability is the most satisfying design puzzle to solve

  5. How to build information experiences for comprehension

  6. How to get people to remember your visualization​

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The storytelling with data challenge

At the request of Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, I created the topic and sample data visualization for one of the monthly challenges posed by Storytelling with Data, and contributed to Elizabeth Ricks's wrapup post as well.

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2016

The Tableau Public blog for Tableau Software

I was asked to write a guest post for the Tableau Public website about my Two Dozen Candidates visualization.

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on this very website

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If you're so inclined, you can explore posts from my old (2019 and earlier) data visualization blog here, but at this point the articles are only valuable as curios and mementos rather than as meaningful contributions to a modern discourse.

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​Publications and Press

I include this category as a way to capture some of the places in which my work was included or referenced by other authors.

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Andy Kriebel and Eva Murray (Wiley, 2018) | This book discusses the history of the Tableau community's collaborative public visualization initiative, #MakeoverMonday. It also traces many of the lessons learned by participants over the three years of the initiative's existence, and includes examples of work from many of the most active members. Designs of mine are featured several times, and I am profiled within the book as one of the project's long-term contributors.

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Forbes | Eva Murray used visualizations of mine as examples of how aesthetic and editorial choices can take factually accurate data analyses and transform them into emotionally affecting visuals.

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Distinct Values | This roundup on data.world of their collaborative effort with Tableau to visualize the data behind epochal moments in African-American history featured one of my visualizations.

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Data Archaeology | A one-on-one discussion with Michael Sandberg.

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Cloudstream Partners | An interview by Rebecca Roland.

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Tableau Public | Article by Chantilly Jaggernauth highlighting a viz I created for the 2018 #VisualizeDiversity campaign.

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Fast Company / Co.Design | Article by Katharine Schwab highlighting my American Political Universe visualization.

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BID Factor Trabajo | Article featuring my visualization about LATAM youth employment.

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Slate | Jordan Ellenberg wrote an article prior to the 2016 Presidential election featuring my visualizations about prediction models.

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