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2 weeks ago sports enthusiasts said goodbye to a Formula 1 icon, commentator Murray Walker, who sadly passed away at the age of 97.
So, with this weekend welcoming in the start of the 2021 Formula 1 season, there was only one way to introduce the round-up of the latest amazing #SportsVizSunday content created by the community...
In honour of legendary voice of F1...
GO! GO! GO!...
Let’s start with our monthly community challenge, which this month is a collaboration with #DiversityInData and #ProjectHealthViz. Out shared showcase of adaptive sports has already produced some outstanding vizzes, and this week was no different.
Sleek design is a term that’s become synonymous with any viz created by Adam Green and his focus on the sports of the Summer Paralympic Games was not only visually slick but also included a really underused chart type, an upset plot, showing which years each sports were present at the Games. It’s well worth checking out and understanding this chart type as it’s a really efficient way to visualise intersections of multiple data sets.
For those of you wanting to understand how to create one in Tableau, I recommemd reading the following blog post by Tableau Zen Master Hall of Famer, Chris Love:
The Paralympic Games was clearly a popular theme as alongside Adam, Laura Kennedy and Mo Wootten also produced vizzes on the topic. Laura analysed the UK Paralympic Team in terms of spending and medals. Alongside some insightful ways of breaking down the data, for example by sport, I would also like to commend Laura for including a reference to the source of the image within her viz; it is always best practice to do this, and yet it is so easy to forget!
Mo's choice of Paralympic Games data related to the increasing global participation in the Games; I really appreciate Mo's additional analysis of whether a country made their debut in a particular year or whether they had taken part in previous Games. It is this kind of added value analysis that I really enjoy when exploring vizzes created by the #SportsVizSunday community.
Moving away from the Paralympic Games and onto the other data set shared in this month's challenge, Dennis Kao visualised Wheelchair Marathon Winners and I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of circuit maps to visualise each individual Marathon, this for me added an extra layer of storytelling and made the viz really engaging.
For those of you familiar with superstars of the Tableau community, you will not doubt already be faimilar with the clean, crisp designs of Ant Pulley (I am still in awe of his Mario puzzle game viz). Ant also visualised Wheelchair Marathon Winners, but this time focusing on the London Marathon. The styling of his map is a joy to behold and I really enjoyed the call out boxes Ant used for his analysis narrative.
#SportsVizSunday regular, Simon Rowe also focused on the London Wheelchair Marathon; and did it justice with his use of bold red and blue colours. I really enjoyed, as I always do with one of Simon's vizzes, his analysis... the winning times section in particular really stood out for me.
Keeping with the Marathon theme, Aashique allowed us to explore the winners timeline of each Marathon. What stood out for me with Aasqhique's viz was the intelligent use of colour; in particular the very deliberate use of striking blue, for the gender banners, really popped alongside the greater use of yellow and white for the primary analysis.
Finishing up the vizzes made for the monthly challenge this week, I created this showcase of the greatest Paralympic medal winners. I am not going to dwell or comment too much on the design, it is basically a bar chart fest with way more layered sheets than I care to admit to!
However what I did want to take a moment to do is reflect that this was actually my first viz of 2021. In prior years I would have been horrified to have gone nearly 3 months without sharing any Tableau Public vizzes; but for me, vizzing in 2021 has been tough. Whether it be the balance of home and work life, or rather the apparent merging of them both into 1 continous block, or the lack of in person community activities, I have really struggled to find my viz mojo this year.
I am choosing to share this with you all as others have said the same thing to me, and I think we all need to be reminded it is OK to take a break from vizzing at times and re-charge your viz-batteries. Sometimes you just need to wait until the right moment to start vizzing again, and for me, this month's challenge was the perfect excuse. As I neared completion of the design, I could feel that buzz of publshing content return to me. Whether it be #MakeoverMonday, #WorkoutWednesday, #ProjectHealthViz, #IronQuest or any one of the numerous other community initiatives out there, I hope they help you in either finding or maintaining your viz mojo, just as #SportsVizSunday did for me.
So 8 vizzes, and that's just the community challenge content covered, in the words of the great Murray Walker;
"With half the race gone there is half the race to go"
Which was thankfully more accurate for data people than the alternative Walker quote of;
Lets start the second half of the round-up, fittingly, with a couple of Formula 1 vizzes. Naresh Suglani treated us to another of his poster style viz, focusing on the Red Bull career of Seb Vettel. When I say ALOT of work must have gone into this, I really am understating just how many different pieces of analysis are included and how many different visual techniques are in the viz.
Andy Brady, of Althype Data analysed the distrubution of lap times at the Bahrain GP, for each constructor, since 2004. I thoroughly enjoyed Andy's analysis and his design. The joyplot just works and the stories behind the data is fascinating for an avid Formula 1 fan, such as myself.
Keeping with the 2 vizzes on a topic grouping, Ryan Soares, a #SportsVizSunday veteran, and Damola Ladipo, a #SportsVizSunday superstar in the making (check out his Tableau Public profile and you will see what I mean), both created vizzes focusing on UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).
Ryan analysed the weigh ins of Heavyweight Championship bouts, and in true Ryan style, smashed it out the park; a clean, well constructed design that lets the data do the all the talking - a pleasure to interact with and explore.
Damola's viz about mixed martial arts in the UFC was nothing short of outstanding. His choice of colour, chart type, design were all on point, but what I really enjoyed was his narrative, how to read, and BANs, all of which made the viz a joy to explore.
3 vizzes left, 2 sports to explore, let's first go to football... or to quote another Murray Walker moment;
Unless I'm very much mistaken... I am very much mistaken!
OK, OK, I will also refer to it as soccer.
Riccardo Navarro explored the professional goals of the one and only Brazilian legend, Pele; and I just loved his use of colour and the flow of the analysis throughout the viz.
Piotr Wawrzynow has developed a method for profiling coaches; his supplementary dashboard for his introductory piece for Analytics FC, offered a really unique use of football data to explore something I haven't seen done much before.
And now for the last viz, one by Dominic Samangy who analysed the shots of college basketball star, Buddy Boeheim.
So there we go people, thanks for staying with me and exploring no fewer than 15 visualisations. Don't forget you still have a couple of days left to participate in the March 2021 Adaptive Sports monthly challenge, but for now I will sign off with my last Murray Walker quote, it seemed a fitting one, thank you Murray for all the wonderful memories.
And I've got to stop, because I've got a lump in my throat