Welcome to the very first issue of Dataviz Universe in 2026. I hope you had a great break if you took some time off at the end of 2025? I’m just getting back to work this week, so I thought it was a good moment to quickly remind you what this newsletter is about and what you can expect from me this year.
Who am I?
I’m Yan! 👋 I’m genuinely in love with data visualization.
For years, I’ve spent a good share of my nights and weekends building free educational resources like Data to Viz, Dataviz Inspiration, and the graph galleries (R, Python, D3, react).
data to viz has this decision tree to pick the right chart type.
Two years ago, I made the slightly crazy decision to leave my full-time job to focus entirely on educational content and dataviz consulting. Crazy, but exciting.
Since then, I’ve created three online courses, posted daily on LinkedIn, and launched this newsletter 🙂
What is this newsletter about?
This newsletter is called Dataviz Universe. The idea is simple: share one actionable dataviz tip every ~Saturday. Short, practical, and immediately useful.
You can read all previous issues here. And if you enjoy it, I’d love it if you shared it with a friend who makes… questionable charts 😄
You’re now more than 16,000 subscribers. Thank you! 🙏
Occasionally, I also share behind-the-scenes stories from my dataviz life, or lessons from projects I’ve worked on, when I think they can be useful to you.
What’s coming in 2026
Open-source dataviz content
With six open-source websites, I definitely have a lot on my plate.
Keep curating the best chart examples for the graph galleries (send me yours!!!)
On top of that, I have a secret project around Data Art that will launch very soon 🙂 I’m extremely excited about this one.
A Data Art piece by Alisa Singer
Online courses
My top priority is to finish ggplot2 Uncharted, my project about dataviz with R. We’re late on this one with Cédric (sorry!), but we’re also very happy with the quality so far and with the student feedback.
Then I have plenty of ideas to improve Matplotlib Journey and Productive R Workflow: PDF tips with Quarto, new Python dataviz packages, AI workflows, working with large datasets, new videos… as usual, too many ideas.
If you have any requests, now is the perfect time to hit reply 🙂
Last but not least, it’s time for you and me to tackle the final piece of the dataviz puzzle: D3.js.
D3.js is the end game for dataviz practitioners. It’s the only tool that truly removes limits. You can literally build anything with it and with the rise of AI, now is the time to learn it. I’ll share more very soon, but if this interests you, please let me know. I want to make sure it’s tailored to your real needs.
Consulting
I worked on many different projects in 2025: dashboard design, React development, Quarto report generation… it’s been exciting.
In 2026, I’d like to focus more on interactive articles used to communicate results based on data. I’m especially interested in working with NGOs, research labs, academics, governments, and anyone trying to have a positive impact on the world and communicate their results more clearly. A tiny fraction of articles like this I wrote in the past: - "mortality and mental disorders" to make a research paper more accessible for the Queensland Brain Institute. link. - "women in the Pacific" to win a dataviz challenge organised by the Pacific community. link. - "Getting older" to have fun visualising population pyramid.... differently. link.
If you’d like something similar for your organization, let’s talk!
Let's do it
Now that this is written, I have no choice but to actually do it 😄
If there’s a specific project you’re excited about, hit reply and help me shape it so it truly helps you.
Writing is fun, but discussions are even better & I answer to every reply.
See you next week with my take on the future of dataviz tools.
