Visualization Rut?

I’ve felt stagnant lately and have been completely “Viz Blocked” and at times uninspired. I finally reached out to my extended family; the Tableau community.

Sarah Bartlett was the first to chime in with some great suggestions.

Next, Mike Cisneros came to my aid with a fabulous list of ideas to challenge yourself and break out of a “Viz Rut”.

Mike’s Advice for breaking a rut? Set arbitrary boundaries.

(Pick one) My next viz…

  • must be mobile optimized
  • must be Monochrome
  • must be Personal
  • must be a One Hour Time Limit
  • must have Pie Charts that don’t make you Cringe
  • must do an Orientation Flip (Landscape/Portrait)
  • must include Hand Drawn Elements
  • must be inspired by something environmental
  • must contain audio
  • must use dashboard actions
  • must be some kind go game
  • must have 10 different ways of visualizing the same data
  • must have less than 50 characters
  • must be nothing but text

What other Rut Busters do you employ?

Fi Gordon commented on the old site:

Great topic! Actually, I was just reading a great book (The Cleverness Biannual), and there was an interview with Dom Price, Head of R&D from Atlassian. He said “Call it writer’s block or whatever, but the answer is not on my screen or in my head. It’s in someone else and so I ahve to let go of this being a “me” thing and make it an “us” thing.”

There’s a lot of great research out there suggesting that creating diverse teams, enabling collaboration, leads to greater outcomes.

(Still with me?)

Why not try to seek inspiration by collaborating, do a viz together with someone else?! Another thought: help out a newbie who is looking for suggestions, take a mentor role on. Once you’ve reached mastery, the next step is helping others.

And if all else fails: steal like an artist. Look through articles, movie posters, advertisements, what’s trending? People will love seeing a viz on a popular topic, with influences from artistic design.

Hope this helps!
Fi (VizChic)

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