Christmas 2020

Here's a light-hearted way to end a very troublesome year. Merging "Deck the Halls" with a lively scatter chart and some new words to welcome the festive season and farewell 2020. Merry Christmas!

Click on the image above to see the video on youtube.

Counting Covid-19 deaths in large countries

Some large countries started poorly but got back control, some have lost control, and others are very likely under-reporting. Remember all those who have died and please follow your local medical advice. Click on the image below to see the video on youtube. The visualisation uses data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Predicting the 2020 US Presidential Election

Some US states will almost always vote democrat and some will almost always vote republican. In the middle are the 'battleground' states. This is where the election is generally decided. So what will those battleground states do? Well, if June 2020 polling data turns out to be a good predictor of the election then the White House is changing hands because quite a number of those states are likely to change their minds and vote for the democratic party. And that's what the visualisation below shows. The staunch states where one party regularly dominates the other, and the middle rows of battleground states where the voting lines intermingle. What is very clear is that the US is polarised along party lines.

These charts also rather debunk the myth of "Trump's Base". Actually, it is clearly a republican base which has remained staunch regardless of who's sitting in the Oval Office (and the same is true of the democrats). The republican lines have maintained pretty consistent trajectories (except maybe West Virginia) even when Trump came along. So, now we have to wait to see if this prediction is correct...

Simulating Covid-19 over a 90-day period

A simulation model of Covid-19 affecting a population of 1,000 over a 90-day period. Click on the image below to see the video on youtube.

The scenario in this video shows a population that reacts quickly, locks-down very strongly, and then re-opens quite broadly.

This is a simulation built using a d3/javascript model. While control metrics are derived from globally available data, this is only intended as an illustrative example of what might happen.

Lest we forget. Anzac 2020

The images are from my visit in June 2019 to Gallipoli. Different times. Click on the image below to see the video on youtube.

Country-centric Covid-19 deaths by day

This animated visualisation shows daily deaths for countries with over 100 deaths. Click on the image to play on youtube. The visualisation uses data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Please follow the protocols and keep going. And remember to be kind.

Covid-19 Country Comparison - United States

If the United states followed the same path as another country, what would they be experiencing?

On each chart the blue columns show the actual United States experience. Each chart is then overlaid with what the United States would have experienced if they followed the experience of that comparison country (the yellow/red areas). Each chart starts on the date of the first case being identified in the United States.

The charts show the the United States is experiencing a similar pattern to France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. And that it is a considerably different pattern to the countries charted on the right-hand side of the image.

This visualisation uses data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and will be updated regularly.

Covid-19 deaths by day

It's easy to look at the numbers of affected for Covid-19 and just see numbers. But behind those numbers are individuals. Tens of thousands of them. This animated visualisation simply shows the waves of deaths that have occured around the world - day by day.

Please follow the protocols and keep going. And remember to be kind.

Covid-19 Country Comparison - New Zealand

New Zealand seems to be doing OK - so far - compared to other countries. We reacted quickly and in a very cohesive manner. Looking at these charts, we might have got it right for now. Stay safe everyone. And follow the protocols!

This visualisation uses data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and will be updated regularly.

New Zealanders at Gallipoli, 1915

ANZAC Day is one of the most important days of the year in New Zealand. We remember all those who have given their lives, been wounded or served in conflicts around the world on our behalf. For us, it began with the Anzac's in Gallipoli in 1915.

This visualisation brings together time and space to show how and where the intense and condensed nature of Gallipoli unfolded. Notice the very small area of conflict and the eight-month timeline dominated by the offensives in August. Many nations fought at Gallipoli and our troops were side-by-side with those from Australia, Nepal, India, Ireland, France, and Great Britain.

Today, we are friends with Turkey. May it always be that way.

Click here to open a .pdf version

Wellington's regional public transport on a good day...

Following the initial visualisaton of public transport in urban Wellington (see next visualisation), this is the regional view of the greater Wellington area.

Click on the image below to visit an animation (video hosted on youtube) of buses, trains, and the harbour ferries moving around greater Wellington. It shows everything in perfect synchronisation, leaving and arriving exactly on time and gives a very interesting perspective on the complexity of a modern transport system.

Wellington's public transport on a good day...

As the saying goes, 'you can't beat wellington on a good day'. Unfortunately, the public transport systems doesn't seem to be having many good days lately.

Click on the image below to visit an animation (video hosted on youtube) of buses, trains, harbour ferries, and the cable car moving around Wellington. It shows everything in perfect synchronisation, leaving and arriving exactly on time and gives a very interesting perspective on the complexity of a modern transport system.

World Government Summit 2019

The February 2019 World Government Summit in Dubai asked for visualisations around the theme of 'What makes a "good" Government?'. Here are our two submissions.

1. A range of provided metrics for each country were assembled into five profiles. These profiles helped establish a view of 'goodness' as well as those things a government more directly controls and those things that it less directly controls (society and economic performance). All countries were then grouped into bands based on their 'Human Development Index' score (calculated by the United Nations).
   Putting these two together (using radar charts) made it possible to see how groups of countries that are at similar stages of development, share characteristics. This then gives insight into how some countries achieve more 'goodness' than others - as well as showing how a country can improve.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. The second perspective is more granular and shows how each individual country is doing. The most influential metrics were selected and then mapped for each country, by region. Again, the 'Human Development Index' score is used as a comparator of progress. This visualisation highlights the need for a government to achieve balance across a wide range of criteria - and that the citizens have a significant role to play in determining how their country performs.
   
   
   

These two visualisations show that improving a government's performance is a complicated and interconnected challenge. But, if the right challenges receive focus and governments hold true to governing for the benefit of their people, then countries progress. For those lucky enough to be living in countries with "good" government (such as New Zealand), the visualisations highlight that what has been achieved is fragile and that maintaining prosperity and "goodness" involves a lot of hard work, determination, and shared values.

Voyages around New Zealand

During our spring/summer seasons New Zealand gets a lot of cruise ship visitors. But where do they go when they visit?

The NZ Government helpfully provides a static Excel spreadsheet of the cruise ships and their arrival/departure times from our ports. But that isn't a particularly informative way of presenting such data. So, the obvious thing to do with a list of cruise ships visitors is to map them. So, here's an animated view of all the visits from the 2017 season using augmented NZ Government-issue data. Now we can:

• Track individually the wide array of ships that visit us
• See the ships arriving and leaving based on a unified timeline
• Map their paths around the country
• Identify the most popular paths
• See the ebb and flow of visitors

Look out for our largest visitor (Ovation of the Seas), our most frequent visitor (Noordam), our most regal visitor (Queen Victoria), and our busiest month (February).

Click on the image to go to the youTube animated video.

Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games' Medal Maps

Different countries have different sporting strengths and achieve at different levels. The Zyan Medals mini-site features charts for 70 countries showing how well they have done at the last five Winter Olympics and/or Commonwealth Games. The charts, radial dendrograms, show which sports and events are strengths for each country by identifying medals they have won.

The charts cover the Winter Olympiads of 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014, and the Commonwealth Games of the same years. Visit the mini-site here: Zyan Medal Maps

This is the independent Zyan analysis of US international goods trade based on data provided by USA Trade Online, part of the Department of Commerce, as available in February 2017.

The graphic shows the relative importance of most countries to the United States from a trade perspective, it shows the geographical picture of US trade in goods, the nature and scale of the trade balance with other countries, and an insight into the components of US trade.

With a total annual trade envelope of $3.75 trillion and a new administration with strong views on international relationships, the graphic provides a starting point to consider what may happen next.

This graphic takes readily available data on Muslim populations, by country, and shows how they are spread around the world. It is intended to illustrate that simple solutions to complex problems take considerable thought, innovation, and courage. Solutions also need to reflect local, regional, and global diversity within the overall Muslim population.

And the world needs solutions. We all need to do a lot more to reduce the causes of conflict so that we can better manage all our futures.

This is the independent Zyan analysis of New Zealand Treasury's annual survey across 27 Government agencies on the cost, efficiency, and effectiveness of the agencies' ICT spend.

The site explores that ICT data to present a general understanding of what agencies spend their money on, how agencies compare, and how the ICT ecosystem of the New Zealand Government operates.

With an annual spend of just over $1 billion, it's an important area of government activity and should be open to public observation. 2016/17 is the latest, and final, available data.

The New Zealand Government has decided that transparency of agency ICT spend is no longer relevant. Stupid.

The Amazing Race TV program from CBS takes you on a journey to all sorts of interesting places. But where exactly are those places? zyanraces attempts to place the start/end of each leg on a Google map.

There's 25 of the American Amazing Race editions, four Amazing Race Asia editions, three Amazing Race Australia editions, and two Amazing Race Philippines Editions.

Zyan maps plots battles on Google maps with animation so you can see what happened. The first battle available is Waterloo. The Battle of Waterloo occurred 200 years ago this year. It was a monumental struggle involving a huge number of events, participants, and getting even an approximation of the battle on to a Google Map is a challenge. Animating it adds even more complexity. See what you think of our effort and watch events unfold in both time and space. Note it does not run in Internet Explorer.

Zyan Consulting produced an economic value chain map (EVC) model for the New Zealand Government for software. Here's an interactive version of the EVC.