{"id":148,"date":"2019-06-15T16:49:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T16:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dvsnightingstg.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=148"},"modified":"2021-06-07T18:53:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T22:53:12","slug":"from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

In 1858, Florence Nightingale published a study<\/a>\u00a0on the conditions of army hospitals, her seminal\u00a0Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army<\/em>. Her\u00a0Diagram of the Causes of Mortality<\/em>\u00a0had a singular goal: to vividly demonstrate that the lack of proper sanitary caretaking facilities was a far more severe, but also far more avoidable, cause of death for soldiers than injuries suffered in battle. It\u2019s one thing to simply state that the disease killed a lot of soldiers. It\u2019s another thing entirely to effectively and actionably juxtapose it against the casualties encountered at the hands of the opposing army.<\/p>\n

Nightingale could have just taken a cue from her predecessors in the data visualization realm and drawn a bunch of bar charts (maybe throw in a line graph if she wanted to get edgy). It would have been the most precise way of capturing the data she spent so much time recording. But, my goodness, what a boring world we\u2019d live in today if she had. And also, probably more soldiers would have continued to die for a bit longer from preventable causes. But mainly, data viz would be more boring; that\u2019s what\u2019s important here, for this article at least.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\n<\/div>\n

\"Radar
Radar plot of D.K.Metcalf\u2019s NFL Draft Combine\u2019s results<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
Her rose diagram is an effective use of a radial graph. It brings into sharp relief one of the central tensions of data visualization; to balance the precision and accuracy of information extraction with the challenge of how to engage, impact, and retain information for the end consumer. For starters, the polar stacked bar or coxcomb-style graph allows you to exaggerate the disparity between categories due to how the bars fan outwards. Going one step further, our brain loves to provide geometric definitions to data. It\u2019s why radar or spider plots are as popular as they are (nobody is going to forget the <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pac-man shape <\/a>of former Ole Miss receiver D.K. Metcalf\u2019s NFL Draft Combine performance). Radial form factors are then optimized if the visualization naturally encodes traditionally radial or cyclical concepts (like launch angles in baseball, directionality of weather patterns, or time\/seasons like with Nightingale\u2019s original diagram).<\/span><\/p>\n

For how it combines impact with enduring popularity, Florence Nightingale\u2019s\u00a0Diagram of the Causes of Mortality\u00a0<\/em>is an objectively cool piece of data visualization (in my absolutely subjective opinion). And over the past year or so, I\u2019ve been tracking down cool, funky, or otherwise interesting works of data visualization. There\u2019s a lot to be learned from deconstructing historical works from pioneers such as Nightingale or\u00a0W.E.B. Dubois<\/a>, especially when that work goes against (at least on a surface level) a staid and uninspiring grain. The exercise of discovering, internalizing, then reverse-engineering those same principles that the original authors meticulously considered (this isn\u2019t a Jackson Pollack splatter-paint job; every detail is carefully planned out here) is an exercise that fundamentally improves one\u2019s capacity for creating effective data visualization.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

I <\/span>do data analytics for a bank as a day job, and when I get home in the evening, I do data analytics for basketball. Learning how to effectively weave creative data visualizations into the cases that I present and being able to borrow from inspiration across diverse fields (the wonders of\u00a0cross-pollination learning<\/a>!) has been critical to my growth as an analyst and story-teller. Borrowing inspiration from pioneers in the field has been key to spurring that growth. (Oh how far I\u2018d like to think I\u2019ve come; when I showed Elijah Meeks a network diagram I\u2019d rendered just three years ago, his first reaction was, \u201cGosh, that\u2019s ugly.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Which is why, as a learning exercise, I wanted to recreate historical data visualization but with data sets that interested me. The Nightingale piece was one of the first ones to catch my eye. I turned her exploration of sanitation in army care facilities to something a shade more frivolous:\u00a0the\u00a0Diagram of Causes of Mortality for the GOAT in the East<\/em><\/a>, a comparison of LeBron James\u2019 best NBA teammates in the playoffs versus Michael Jordan in his stints with the Chicago Bulls. After all, as I ask in the article, \u201cwhat is basketball if not a war of attrition?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\n<\/div>\n

\"My
My take on the Diagram of the Causes of Mortality<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Let\u2019s take a look at LeBron\u2019s Miami years from 2011\u20132013 for an example of how to read this graphic. The blue wedges represent his statistical playoff impact, whereas the pink and dark wedges represent the playoff impacts of his second and third best teammates, respectively. It quickly becomes apparent how the disparity in skill and stature between James and his next best teammates only widened over time (as Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh aged), leading to his eventual departure back to Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Just as with Nightingale\u2019s original work, the radial form factor\u2019s ability to amplify disparities takes a reasonable statement (\u201cMichael Jordan had teammates who were more his equal in his playoff runs than LeBron James has mostly ever had\u201d) and outfits it with flashing neon lights and a blaring Ozzy Osbourne background track. As was the case with its spiritual predecessor, I kept each wedge in my recreation as a temporal snapshot, except instead of months of the year, I mapped each wedge to an NBA season, helping to track more easily the evolution of quantities over time. On the flip side, in order to further make clear the difference between Michael Jordan\u2019s teammates and LeBron James\u2019 teammates, I \u201cpreserved\u201d the order of the stacking. When Jordan\u2019s statistics were eclipsed by Scottie Pippen, Jordan\u2019s bar was no longer visible. I took the liberty of using the stacking order to make more profound the overlapping effects. Nowhere in James\u2019 section does a teammate ever eclipse his stats; nowhere in James\u2019 section do you see his blue wedge go missing altogether.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\n<\/div>\n

\"My
My process of recreating the Nightingale rose<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

As for the technical milieu of how exactly I created (or recreated, rather) the piece, I used Plotly in Python to build out the base rose diagrams, then did the post-processing to capture the exact texture and style of the original with graphic design software. Plotly is an interesting tool\/package because it\u2019s not exclusive to one specific language. It doesn\u2019t occupy the\u00a0ggplot<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0matplotlib<\/em>\u00a0realm of singular, native associations with programming languages. But it is undeniably versatile, and I\u2019ve found it a more than capable match for a variety of projects now.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

H<\/span><\/span>owever, if you thought I stopped at Florence Nightingale, you would be mistaken. No historical figure is safe from my pillaging. Not\u00a0Burtin<\/a>, and certainly not\u00a0Minard<\/a>. In fact, they\u2019re all now going into a book that I\u2019m working on, remixing historical data visualizations to tell basketball stories!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the storytelling part that I keep coming back to in my data visualization journey. I\u2019m roughly paraphrasing, but Elijah Meeks wrote that\u00a0\u201cdata visualization is not a technical problem. It\u2019s a communication problem.\u201d<\/mark>\u00a0At the end of the day, it\u2019s about conveying information, finding and communicating patterns within data. It\u2019s a two-way street, a shared experience between the creator and the end-user. So rather than beating those end-users repeatedly with a blunt object, let\u2019s all together strive for a little bit more creativity and verve. And if you\u2019re stuck, in need of inspiration on just how to go about doing so, well\u2026 I know a certain Lady of the Lamp who could provide a few pointers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

Senthil Natarajan is combining data science and engineering with creative storytelling, working across Fortune 500 companies to the NBA. He can be found musing about sports on\u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or working on startups out of his apartment. Both his pickup basketball style and his board games style has been compared to J.R. Smith, which may or may not be a compliment.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Categories<\/span>Historic Dataviz<\/a><\/div>
Tags<\/div>basketball<\/a>Data Visualization<\/a>Historic Dataviz<\/a>sports<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1858, Florence Nightingale published a study\u00a0on the conditions of army hospitals, her seminal\u00a0Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[112,35,253,111],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-historic-dataviz","tag-basketball","tag-data-visualization","tag-historic-dataviz","tag-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale | Nightingale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 1858, Florence Nightingale published a study\u00a0on the conditions of army hospitals, her seminal\u00a0Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. Her\u00a0Diagram of the Causes of Mortality\u00a0had a singular goal: to vividly demonstrate that the lack of proper sanitary caretaking facilities was a far more severe, but also far more avoidable, cause of death for soldiers than injuries suffered in battle. It\u2019s one thing to simply state that the disease killed a lot of soldiers. It\u2019s another thing entirely to effectively and actionably juxtapose it against the casualties encountered at the hands of the opposing army.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale - Nightingale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1858, Florence Nightingale published a study\u00a0on the conditions of army hospitals, her seminal\u00a0Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. Her\u00a0Diagram of the Causes of Mortality\u00a0had a singular goal: to vividly demonstrate that the lack of proper sanitary caretaking facilities was a far more severe, but also far more avoidable, cause of death for soldiers than injuries suffered in battle. It\u2019s one thing to simply state that the disease killed a lot of soldiers. It\u2019s another thing entirely to effectively and actionably juxtapose it against the casualties encountered at the hands of the opposing army.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nightingale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-15T16:49:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-07T22:53:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1260\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"819\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Senthil Natarajan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Senthil Natarajan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Senthil Natarajan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbcda4a947a8cd27f7f6151d4b6c73cd\"},\"headline\":\"From the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-15T16:49:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-07T22:53:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/\"},\"wordCount\":1367,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"basketball\",\"Data Visualization\",\"Historic Dataviz\",\"sports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Historic Dataviz\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/\",\"name\":\"From the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale - Nightingale\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-15T16:49:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-06-07T22:53:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"In 1858, Florence Nightingale published a study\u00a0on the conditions of army hospitals, her seminal\u00a0Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. Her\u00a0Diagram of the Causes of Mortality\u00a0had a singular goal: to vividly demonstrate that the lack of proper sanitary caretaking facilities was a far more severe, but also far more avoidable, cause of death for soldiers than injuries suffered in battle. It\u2019s one thing to simply state that the disease killed a lot of soldiers. It\u2019s another thing entirely to effectively and actionably juxtapose it against the casualties encountered at the hands of the opposing army.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1\",\"width\":1260,\"height\":819},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/\",\"name\":\"Nightingale\",\"description\":\"The Journal of the Data Visualization Society\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Nightingale\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/logoDVS-5.png?fit=1988%2C454&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/logoDVS-5.png?fit=1988%2C454&ssl=1\",\"width\":1988,\"height\":454,\"caption\":\"Nightingale\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbcda4a947a8cd27f7f6151d4b6c73cd\",\"name\":\"Senthil Natarajan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ef59f6722eb7ecfb1e7927732176230be29212bcc208ab53066b3980a593ca6?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ef59f6722eb7ecfb1e7927732176230be29212bcc208ab53066b3980a593ca6?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Senthil Natarajan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/author\/senthil\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale | Nightingale","description":"In 1858, Florence Nightingale published a study\u00a0on the conditions of army hospitals, her seminal\u00a0Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. Her\u00a0Diagram of the Causes of Mortality\u00a0had a singular goal: to vividly demonstrate that the lack of proper sanitary caretaking facilities was a far more severe, but also far more avoidable, cause of death for soldiers than injuries suffered in battle. It\u2019s one thing to simply state that the disease killed a lot of soldiers. It\u2019s another thing entirely to effectively and actionably juxtapose it against the casualties encountered at the hands of the opposing army.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale - Nightingale","og_description":"In 1858, Florence Nightingale published a study\u00a0on the conditions of army hospitals, her seminal\u00a0Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. Her\u00a0Diagram of the Causes of Mortality\u00a0had a singular goal: to vividly demonstrate that the lack of proper sanitary caretaking facilities was a far more severe, but also far more avoidable, cause of death for soldiers than injuries suffered in battle. It\u2019s one thing to simply state that the disease killed a lot of soldiers. It\u2019s another thing entirely to effectively and actionably juxtapose it against the casualties encountered at the hands of the opposing army.","og_url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/","og_site_name":"Nightingale","article_published_time":"2019-06-15T16:49:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-06-07T22:53:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1260,"height":819,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Senthil Natarajan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Senthil Natarajan","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/"},"author":{"name":"Senthil Natarajan","@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbcda4a947a8cd27f7f6151d4b6c73cd"},"headline":"From the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale","datePublished":"2019-06-15T16:49:01+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-07T22:53:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/"},"wordCount":1367,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1","keywords":["basketball","Data Visualization","Historic Dataviz","sports"],"articleSection":["Historic Dataviz"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/","url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/","name":"From the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale - Nightingale","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1","datePublished":"2019-06-15T16:49:01+00:00","dateModified":"2021-06-07T22:53:12+00:00","description":"In 1858, Florence Nightingale published a study\u00a0on the conditions of army hospitals, her seminal\u00a0Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army. Her\u00a0Diagram of the Causes of Mortality\u00a0had a singular goal: to vividly demonstrate that the lack of proper sanitary caretaking facilities was a far more severe, but also far more avoidable, cause of death for soldiers than injuries suffered in battle. It\u2019s one thing to simply state that the disease killed a lot of soldiers. It\u2019s another thing entirely to effectively and actionably juxtapose it against the casualties encountered at the hands of the opposing army.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1","width":1260,"height":819},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/from-the-battlefield-to-basketball-a-data-visualization-journey-with-florence-nightingale\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From the Battlefield to Basketball: A Data Visualization Journey with Florence Nightingale"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/","name":"Nightingale","description":"The Journal of the Data Visualization Society","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#organization","name":"Nightingale","url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/logoDVS-5.png?fit=1988%2C454&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/logoDVS-5.png?fit=1988%2C454&ssl=1","width":1988,"height":454,"caption":"Nightingale"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbcda4a947a8cd27f7f6151d4b6c73cd","name":"Senthil Natarajan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ef59f6722eb7ecfb1e7927732176230be29212bcc208ab53066b3980a593ca6?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ef59f6722eb7ecfb1e7927732176230be29212bcc208ab53066b3980a593ca6?s=96&d=monsterid&r=g","caption":"Senthil Natarajan"},"url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/author\/senthil\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Nightingale.jpeg?fit=1260%2C819&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21493,"url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/five-years-of-the-nightingale-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":0},"title":"Five Years of the Nightingale Community!","author":"William Careri","date":"July 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In July 2019, a new publication emerged in the world of data visualization. Nightingale set out to fill a void in the community, offering a central hub where enthusiasts could share their research, stories, and insights. Back then the data viz landscape was fragmented, with narratives scattered across various platforms.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Community"","block_context":{"text":"Community","link":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/.\/community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"an art clipping graphic where a cake is made up of Nightingale articles on a blue background.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/nightingale_birthday5y-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/nightingale_birthday5y-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/nightingale_birthday5y-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/nightingale_birthday5y-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/nightingale_birthday5y-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12176,"url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/the-ellis-puppy-olympics-a-kids-data-visualization-challenge\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":1},"title":"The Ellis Puppy Olympics: A Kids’ Data Visualization Challenge","author":"Laura Ellis","date":"July 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, it has been HOT in Austin, Texas, with highs getting close to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. As a family, we are always looking ways to keep entertained while we stay cool mostly indoors during the day. One day, while looking for things to do, the first edition of the Nightingale\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Stories"","block_context":{"text":"All Stories","link":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/.\/topics-in-dv\/all-stories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/puppy_wide.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/puppy_wide.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/puppy_wide.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/puppy_wide.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/puppy_wide.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23184,"url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/my-6-years-at-nightingale\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":2},"title":"My 6 Years at Nightingale: 1,443 Digital Articles, 5 Print Magazines, and a Whole Lot of Love","author":"Jason Forrest","date":"April 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This article will mark my last one as the Editor-in-chief of Nightingale. Yes, it's time for me to pass the torch to the current team, and announce our new editor-in-chief: RJ Andrews! In this article I tell the story of Nightingale and reveal of my master plan of the last\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Community"","block_context":{"text":"Community","link":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/.\/community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/illu_article_Jason-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/illu_article_Jason-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/illu_article_Jason-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/illu_article_Jason-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/illu_article_Jason-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6049,"url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/beyond-nightingale-being-a-woman-in-data-visualization\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":3},"title":"Beyond Nightingale: Being a Woman in Data Visualization","author":"Stephanie Evergreen","date":"July 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"If you conduct a quick internet search on \u201chistory of data visualization,\u201d you\u2019ll nearly always see Florence Nightingale included in the annals of history. Why? It\u2019s not like a Nightingale Rose chart is easy to read, or a cinch to make, or even all that common. One clue to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Data Humanism"","block_context":{"text":"Data Humanism","link":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/.\/topics-in-dv\/data-humanism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Stephanie-1.png?fit=1200%2C691&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Stephanie-1.png?fit=1200%2C691&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Stephanie-1.png?fit=1200%2C691&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Stephanie-1.png?fit=1200%2C691&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Stephanie-1.png?fit=1200%2C691&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10026,"url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/getting-to-know-jarrett-c-hurms\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":4},"title":"Getting to know… Jarrett C. Hurms","author":"Claire Santoro","date":"January 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The dataviz community is broad and encompasses practitioners from a range of backgrounds, professions, and interests. In an effort to get to know the community, Nightingale periodically features interviews with dataviz practitioners to showcase what working in dataviz looks like for them. Today, we're chatting with Jarrett C. Hurms, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Stories"","block_context":{"text":"All Stories","link":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/.\/topics-in-dv\/all-stories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/JarrettHurms.jpg?fit=1200%2C873&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/JarrettHurms.jpg?fit=1200%2C873&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/JarrettHurms.jpg?fit=1200%2C873&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/JarrettHurms.jpg?fit=1200%2C873&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/JarrettHurms.jpg?fit=1200%2C873&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19863,"url":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/nightingale-board-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":148,"position":5},"title":"Magic Creature Rescue Mission","author":"Claire Santoro","date":"August 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Hone your data visualization skills in this collaborative board game. Can you rescue the magical creatures before their powers are lost forever?","rel":"","context":"In "Topics in Dataviz"","block_context":{"text":"Topics in Dataviz","link":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/.\/topics-in-dv\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd2dsI-2o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nightingaledvs.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}