iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 27/08/2026

Good luck searching for your country if you're Dutch... #dataviz #datacommunication

A grouped bar chart that places "The Netherlands" between Switzerland and Turkey.

Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 25/08/2026

An exciting extension to the #ggplot2 universe 🍾 I love how Alex has tied the new features to best #dataviz practices, and he even added a coaching option. I’m especially excited about the easy way to place the y-axis title at the top, plus even more shapes that are usable right out of the box 🤘

A scatterplot of iris data with a horizontal ytitle placed at the top of the y axis. In addition, the package allows to add simple annotations.

An overview of the available symbols in ggplotplus.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 04/07/2026

Happy #IndependenceDay to all U.S. followers 🇺🇸 Here’s a playful grid map for the 4th of July: a stylized, U.S.-themed version of one of our examples from #ggplot2 #uncharted 🎊 Wanna learn more about #DataViz with #rstats and how to create maps like this? Check out the course: ggplot2-uncharted.com

A stylized, US-themed visualization where each state is represented by a star, arranged roughly by its geographic position and color-coded with a red-white-blue gradient by its first letter.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 05/06/2026

This week we released the #maps module in #ggplot2 uncharted — and we cover a loooooot of maps in the 4 lessons and 19 exercises! ... and this collection doesn't even feature each 👀 As usual, the first lesson is available for everyone 🤙 www.ggplot2-uncharted.com/module5/spat... #rstats #tidyverse

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 29/04/2026

We had 165+ people joining our #dataviz session on "Guide the View" 📈 from all around the world on Monday 🎉 Thanks for all the enthusiasm and engaging participation 👐 If you missed it or want to revisit an example, I’ve uploaded the slides here: 🔗 cedricscherer.com/slides/Scher...

The title slide of my talk "Guide the View: Design that makes data easier to read and communicate".

A slide of my talk "Guide the View": a world map with only two categorical colors, bright orange for the category of interest, and desaturated, shaded blue for the other.

A slide of my talk "Guide the View": A reworked line chart to demonstrate decluttering, direct encodings, and providing context with meaningful titles, subtitles, and labels.

A slide of my talk "Guide the View": a heatmap of IMDb ratings of The Simpsons (per episode, as cilumns, and season, as rows) with several types of call-outs and direct annotations to showcase different options.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 10/04/2026

New lesson live 🚀 Before starting to talk about #maps with #ggplot2, we cover "Spatial Data". 🧱 What are the building blocks? 🌉 What is the SF revolution? 🍊 How to peel an orange? (Wait, what?!) Curious to learn more? This lesson is freely available 👐 www.ggplot2-uncharted.com/module5/spat...

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 09/04/2026

Late for #Day8 of the #30DayChartChallenge, but the "Circular" prompt is the perfect excuse to share yet another #ggplot2 trick! 👀 Tried the "new" #coord_radial yet? Compared to coord_polar, it: 🌀 bends grid lines 🌀 places labels naturally 🌀 allows inner radii 🌀 handles partial circles easily

screenshot of exercise 5 in our coordinate system lesson in "ggplot2 unchartred" shwoing the solution which is a ciruclar heatmap of (fictious) traffic data per hour and weekday.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 09/04/2026

To create great visuals, you need to combine #code syntax with #dataviz best practices 💻🤝🧠 In "ggplot2 uncharted," you'll master both! One powerful insight: Knowing when to stop adding more to your chart—and start using #facets or #compositions. Give it room to breathe! www.ggplot2-uncharted.com

a multi-plot composition of three charts using the orange tree growth data: a timeline, a bar chart and a boxplot. taken from the exercises in our course "ggplot2 uncharted".

a set od small multiples shwoing trends of baby names with shadow data to allow direct comparison. taken from the exercises in our course "ggplot2 uncharted".

a nested facet shwoing the most populated countries by continent and region. taken from the exercises in our course "ggplot2 uncharted".

a nested facet of fictional scores for a series of test outcomes for students in different topics (nested inside broader categories) and different schools. taken from the exercises in our course "ggplot2 uncharted".

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 01/04/2026

For today's #30DayChartChallenge #Day1 "Part-to-Whole", I'm not sharing a polished #dataviz but a lesser-known #ggplot2 trick 🧙‍♀️ Turn your area chart into a timeline of relative shares by changing the position argument to "fill" 🤙 Example from our "gpgplot2 uncharted" course: ggplot2-uncharted.com

Screenshot from our lesson on geometric layers, showing two examples of a timeline (with made-up data just for showcasing): first as overlapping areas – via geom_area(position = "identity") – and one with relative share by simply using position = "fill" instead.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 26/03/2026

It's hard to pick my favorite widget of our course — but our new "Patchwork Playground" is a top candidate! 🏆 Learn the {patchwork} syntax 📦 as you interactively stitch up to 8 plots in any layout you can think of 🤯 Available now in "ggplot2 uncharted" 🤘 www.ggplot2-uncharted.com/module4/plot...

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 24/03/2026

Sneak Peek Part 2 💜 💙 Only 1 day left until my talk for #RLadies Abuja! I’ll use examples from our "#ggplot2 uncharted" course to showcase some tricks to create and refine small multiples 🧱 Sign up for the talk tomorrow (5 pm CET) 👇 www.meetup.com/rladies-abuj... #rstats #dataviz #tidyverse

A nested facet of fictious sales trends for departments (main groups, here Office, Services, and Tech) and product categories (sub group, here Paper, Pens, Cloud, Laptops, and Phones).

A set of 9 line charts with "shadow data" to enable comparison across small multiples. The line chart shows timelines of popularity for selected female names.

An nested facet with advanced styling: separator lines, table-like column headers, and color-encoding that matches the bars (showing population by country) that are colore by continent.

The announcement flyer for our MeetUp event, happening tomorrow 5 pm CET.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 20/03/2026

Sneak peek at my talk for #RLadies Abuja! 💜 💙 In the first section, I’ll use examples from our "#ggplot2 uncharted" course to showcase some tricks to enrich your charts with meaningful titles, annotations, and call-outs 📣 Sign up here: www.meetup.com/rladies-abuj... #rstats #dataviz #tidyverse

A heatmap showing average ratings for the first 27 seasons of the Simpsons with several call-outs and annotations.

A linechart of Orange tree grwoth with titles styled as textboxes and a call-out box inside the panel. Direct labels next to the line replace a legend and make the chart easier to read.

The announcement flyer for our MeetUp event.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 09/02/2026

"Vibe Coding" the old-school way 🌈 I was prepping a ggplot2 lesson when a stat_summary() error went sideways. Instead of fixing it, I leaned in. Sometimes the best dataviz is found in the detours. (Or at least, the most joy on a Monday ☕️) #rstats #ggplot2 #dataviz #TheSimpsons

A colorful data visualization of IMDb ratings for the first 11 seasons of The Simpsons. The chart uses a "small multiples" layout where each season (S1—S11) is represented by a vertical column. Individual episode ratings are shown as small white circles plotted against a vertical axis ranging from 5 to 9. Each column features a unique, vibrant color—starting with purple for S1 and moving through blue, teal, green, yellow, orange, red, and ending in grey for S11. A horizontal line in each column indicates the season average, while a unique "stepped" gradient effect creates horizontal bands of color that grow lighter toward the top, highlighting the density of the episode ratings.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 24/12/2025

🎄 Hope you’ve got all your presents ready 💝 Google search interest shows a stable pattern: 🎅 “Christmas gift wife” peaks just before Christmas Eve 🎅 “Christmas gift husband” peaks much earlier #MerryChristmas to all of you! 🎁 📈 Google Trends (Nov 18–Dec 24, 2020–2024) #dataviz #ggplot2

Line chart of Google search interest for “Christmas gift wife” and “Christmas gift husband” from November 18 to December 24. Bold lines show the average pattern across 2020–2024, while lighter shaded lines represent individual years. Shaded areas highlight which term has higher search interest at each point in time. The chart shows that searches for gifts for wives peak later in December than searches for gifts for husbands.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 12/12/2025

I ignored the strip.clip argument in #ggplot2 for way too long 😲 Combined with a small negative margin tweak, you can place facet labels inside each panel. A tiny trick that makes small multiples feel so much cleaner. 🔵 no manual coordinates 🔵 inherits theme styling 🔵 scales nicely when resizing

Side-by-side comparison of two multi-panel bubble charts faceted by world region. The left column shows the default facet labels placed above each panel (“Africa”, “Americas”, “Asia”, “Europe”, “Oceania”). The right column shows the same charts, but the facet labels are moved inside each panel at the top-left using a negative margin. In the center, there is a title reading “Want to place your facet labels inside each panel?” with an arrow pointing right, followed by a short ggplot2 theme code snippet demonstrating how to move strip text inside the panel.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 05/12/2025

Designing for a good cause 💝 My daughter’s birthday is this weekend, and she’s setting up “thematic rooms.” Instead of painting and tinkering, she tried her first digital design experience — creating it all in Figma with me 😋😼 #design #birthday #kids

The room sign for "Dunkelparty", a party room with disco light

The room sign for "Katzenzoo", a room to groom kittens and play with cats

The room sign for "Schminkraum", a room with makeup and face painting

The room sign for "Turnzimmer", atraining room for gymnastics (however that looks like, already scared what's gonna happen to our funrnishings...)

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 27/11/2025

👾 We've put together a supercut to show exactly what “interactive” means inside #ggplot2 [un]charted 👇 The project became far more ambitious than we first planned, but seeing how rich, detailed, and interactive it has become makes Yan and me genuinely proud of what we’ve built 🚀 #rstats #dataviz

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 26/11/2025

Yan and I poured our dataviz, coding, teaching, design experience and passion into this hands-on, interactive journey through everything you need to know about #ggplot2 and #dataviz 📈🧑‍💻🚀 👉 ggplot2-uncharted.com Until Friday, you can enroll in our course for just $99 🔥

Black Friday promotional graphic with discounted pricing.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 20/11/2025

If motivation levels drop, Waddles comes to the rescue! 🐽

A sticker of Waddles (the 15-pound pig from Gravity Falls) next to my touchpad.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 28/10/2025

Richard takes wonderful photographs! More here: www.instagram.com/richard.stro...

A screenshot of Richard's gallery on Instagram

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 28/10/2025

This and the previous posts showcase this new template — first with the blue corporate palette, then with a few suggested alternatives derived from the brand colors but adjusted for a smooth, linear lightness progression. #dataviz #colors

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 28/10/2025

Today, I extended my framework: the template now also shows the lightness profile and a generic heatmap using the same palette. The latter is inspired by the Palette Finder from Yan, that is integrated into our latest #ggplot2 [un]charted lesson. 👉 www.ggplot2-uncharted.com/module2/pale...

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 28/10/2025

It’s simple: applying the palette to the lightness values of a photo makes color gradient issues impossible to ignore. A corporate palette that looks great in a brand guide can quickly fall apart on an image: abrupt jumps, lost detail, strange banding.

A blue-shaded version of the photo with inconsistent changes in lightness. Two generic heatmaps below compare that palette with a well-designed gradient with linear change in lightness.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 28/10/2025

🦧📉 Why are there colorful apes in my #dataviz workshops? 📸 The photo taken years ago by my friend Richard Strozynski has become a tradition in my client projects and courses. I like to recolor it with different palettes to show how palette design affects perception. Thread 👇

A photograph of two apes (mother holds her child) and three recolored versions of the same phtograph using three palettes of different quality.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 22/10/2025

🌏 A compact snapshot on where people live around the globe (2023 data) — over 60% of #humans live in #Asia! I originally created a more basic version for our new #ggplot2 [un]charted lesson on 🎨 "Color Choice" to discuss color accessibility: 👉 www.ggplot2-uncharted.com/module2/colo...

A treemap showing the world’s population by country, grouped by continent. Each rectangle’s area represents a country’s estimated 2023 population, with labels on the 10% most populous countries. Asia dominates with over 60% of the global population, followed by Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 17/10/2025

📸 Fun photoshoot yesterday! Finally updating the profile pic and those “hard at work” photos. Behind-the-scenes outtake: new office, new favorite mug, new kitten… and me, mid-shrug, wondering how people do this gracefully 😄🤷

A photograph from the photo shooting with me sitting on the couch in my office with headphones and one of our cats next to me, shrugging.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 18/08/2025

Chart crimes are everywhere. I ate it.

A screenshot from the outro of a episode of "Welcome to Gravity Falls" with a swine pointing to a (badly designed) pie chart and the meme text "dis pie chart - i ated it"

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 01/08/2025

The virtual #user2025 event takes place today — and our talk "Plot Twist: Adding Interactivity to the Elegance of ggplot2 with ggiraph" airs is lined up next! 🎥 #rstats #ggiraph #ggplot2 #dataviz

Title slide for our talk at useR entitled "Plot Tiwst:Adding interactivity to the elegance of ggplot2 with ggiraph"

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 23/07/2025

The version in our online "ggplot2 [un]charted" workshop to illustrate how to create partial radial plots with #ggplot2 — part of the lesson "Coordinate Systems: Setting the Stage for Your Plot" www.ggplot2-uncharted.com/module1/coor...

Screenshot of the gauge chart, along with the code in our interactive in-browser sandbox in the coordinate lesson of our course "ggplot2 uncharted".

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 23/07/2025

Last week, I crafted my first-ever gauge chart 🏎️ to showcase partial radial plots for our #ggplot2 [un]charted lesson on "coordinate systems" Thanks to coord_radial(), partial circles like those are super easy now — and of course I couldn’t resist making a polished and animated version 💅📽️ #rstats

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 18/07/2025

Two redesigns of the cluttered bar chart on Europe’s largest urban areas 📊 Two reworked variants — same data, different goals: show the data vs. tell a story. Decluttering, refocusing, adding context, and using visual emphasis can turn a chart into insight. #dataviz #ggplot2 #rstats #tidyverse

A collage of a decluttered, colorful bar chart and two reworked version — one with ranked vertical bars, all with the same weight, and a cleaner theme direct labels. and a more descriptive title, and the other with a key message highlighting the 7th ranked urban area Berlin in both the title, and the chart itself.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 17/07/2025

It's always fun to create bad charts for workshops 🤪 #retro #dataviz #workshop #ggplot2 #rstats

A retro-vibe bar chart with many colors and a grey theme with too many labels, grid lines, and font styles, rotated labels, a superfluous legend and more.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 14/07/2025

Why do we 💙 #ggplot2? Yes, it's for the Grammar! But also for the passionate and supportive community — and their steady contributions to the ggplot2 universe: all the extension packages 🧩 that take its impressive flexibility even further, making it more powerful and beautiful 🙌 #rstats #tidyverse

A collage of colorful hex logos from popular ggplot2 extension packages. Each hex represents an R package that expands ggplot2’s functionality. The overall layout celebrates the diversity and creativity of the ggplot2 ecosystem — while being able to just show a tiny sample from it.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 06/06/2025

Working on the latest #ggplot2 [un]charted lesson about “Handling Caveats When Mapping Variables,” I let loose a bit The sections ended up fun — yes, and maybe a bit silly at times 🤡 Highlight: a new #aesthetics anthem as a memorable mnemonic 🎶 Out now for members! www.ggplot2-uncharted.com

A screenshot of the anthem (and the introductory text to understand the context):

Again, ask yourself: Am I setting or mapping?
Now, repeat with me...

🎶
🎶 Columns inside, constants out —
That's what aes() is all about 🎶
🎶

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 04/06/2025

New interactive lesson live! 🎉 🎨 Aesthetics: Mapping Data to Visual Properties is now live for members of our #ggplot2 [un]charted workshop! 🎮 Drag-and-drop aes game 🔍 Aesthetics Explorer 🏆 6 exercises Learn now 👉 ggplot2-uncharted.com/module1/aest... #dataviz #datavis #rstats #tidyverse

Screenshot of the header of the third lesson in module 1, "Foundations of ggplot2", of our interactive online course ggplot2 [un]charted.

A screenshot of the drag-and-drop game: users can pick columns from the mpg data set and move them to the x or y aesthetic. The code and plot below updates accordingly!

One of many interactive code examples that make use of our in-browser sandboxes that allow users to modify and run the code to learn and play!

The latest addition to our features: an interactive data viewer that provides the name, source, description, and a sortable table of the data sets we use in the lessons and exercises.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 23/05/2025

New bonus lesson out now! 🎉 "A Quick Introduction to R" is for all course members that are new to #rstats or need a refresher 🧑‍💻 ➕ 7 exercises and lots of in-browser code examples Part of our interactive workshop #ggplot2 [un]charted 💙 Get access 👉 www.ggplot2-uncharted.com #dataviz #datascience

A screenshot of the bonus lesson "Getting Started: A Quick Introduction to R" with the title, a short intro and the first part on "Executing R Code". Also shows the first code examples which members can execute inside their browser thanks to our sandboxes.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 16/05/2025

🚀 We'll continuously add new lessons to our interactive online workshop on #ggplot2 💙 We're currently wrapping up “Principles of ggplot2” with fantastic widgets to explore plot components 🖥️ 💸 Early-bird discount still on — check it out + share feedback: www.ggplot2-uncharted.com #rstats #dataviz

A screenshot of the WIP lesson on principles of ggplot2 showing some of the content and teasing the interactive feature to explore components.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 13/05/2025

Our ggplot2 [un]charted course is live! 🎉 Lesson 1, “Why R and ggplot2?”, is free to explore — short, thoughtful & a bit different. Get the early-supporter price! 👉 ggplot2-uncharted.com Follow along as new content drops and learn while running your code in the browser 👩‍💻

Screenshot of the first lesson called"Why R and ggplot2?". The header text reads:

Course
Foundations of ggplot2
Why R and ggplot?
Why R and ggplot2?
This lesson shows why programming is so powerful for data visualization. It covers what sets R and ggplot2 apart, highlighting their strengths, trade-offs, and how they compare to other tools.

Let's get a clear sense of when and why to use ggplot2!

... and the first paragraphs:

🌍 A World of Visualization Tools
Data visualizations are everywhere— on web pages, in reports, and at the heart of dashboards.

What used to be a time-consuming, manual process is now much faster, thanks to powerful tools that turn raw data into clear, engaging graphics. But with so many options out there, choosing the right tool can be tough 😔.

There are 5 main categories of visualization tools. Some are quick-and-easy chart makers, while others are flexible, code-driven libraries.

The right choice depends on factors like data complexity, custom design, and the need for reproducibility. Explore the categories below to find the best fit for your needs!

Another screenshot of the lesson, showing the three main reasons to use coding to work with data and create visualizations:

1. reproducibility
2. Customization
3. Automation

It also shows a gallery of some of data visualizations such as the circular astronauts plot and the stream graph about appearances of the main X-Men characters.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 13/05/2025

I hope it's fine like this–let me know if you'd like to have some adjustments. And thanks again!

Screenshot of the updated testimonial wall on our course webpage with Jorges post as new testimonial.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 12/05/2025

Excited to launch "ggplot2 [un]charted" with @yan-holtz.bsky.social! 🎉 An online course to master #ggplot2 with exercises, quizzes, and modules—and hands-on code running in your browser! Still WIP—sign up now for a limited discount: 👉 www.ggplot2-uncharted.com #rstats #DataViz #DataVisualization

The landing page of the course "ggplot2 uncharted" with the title teasing it with "Master Data Visualizations with ggplot2".

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 22/04/2025

Rest well, lovely Lotte ♥️ You brought so much joy, warmth, and love to our home. We’re grateful for all the years we had together and will miss you forever.

A picture from 2020 of our cat Lotte who died last night.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 03/04/2025

Thanks for the note, we forgot to add it to the readme. Just fixed it!

Screenshot of the prompts overview graphic on our GitHub repository.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 02/04/2025

#30DayChartChallenge 2025 — #Day2: Slope 📉 Quick #DataViz for the second day, highlighting the steep drop in favorability of the #USA according to YouGov's EuroTrack survey. Made in #rstats with #ggplot2 💙 #DataVisualization #Politics #SurveyData #Europe #US #YouGov

Seven slope charts showing changes in favorability of the USA across seven European countries based on YouGov’s EuroTrack surveys from August 2024 and 2025. Each country is represented by a line connecting its favorability rating in 2024 to its rating in 2025(with filled area below). Denmark, Sweden, and Germany show the steepest declines, with drops of 20 percentage points and more. The overall trend highlights a significant decrease in positive sentiment toward the U.S. following Donald Trump’s return to the political stage.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 02/04/2025

Btw... 😶‍🌫️ How about moon charts as data points? 🌚🌝

A line chart with moon charts (an alternative to pie charts with two categories) as point markers. Lines show the black population in Southern states of the US and all other states, the moon charts visualize the share of humans in slavery versus freedom (with two 100% free moons at the end of the timeline in 1870).

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 01/04/2025

The first draft as an alternative version resembling a classic waffle chart by sorting completed vs. uncompleted prompts. #dataviz 📈 #30daychartchallenge 🚀

$A similar grid-based layout but this time with 3 x 10 squares and visualizations versus image icons grouped together, resembling a classic waffle chart to compare amounts or fractions.$

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 01/04/2025

#30DayChartChallenge 2025 — #Day1 Fractions 📈 Charting My #30DayChartChallenge Journey A visual overview of my past contributions—displayed as waffle charts and progress bars for each of the four editions. In 2023, I didn’t plan to join due to our son’s birth 🐣 #dataviz #datavisualization #Figma

A visual snapshot of my contributions over four editions.

The set of four galleries tracks my participation in the first four editions of #30DayChartChallenge. Each square represents a prompt: colored squares mark completed charts, while empty squares with an image icon show those I skipped or left unfinished. 2023 is excluded from the completion rate, as I didn't plan to participate that year due to our son’s birth.

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Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · 14/03/2025

I’m excited to share that I’m now available for 1-on-1 consulting on #Codementor 💡💻 🚀 🧑‍💻 Tackling a tricky #ggplot2 visualization? 📝 Refining your #Quarto reports? 🛠️ Troubleshooting some #rstats workflows? 📈 Looking for best practices in #dataviz? I’d be happy to help 💁‍♂️ www.codementor.io/@z3tt

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