iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 08/05/2026

there we go. #senedd26, at least until the defections and resignations start martinjc.github.io/wales-senedd...

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 08/05/2026

two constituencies to go ... #senedd26 martinjc.github.io/wales-senedd...

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 08/05/2026

eleven constituencies in ... #senedd26 martinjc.github.io/wales-senedd...

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 08/05/2026

nine constituencies in ... #senedd26 martinjc.github.io/wales-senedd...

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 08/05/2026

and with a massive 0% of the results reported, it seems like it's still all to play for in #senedd26 martinjc.github.io/wales-senedd...

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 25/03/2026

Wales is going to look very different if the actual results follow these polls ...

A map of Wales with the projected results from the Senedd election based on the latest polling

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 10/03/2026

I also threw all the feedback into notebookLM and generated a 20 minute podcast overview of the feedback as a tool to help students avoid the errors made by previous classes

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 10/03/2026

today in datavis class - we're looking at feedback for the final assessment. I gave out *all* the feedback I'd given for the last few years, students analysed it, then came up with some 'dashboard' type visuals to show what they'd found out

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 24/02/2026

Yes, with slightly more realistic* data it looks a lot less busy and perhaps more understandable (*polling, with random seat distributions geographically, so take your realism with a pinch of salt)

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 24/02/2026

hmmm ... it's better than the contiguous I think, but the background is definitely needed

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 24/02/2026

To place my hexagons and create the 'Wales' background, I needed to generate a hexmap of the shape of Wales. There are probably a few ways I could have done this, but the easiest was to boil an ocean to get Gemini to code me up a web app that takes in geojson boundaries and spits out hexagons

an AI written web app to turn geographic coordinates into hexagons

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 24/02/2026

Wales gets slightly less awkward if we try to use non-contiguous hexes. Next up, start adding 'fake' election results to see how they look with realistic results #datavis #dataviz #hexes #election #senedd

hexmaps showing constituencies for the 2026 senedd elections

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 18/02/2026

Wales is a really awkward country to turn into hexagons, but I think this just about works. martinjc.github.io/senedd-2026-...

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 13/02/2026

I found myself with a little spare time this week, so finally finished a side project - writing some simple python scripts to download data from Strava and creating an animated timelapse of my running data over the last 15 years. Is it useful? Not at all. Am I pleased? Yes I am.

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 07/12/2025

and it just did it. built the thing. found some errors. debugged and rewrote the thing. refactored and tidied the code. wrote me some docs. and it works.

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 07/12/2025

and some very basic prompts ...

a prompt for an AI coding agent: "hex.html contains two maps showing results of an election, and parliament contains a parliament diagram showing the same results. i need to create a single page showing all three diagrams at the same time. it should be flex, column order on mobile and row on desktop"

a prompt for an AI coding agent: "let's improve the interaction. each hexagon in the first diagram contains six smaller triangles. each of these triangles corresponds to a smaller hexagon in the second diagram, and a single triangle in the third diagram. when we click on a traingle or hexagon we should highlight the region to which it belongs in the first and second diagrams, and the related triangles in the third diagram.

we should also update the information displayed so it lists the winner of that seat and the party, not just the name of the area"

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 20/11/2025

What if you've presented your proportional results in your hex map and you want to transition that to a traditional parliamentary arc to show the proportions within the senedd? Yeah, we can do that ...

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 05/11/2025

if watching Wales turn into hexagons and back is your thing, you can do that all day, baby martinjc.github.io/wales-senedd... #pr #map #datajournalism #datavis

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 05/11/2025

now we're getting somewhere. it's always the islands that cause problems! not drawing lines between the different segments of borders while we're transforming between shapes is the solution. the menai straits in Bangor Conwy Môn still look a bit iffy during transform ... #map #wales #senedd

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 04/11/2025

ugh. path transitions. not fun. need to do some more maths here to polish this up

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 31/10/2025

I think the best result might be presenting both together? I'm not convinced yet that this works for proportional representation. Luckily we've got until May next year to figure it out

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 31/10/2025

Multiple hexes per constituency is also ... interesting. It's not really Wales shaped, but I think it just about works. Again, I suspect reordering the hexes within the constituency will give us a better overall sense of the results.

Hexmap of Wales showing potential rendering of 2026 election results

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 31/10/2025

Subdivision is ... interesting. I think there's some improvements to be made aesthetically in terms of the hexagon design. I think there's also something to be done with clustering parties together along boundaries to get a better sense of the overall picture (pre-attentive like)

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 31/10/2025

Proportional representation means we get six Senedd members per constituency, so we either need six separate shapes for each constituency, or will have to sub-divide each constituency somehow (basically the same thing, but leading to different presentation)

Two different hexmaps representing Wales, divided into the electoral constituencies for the Senedd 2026 elections

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 31/10/2025

Today I've been thinking about how to visualise the Senedd 2026 results under the new proportional representation system. New electoral regions, which means new maps, in particular new hexmaps

Drawings of hexmaps that may or may not look like Wales, but which definitely represent Wales

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 12/09/2025

Decompressing from a very busy week. 2 conferences, 3 flights, nowhere near enough sleep. 7k shakeout last night, rainy lsr 18k this morning. Delightful. #running

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Martin Chorley @mjc.martinjc.com · 09/09/2025

Oli Hawkins from the FT talking about AI in the newsroom bringing together the most technical editorial staff with the most story focused technical staff ... I wonder if there's a masters out there for people who can bridge that gap? </plug> www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgr... #datajconf