Years ago, my friend Chris Lysy made this cartoon about optimist and pessimist charts:

Last week, I applied the optimist vs. pessimist style to a map during Office Hours.

(The real version of the map was about a different topic in a different state, but you get the idea.)

The Traditional Map

I’ve written about traditional and storytelling approaches before. You’re probably familiar with this terminology already?

The traditional version would have a topical title and regular ol’ brand colors.

The Storytelling Map: Optimist Version

In this optimist version, we’ve got a:

• “good” takeaway title;
• “good” brand color;
• “good” icon; and a
• call-out box highlighting a superstar.

The Storytelling Map: Pessimist Version

In this pessimist version, we’ve got a:

• “bad” takeaway title;
• “bad” brand color;
• “bad” icon; and a
• call-out box highlighting a laggard.

Which Version Should You Use?

That obviously depends on your audience and context.

You’re welcome to reply with your own insights. I read every response.

Download These Maps

Want the Excel file that I used to create these maps? Reply "MAPS" and I'll send it to you.

More Resources about Maps

I doubt you need to make these exact county-level maps of Florida. But you probably need to make some other type of map. Here are some blog posts and YouTube videos to get you started.

How to Make a County-Level Map in Excel

Here's a 10-min video for you.

Small Multiples Maps

If your visualization feels too dense, you should give small multiples a try. This solution applies to maps, too.

Dynamic Maps

You can't directly add maps to interactive dashboards in Excel -- but you can use this workaround.

Gorgeous DataViz

• ​Beak lengths by species - Bar charts, box-and-whiskers, swarm plots, and more! Made in R.
• A sort-of sunburst diagram in the wild. Sunbursts and like double donuts. A part-to-whole with another part-to-whole.

Workshop Opportunities

I'm available for in-person workshops:

• Friday, May 22: London
• Tuesday, June 9: Boise
• Monday, July 6: Oahu

Or, any other time. But I'll be traveling to these cities anyway, so you won't have to pay for travel costs for your training session.

DataViz News & Upcoming Events

• TODAY -- March 31: Women in Excel meetup about "The New Power BI: Build, Model & Transform Data Entirely Online" with speaker Mike Thomas
• TODAY -- March 31: Deadline to submit your dataviz work on the theme "driving positive action for our planet and the environment" and get featured by the Data Visualization Society.
• April 12: Deadline to submit nominations for The Vizzies, awards that recognize the Tableau community.
• May 3-5: The Eastern Evaluation Research Society's annual conference in Seaview, New Jersey.
• May 5-7: Tableau's annual conference in San Diego, California.
• May 19-20: The Global Excel Summit in London.
• June 24-25: The Data Visualization Society's Outlier conference takes place online.
• November 4-6: The Visualising Climate Conference in Italy.
• November 9-13: The IEEE VIS Conference in Boston. (Academics sharing their research.)
• November 16-20: The American Evaluation Association conference in North Carolina.

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