NYT-discipline Data Visualization

Produce New York Times / Upshot–grade charts and dashboards: the typography, color restraint, chart-type judgment, and annotation discipline of the NYT graphics desk — for both static charts (Observable Plot) and hand-built interactive D3 dashboards.

When to use

Any time you generate a chart, graph, dashboard, or data visualization and want it to read as editorial, trustworthy, and crafted — not a default library chart. Single charts, multi-panel dashboards, and scrollable data stories.

The five core rules (every chart)

1. Color. One hero accent for the series that matters; everything else grey. Monotonic-luminance sequential ramps only — never rainbow/jet/HSV-equidistant. Diverging only with a meaningful zero. Categorical caps at ~7 hues; beyond that, small-multiple by category.
2. Typography. Playfair Display (display serif) + Libre Franklin (sans labels/annotation) + Source Serif 4 (body). tabular-nums on ALL numeric labels so digits don't jitter.
3. Chart choice. Line first for time; bar second; never pie; never dual y-axes; bars start at zero. Past ~5 series → small multiples.
4. Annotation. Declarative headline (a sentence, not a label) + subtitle naming unit & timeframe + source line. Label series DIRECTLY at endpoints (no legends). Annotate inflections in place. Humanized axis labels.
5. Archie Tse rule. Crucial info visible without interaction; mobile-test at 375px first.