Living Pixel Solutions aims to make the visual presentation of data work well in a world of screens. We are devoted to the design, usability, performance, and accuracy of visual data presented on the web.
The technologies that became the world wide web were originally created to facilitate communications between researchers. One of the great ironies of the digital age is that while the web has transformed nearly every aspect of our lives, it lags far behind in its original mission. Communications between researchers still make the PDF the default format for scholarly articles. Communications from researchers to the public tend to rely on general-purpose content management systems, and there is a lack of dedicated tooling needed by researchers and science communicators.
One area where the current web lags far behind its potential is the visual display of quantitative information. Web pages are documents, but they are also software, meaning that any data graphic can be made interactive, rescalable, and linked to the underlying data. Yet many charts on the web today provide a poor experience for users: they are often slow to load due to heavy resources, portray data inaccurately, are illegible on mobile devices, or all of the above.
Why is this? Creating data graphics, even for a print publication, has always required a rather broad suite of knowledge: from mathematics and statistics, to aesthetic design, to domain-specific knowledge of the data being shown, to familiarity with the necessary software, to detailed knowledge of charts and chart types. The web complicates this further by introducing the demands of responsive design and accessibility, and the potential for interactivity. Making it work well requires the skills of a designer, developer, and scientist.
