The best visual and data-driven stories of 2022

The Pudding is a journal for visual essays. You may have stumbled upon some of our projects, such as Women’s Pockets are Inferior, How Bad is Your Spotify or Apple Music?, or A People Map of the US.

Craving some year-end data visualization inspiration? In this issue, we share 2022’s award-winning projects. We start with the winners of our 6th annual Pudding Cup, then share some exciting awards of our own.

The Pudding Cup

Every year we get the chance to crown three community-driven visual pieces as winners of The Pudding Cup. You don’t want to miss this years winners and honorable mentions.

Winners of The Pudding Cup

All the Ways to Make Bubble Tea, Taiwan's Pearl-fect Drink

By Julia Janicki & Daisy Chung

This piece took a simple question – how many unique bubble tea drinks are there in Taiwan? – and executed it delightfully. There’s so much information, but the illustrations and the personalized framing help you easily traverse it all. I am boba-obsessed, but I tend to stick with the same thing (jasmine milk tea, 50% sweet, light ice, boba), and this piece inspired me to try something new next time. — Michelle McGhee

Flags of Inequality

By Rita Costa & Beatriz Malveiro

The subject matter and the design collide with so much thoughtfulness and intention in this piece on LGBTQ+ rights in Europe. I keep looking at the rectangles and being amazed that those simple shapes hold so much meaning: the connection to the queer community, how each stripe is a building block for complete representation, and how the absence of color equals the absence of rights. The big idea behind this piece is so well done, but it’s also packed with so many small details — like how the flags reshuffle — that make the user experience more engaging. I like to consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of queer data projects, and this one is going to stay with me for a long time. — Jan Diehm

K-Means Clustering: An Explorable Explainer

By Yi Zhe Ang

I enjoyed everything about this explainer. I know a technical explainer is only meant for a specific audience, but it was done in a gentle and inviting way. It was clear that every piece of it was thoughtfully considered. The prose was both clear and approachable, the design was simple and clean, and the interactions were playful. There was also a nice balance of passive and active user experience. I appreciated the subtle additions, like toggling to the algorithm view, or dragging the edge handles for deeper control. All-in-all, it was a winner for me because it was able to teach me something in a pleasantly engaging way. — Russell Samora

Honorable Mentions

• Ruas do Género (Streets of Gender)

  By João Bernardo Narciso & Cláudio Lemos

• How fateful?

  By Channon Perry

• In Crisis, Again

  By Molly Cook

• The Haircut

  By Frances To

• A Man Sitting on a Couch Looking at Something

  By Fred Wordie

• Thunder Roads

  By Joey Cherdarchuk

Two of our projects brought home 2022 Information Is Beautiful Awards

🥈The Physical Traits that Define Men & Women in Literature

By Erin Davis. Illustrations by Liana Sposto

🥉Why Spades is the perfect metaphor for the African-American community

by Gabrielle Ione Hickmon

We’re beyond proud of our authors for the stunning work they did to receive these awards, and thankful to you, our audience, for continuing to appreciate and share our work.❤️❤️❤️

P.S. questions? comments? email us at sup@pudding.cool
P.P.S. have a cool essay idea that you want to make? Check out our pitch guidelines
P.P.P.S. Want to hire our team to produce data-led, visual stories? Check out our sister studio, Polygraph.