The Shortlist
Great Beauty has No Boundary - Website of Multi-dimensional Visual Evaluation Model for the Effectiveness of "University Aesthetic Practice" Course at Beijing Jiaotong University
Abstract - Educator Jaspers once said that 'education is one cloud pushing another cloud.' This project takes the evaluation of the effectiveness of the 'University Aesthetic Practice' course of BJTU as the research object, constructs a visualisation system of teaching effectiveness evaluation model. In order to intuitively reflect the changes in students' aesthetic literacy and strengthen the organic connection between monitoring and evaluation, this project collects 18,540 pieces of artwork data and questionnaire results from 3,708 non-artistic students in 5 rounds of the teaching cycle as the data basis, and designs an interactive aesthetic education effectiveness evaluation visualisation website, which presents the dynamic data monitoring and teaching feedback, highlighting the demand and effectiveness orientation of aesthetic education. We hope that in the future we will be able to use digital means to evaluate the effectiveness of aesthetic education. Great Beauty has no boundaries, where every cloud remembers the direction of the wind.
"Remember me": Stitching the Stories of Endangered Species in the ‘HaiCuo Map’
Abstract - <HaiCuo Map> is a marine biology illustration book from China's Qing Dynasty, showcasing a distinctly modern natural history style. Unfortunately, some of the creatures depicted are now critically endangered. The author of the <HaiCuo Map> wrote, "Waiting for wiser people to make judgments about the contents within." However, the extinction of these species has undoubtedly interrupted the transmission and exchange of this historical civilization. We present "Remember Me", an interactive webpage that showcases endangered species from the <HaiCuo Map> (https://remembermeocean.netlify.app/). After verifying over 300 species biologically, we gathered data on 216 species, identifying 28 species at risk of extinction. Users can solve puzzles to learn about these species, with puzzle difficulty representing the level of endangerment, reflecting the complexities of marine ecosystem conservation. Our goal is to blend ancient artistry with modern ecological awareness to inspire emotional connections, raise public awareness, and encourage action to protect these vulnerable creatures.
South Korea's Untold Stories: Unveiling Birth Policies through Data Visualization
Abstract - We created an informative video and interactive webpage exploring the evolution of South Korea’s birth policies and their current state.South Korea's prolonged drastic low birth rate is a globally known social issue, yet the public awareness regarding the nation's birth policies is surprisingly low. This is due to the difficulty accessing relevant information and lack of publicity. Our video uses animations and visual storytelling to trace the history of these policies, while the webpage provides interactive insights into contemporary measures. We gathered various data including South Korea's annual total fertility rate, impact of low birth rate, and official birth rate policy books from the Korean government website. After analyzing the data, we visualized key findings through the video and webpage. This project seeks to raise public awareness regarding South Korea's birth policies in hope to stimulate discussions that could ultimately lead to alleviating Korea's low birth rates.
The Story of Wagyu: Bringing Charm of Japan's Pride to the World
Abstract - What makes Wagyu so special? Our interactive storytelling website takes you on a fun, visually immersive journey through the story of Japan’s most prideful beef, seen through the eyes of Yuki, a Japanese student studying in the U.S. This story explores the global appeal of Wagyu, including its definition, famous brands, export trends, and how Japanese ways to enjoy it. As Yuki shares the flavors of his hometown, special focus is given to Kobe Beef, one of the most celebrated Wagyu brands, with a detailed look at what makes it truly exceptional. With comic-style illustrations, animated visuals, and side-by-side comparisons, you’ll discover the feeding methods, grading systems, and unique flavors from major beef producing regions. Our story blends humor, culture contrasts, and mouthwatering visuals, letting you see and feel the magic of Wagyu. Ready to discover what sets Wagyu apart? View the story at https://y0uk1.github.io/PacificVis2025/.
Human Atlas Stories: The Adventures of CeCe and Squiggy
Abstract - Human Atlas Stories are engaging and accessible introductions to some of the important data tools that make up the Human Reference Atlas (HRA). The trilogy of stories submitted here feature CeCe and Squiggy, two friendly human cells that serve as tour guides through the Atlas. In their three adventures, CeCe and Squiggy introduce readers to the HRA’s ASCT+B Tables—a searchable partonomy of the body's organs, anatomical structures, and cell types, along with their characteristic biomarkers—and the Registration User Interface—an input portal where researchers can register tissue data using 3D models. The stories employ 2D design, 3D animation, and an interactive scrollytelling format to bring non-specialists into the world of the HRA and encourage further exploration.
Identity Crisis: https://cns-iu.github.io/hra-scrollytelling/story2.html
Something's Not Registering: https://cns-iu.github.io/hra-scrollytelling/story3.html
Know Your Body Buddies: https://cns-iu.github.io/hra-scrollytelling/story5.html
The Lighthouse: Shining a Light on the Gender Gap in Economic Engagement
Abstract - This video explores the structural roots of gender disparities in the global investment market through data visualization, revealing how economic, legal, and educational factors shape the barriers to female investor participation. By mapping global economic, legal, and educational data onto a lighthouse model, the video vividly illustrates gender gaps across different countries and regions. It demonstrates how economic foundations, legal protections, and education levels influence women's investment opportunities and financial independence. In developing countries, in particular, women face multiple challenges, including limited job opportunities, unequal pay, and inadequate legal protections. Through this data-driven narrative, viewers are encouraged to reflect on the state of global gender inequality and consider possible paths to eliminating these disparities.
Illuminating the Silent Night: A Data Visualization of Courage and Solidarity in Subway Sexual Harassment
Abstract - Subway sexual harassment refers to discomfort - inducing, sexually - charged harassing acts on subways, like intrusive stares, covert photography, inappropriate physical contact, etc. It's a public concern attracting broad social attention.We designed an interactive webpage to showcase victims' resistance and social support in Shanghai subway sexual harassment cases, to encourage victims to speak up and advocate for policy improvements. First, we collected and analyzed posts and comments on Rednote about Shanghai subway sexual harassment experiences, extracting victims' resistance and others' help. Then, we compiled relevant local policies to present public support and the government's strengthening legal protection. For visual encoding, we used the star image: each post is a star, popular ones are meteors with comments as tails, together forming a twinkling constellation. We hope to make victims feel supported, actively defend their rights, and prompt more people to understand and help, creating a friendly social atmosphere.
About
The Visual Data Storytelling contest celebrates its 9th year in 2025. This contest aims to encourage students, researchers, and visualization practitioners to demonstrate the value of data visualization through compelling visual data stories.
This contest celebrates the emerging data communication genre, including data storytelling, narrative visualizations, explanatory notebooks, and visual essays. The contest will be held in conjunction with IEEE PacificVis 2025 from April 22-25, 2025 at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan.
Potential contest entrants are encouraged to review the following events and venues for inspiration:
- The Information is Beautiful Awards
- The Tapestry Conference
- The Malofiej Infographics World Summit
- The Pudding
- NYT Graphics
- Visualizing Data
- Explorable Explanations
- Google News Lab
Entries from previous contests:
Talks about data-driven storytelling:
- Once Upon a Time: From Data to Stories(John Schwabish @ Socrata Connect 2017)
- Animation, Pacing, and Exposition(Tony Chu @ OpenVisConf 2016)
- Where's Larry? Bringing Data to Life Through Story (Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic @ Tapestry Conference 2017)
PacificVis is a unified visualization symposium welcoming all areas of visualization, such as information, scientific, graph, security, and software visualization. Storytellers are invited to submit visual data-driven stories that draw upon any of these areas. In addition, entries that focus on computational journalism and artistic design projects are encouraged. Unlike contests such as the IEEE VAST challenge or the IEEE SciVis Contest, the data for the PacificVis visual data storytelling contest is intentionally left unspecified; storytellers are free to choose any publicly available dataset(s). Similarly, the task that storytellers are to accomplish is to successfully communicate a message or series of messages (i.e., a narrative, a series of insights) using data visualization techniques. The story's themes can draw from any topic, including current affairs, history, natural disasters, and research findings from the sciences and humanities.
Entries may be submitted by teams or individuals from industry and academia. Conference sponsors can participate non-competitively. Submissions must fulfill the requirements explained below.
Requirements
Submissions can take several forms:
- Images: A collection of images, charts, infographics, data comics, and/or data visualization that convey a story using engaging visual designs. Example 1 and Example 2.
- Video: A cinematic animation that tells a data-driven story using visualizations. Note that video submissions that appear to be tutorials or demonstrations of a visualization tool will not be considered; the focus of the submission must be a visual narrative about the data, not a visualization tool or technique. Example.
- Notebooks: Interactive articles, markups, and notebooks that guide the reader through a narrative using text and visualizations. Examples of explainable notebook platforms include Distill, Idyll, and Observable.
- Website: An interactive web page that guides the user through the story. Note that purely analytic or exploratory visualization tools/dashboards that do not provide guidance or storytelling to the user will not be considered.
- Unconventional Forms: Other forms of interactive storytelling work, such as virtual/augmented reality, mixed reality, and other audio-visual projects, are also encouraged to submit as well. A video is likely the best way to make the initial submission. For unconventional entries that are accepted, we will work with the artists/authors to decide the best possible way to exhibit the work at the conference.
Other requirements:
- The story must feature a visual representation of data generated by various techniques such as computer programming (e.g., D3.js or three.js), manual illustration (e.g., using pen & paper, physical objects, or illustration software), or other relevant techniques. Third-party techniques or applications may be used in conjunction with the author's own work as long as proper credit is given to their respective creators and it is made clear which aspects of the implementation represent the authors' own work.
- The entries must be original data-driven stories that have not been previously published elsewhere.
- The dataset(s) used in the story must be publicly available, and linked to, sourced, or otherwise referenced.
- The story content can be in any language, while accompanying explanations should be provided in English. This will help our judges provide a proper evaluation of your submission.
- A 150-word abstract (entered on the PCS submission website) that may briefly describe the purpose of the story along with the data analysis and design process undertaken by the storyteller(s). The abstract should not include the message(s) communicated by the story; the story must stand alone in this regard such that a viewer should not need to read the abstract to understand the story.
- Supplementary materials are encouraged. For example, high-resolution images, videos, audio files, or other materials to show design processes that will help reviewers evaluate the submission.
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For the accepted entries, we expect the following additional requirements:
- A brief demo video describing the submission. (Exact details will be sent out to accepted entries.)
- At least one member of the team must register for the conference and be present at the contest's sessions and award ceremony.
Submission
Submit online through the new Precision Conference System at the PacificVis 2025 Storytelling Contest track.
- Static entries such as infographics and data comics should be submitted in PDF format.
- Videos should be in mp4 format, with a maximum file size of 300 MB.
- Explainable articles and websites can be submitted as a web URL. Such entries should be directly runnable in a browser without downloading or installing packages/libraries/etc.
If you have chosen to submit a URL (i.e., a website submission or an online version of your video or image submission), please add the URL in the abstract field.
Reviewing and Awards
A jury of visualization and data storytelling experts will carefully judge each submission and make the selection of accepted entries. Successful entries will effectively communicate a narrative, message(s), or insight(s) using visual representations of data. Each judge assigned to a submission will give the submission a score from 1 to 5, and they will be asked the following questions:
- Is the story novel?
- Is the story original (i.e., the author’s own work not previously published elsewhere)?
- Is the story trustworthy and functional (i.e., is the message clearly communicated)?
- Is the story engaging and beautiful?
- Is the story informative and enlightening?
- Are the submission requirements met?
Accepted submissions will be published on the PacificVis Storytelling Contest website. A selected set of accepted entries will receive awards (Honorable Mention and Best Storytelling Awards). Awards will be presented to the winners during the conference.
Timeline
| Submission deadline | |
| Notification date | |
| Camera-ready submission | March 16, 2025 |
All dates are midnight AOE.
Committee
Contest Judges
To be announcedContest Chairs
Juanjuan Long
Jiangnan University
Chris Bryan
Arizona State University
Contact
Contact Email: pvis_contest@pvis.org