Top all-time · #4174
style.org
Personal blog · style.orgdesigndata
style.org is a personal blog at style.org about design and data. Since 2008, 17 different Hacker News readers have linked it 25 times, most often “Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow (2003)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Pages on the weight of rain, the speed of a swallow via the Strouhal number, and infographic design, which commenters link for calculations and examples. One commenter calls the site amazing.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 5 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
style.org: information design, scientific visualization, unladen swallows and other posts from 13pt
Most-linked posts?
- Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow (2003)6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2012-05-07
- Design for an Audience3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-04-26
- Apps That Count (2016)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-08-22
- Two Little Ducks (2014)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-03-31
What Hacker News says?
Everything else at style.org is equally amazing. Corum was, IIRC, a student of Tufte's. Here's an especially great pair: http://style.org/unladenswallow/ http://style.org/strouhalflight/
Comment linking /strouhalflight/
on “The Weight of Rain”Submitted The Weight of Rain as a story · 458 points
HN discussionYes, it also struck me that way. As an offtopic aside, the Mars day/year slide ( http://style.org/visualized/images/weightofrain_34.jpg ) made me think we should really build a "second home" (or vacation house, or mountain cabin). Perhaps mountain cabin is the appropriate metaphor. It's another 70 million km up the Sun's gravity well. If we take solar energy supply as a feasibility criterion, it's 43% of what we get…
Comment linking /visualized/images/weightofrain_34.jpg
on “The Weight of Rain”Submitted Design for an Audience as a story · 74 points
HN discussionNotice how that graphic uses graphics primarily to illustrate, and often uses illustration in lieu of words ; to fully communicate the same ideas in prose you might need many paragraphs. Notice how it uses color exclusively as a subtle callout. Notice how the color choice highlights effectively but doesn't draw a blinding neon sign. By contrast, the infographic you like uses illustrations incorrectly; for instance,…
Comment linking /strouhalflight/
on “Your infographic isn't an infographic. It's just a crappy graphic.”Submitted Two Little Ducks (2014) as a story · 44 points
HN discussionThis has some calculations showing the speed of a swallow: http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/ The speed calculations are based on the Strouhal number http://www.style.org/strouhalflight/ http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/theories/
Comment linking /unladenswallow/theories/
on “Wolfram - what is the speed of an unladen swallow?”Submitted Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow (2003) as a story · 34 points
HN discussionSee: http://style.org/unladenswallow/
Comment linking /unladenswallow/
on “Ask HN: What is the expected capacity for a full time developer?”Submitted Apps That Count (2016) as a story · 28 points
HN discussionSubmitted Behind the Lines: Building ‘Guantánamo Detainees’ as a story · 9 points
HN discussionSubmitted Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow (2003) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Design for an Audience as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Design for an Audience as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Design for an Audience as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Two Little Ducks as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow (2003) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Estimating the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow (2003) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Apps That Count as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Unladen airspeed of a swallow? African or European? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Estimating the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
