2022: The year in graphics
Our mission as The Washington Post’s graphics team is to create impactful visual stories that are interesting, important and innovative. This has been our driving force for the hundreds of visual stories, interactives, maps, charts and many other storytelling formats the team has produced in 2022.
Thank you for spending this year with us.
1. Visualizing events as they happen
When news breaks, there are story angles that can’t be covered with text and images alone — when Russia was poised to invade Ukraine, when Queen Elizabeth II died, or when natural disasters threatened homes and lives. Our visual stories cover these events in a way that only graphics can.
See how lasers led to a nuclear fusion milestone
By Aaron Steckelberg, Szu Yu Chen and Joel Achenbach
More stories like this
There have been more than 600 mass shootings so far in 2022
How Fiona was a different kind of storm than Maria
Explore aerial images of Hurricane Ian’s damage to the Florida coast
2. Helping voters navigate and understand elections
Voting is one of the most important rights of a citizen, but also a responsibility. This year’s midterm elections, The Post’s graphics team dedicated itself to explaining the most important concepts and processes to voters and to offer clear and detailed information about the results. We even created a mini golf game that teaches you about gerrymandering in a way that nobody else has done.
More stories like this
How redistricting is shaping the 2022 US House map
Can computer simulations help fix democracy?
Where Republican election deniers are on the ballot near you
3. Exploring stories close to home
There’s a saying in journalism that all news is local. Stories that might not seem so close to us actually can affect our houses, our schools, our football teams and even the money in our banks — and we covered them all.
More stories like this
How DC region’s housing market fared in 2021 by zip code
Pandemic life, two years later: do you fit in?
Postcards from Earth’s climate futures
4. Explaining the world around us
There are also stories that we might not pay enough attention to because they happen in different countries, to different people. But they, too, can end up touching us in one way or another.
More stories like this
The 2022 World Cup is here. Here’s who to watch.
London hit 104 degrees. That’s like 129 degrees in Phoenix
What Russia has gained and lost so far in Ukraine
5. Telling our readers more about themselves
But the stories that everyone cares about the most are often not the ones that happen to others, in a different corner of the world or even a few miles away, but the ones that affect us directly. Stories that help us make decisions about our daily lives: What behavior is best for my health? How will this new law affect me?
More stories like this
Why daylight saving time is worse for your body than standard time
Have you been taking pills wrong?
Confused about rapid tests? Here’s what to know
Do you know the sweaty truth about these common fitness myths?
6. And getting delight from little joys along the way
Then there are all those other stories — the ones that sometimes aren’t in the news but hide small, delightful moments like “Is your name more common about people or dogs?” Or the ones that everybody talks about but nobody has told it to you in this way like “That’s a clear offside! But why?”
More stories like this
Want a Winter Olympic medal? Pick a very chilly niche
An epic trip to Germany, through the eyes of a sketch artist
A quiz about your lousy chances of winning Mega Millions