Origin Story
An outlet for curiosity
We started PerThirtySix because we love data, design, and the web.
...and because we had a lot of free time during the early days of the pandemic.
What began as purely sports-focused explorations has since grown into a broader collection of interactive visualizations and explainers spanning economics, games, science, pedagogy, and more.
What We Believe
Show, don't tell
Beyond just being informative, good data visualization can also inspire, captivate, and delight. It should help us with what we're bad at, like processing large numbers, and let us do what we're good at, like seeing trends and understanding relationships.
Clarify, don't simplify
The world is full of complex systems. The goal of data communication should be to embrace that complexity, not simplify it. The work is in finding signal in the noise.
Transparency over black boxes
You shouldn't need an advanced degree in mathematics to enjoy and draw conclusions from data. We believe good tools should be comprehensible, transparent, and flexible.
Analytics only approximate reality
All models are an approximation of the truth. Just as a line graph about world hunger can't convey the human experience of hunger, any model of a complex system can't convey the full complexity of that system.
Sweat the details, or lose the point
Small failures compound into lost meaning, from stuttering interactions to poor color choices. We obsess over the craft. In data visualization, the medium is inextricable from the message.
Technology should serve people
At its best, technology can enrich our lives. At its worst, it can exploit us. We believe strongly in the use of technology to help people be creative and informed. This is one reason you won't find ads on this site.
