Data visualization is a great way to celebrate our favorite pieces of art as well as reveal connections and ideas that were previously invisible. More importantly, it’s a fun way to connect things we love — visualizing data and kicking up our feet for a movie night. All week, Nightingale is exploring the intersections between data visualization and all kinds of entertainment.

数据可视化是庆祝我们最喜欢的艺术品以及揭示以前不可见的联系和想法的好方法。 更重要的是，这是连接我们喜欢的事物的一种有趣方式-可视化数据并为电影之夜踢起脚来。 整个晚上，夜莺都在探索 数据可视化与各种娱乐之间 的 交集 。

We’ve already argued that data visualization has arrived in the mainstream and is reaching maturity as a field. But perhaps there’s no better measure of this progress than seeing a game dedicated to data viz arrive on the scene. As part of our “Nightingale and Chill” Week coverage, I had the pleasure to interview Evan Katz, one half of the team behind Charty Party, the “adult card game of absurdly funny charts, graphs and data visualization!” Along with co-creator Josh Roberts, Evan has always found “charts to be an overlooked source of humor,” and set out to create a game that would bring these laughs to a wider audience.

我们已经指出，数据可视化已经到达的主流，并日渐成熟的领域。 但是也许没有比看到一款致力于数据可视的游戏更好地衡量这一进展的方法了。 作为我们“ 夜莺与寒意”周报道的一部分，我很荣幸地采访了Charty Party背后一半团队的Evan Katz ，这是“荒唐有趣的图表，图形和数据可视化的成人纸牌游戏！” 与共同创作者乔什·罗伯茨(Josh Roberts)一起，埃文(Evan)一直认为“图表是一种被忽视的幽默来源”，并着手打造一款游戏，将这些笑声带给更多的观众。

We talked about creating a card game “voice,” how they feel data literacy has changed in recent times, and the newest developments from the Charty Party team.

我们谈到了创建纸牌游戏“语音”，他们如何感觉数据素养最近发生了变化以及Charty Party团队的最新发展。

AB: Can you tell us a bit about your team — how did the two of you meet, what are your backgrounds, etc.

AB：您能谈谈您的团队吗？你们两个人是如何会面的？您的背景如何？

EK: Josh and I both have the same day job, working as business consultants at a boutique consulting firm in Memphis, Tennessee. Josh has previously worked in advertising, and I worked on a few startup ventures prior.

EK：乔什和我俩都是同一天的工作，在田纳西州孟菲斯的一家精品咨询公司担任业务顾问。 乔什(Josh)以前从事广告业，而我之前也从事过几家创业公司。

AB: Where did the idea for Charty Party come from, and how did the game as we know it now make its way into the world?

AB：Charty Party的想法是从哪里来的？我们所知道的游戏现在是如何进入世界的？

EK: We’ve always found charts to be an overlooked source of humor, and the original idea for Charty Party sprung from a conversation about, “Is there something where your age correlates directly with how much you’d pay for it?” (We decided it’s a steak.) We started playtesting the game on sticky notes, and gradually grew it up from there into the game it is today with a lot of testing help from friends.

EK：我们一直认为图表是人们忽视的幽默根源，而关于Charty Party的最初想法源于这样的对话：“您的年龄是否与您的年龄直接相关？ (我们决定是一块牛排。)我们开始在便签纸上对游戏进行游戏测试，然后在朋友的大量测试帮助下，从此逐渐发展成为今天的游戏。

AB: The humor of the cards all seem to share a certain DNA. Does that spring from one of you in particular, or did you have to strategize making them feel cohesive?

AB：所有卡片的幽默似乎都具有一定的DNA。 那是从你们中的一个特别是从中产生的，还是您必须制定战略使他们感到具有凝聚力？

EK: That’s funny you notice that! We usually write the cards independently, and Josh’s humor tends to be a bit darker while mine leads more toward the absurd. But, we always revise together, and we’ve taken a lot of care to have the tone of the game be more clever than just plain offensive. With our new edition, Charty Party: All Ages, we’ve had to work especially hard to write cards that are both school appropriate but still legitimately funny, which was challenging. But, we’re really happy with how that new version’s come out.

EK：有趣的是，您注意到了！ 我们通常独立写卡，而乔什的幽默倾向更暗一些，而我的则倾向于荒唐。 但是，我们总是在一起进行修改，并且我们采取了很多谨慎措施，以使比赛的气氛比单纯的进攻更加聪明。 对于我们的新版本《 Charty Party：所有年龄段》 ，我们不得不特别努力地编写既适合学校又可以合法地发笑的卡片，这极具挑战性。 但是，我们对于新版本的发布感到非常满意。

AB: I own a copy of the game, and have described it to friends as “a riff on Apples to Apples for data nerds.” Did you have a target audience in mind when you created the game?

AB：我拥有该游戏的副本，并已将它形容为朋友“对苹果公司而言，就是对数据迷们的追捧。” 在创建游戏时，您是否有目标受众？

EK: You about nailed it! We didn’t think, “How can we make a game for data nerds?” right off the bat, but we quickly realized that audience, plus teachers and just general quirky folks, were a great match for the game.

EK：您即将钉上它！ 我们没有想到，“我们如何为数据书呆子打造游戏？” 马上，但我们很快就意识到，观众，老师和一般古怪的人都非常适合这款游戏。

AB: How do you view familiarity with data viz and data literacy in the population at large, and how did that fit into your design of the game?

AB：您如何看待整个人群对数据可视化和数据素养的熟悉程度，这如何适合您的游戏设计？

EK: Playing the game with new groups is always interesting — some people get it immediately, and others take a bit to warm up to reading the charts. But, we encourage never faulting anyone for not having a background in understanding charts, no matter their age — it’s not a skill you’re born with! But, we can almost guarantee that if you spend a night playing Charty Party, you’ll come away with a super solid, intuitive understanding of graphs. We didn’t intend for Charty Party to be a learning tool, but something about the lack of scary numbers and goofy concepts helps people say, “Oh — this stuff isn’t really that complicated.”

EK：与新的团队一起玩游戏总是很有趣–有些人立即获得了成功，而另一些则需要热身来阅读图表。 但是，我们鼓励您不要责备任何人，无论他们的年龄如何，都没有理解图表的背景-这不是您天生的技能！ 但是，我们几乎可以保证，如果您花一个晚上玩Charty Party，您将获得对图表的超级扎实，直观的理解。 我们不打算让Charty Party成为学习工具，但是缺少一些令人恐惧的数字和愚蠢的概念可以使人们说：“哦，这东西实际上并不那么复杂。”

AB: Do you feel like data literacy has changed at all since COVID times began?

AB：自COVID时代开始以来，您是否感觉数据素养彻底改变了？

EK: Viewing and understanding charts has gained a whole new level of relevancy in 2020, so there’s certainly more reasons than ever to be able to intuitively understand a chart. Also, it’s equally important to be able understand how charts can be made to show data in a misleading way. We’ve actually included some “teacher lesson notes” in the new All Ages Version, and intentionally creating misleading charts in order to understand how data manipulation works is one of the activities!

EK：查看和理解图​​表在2020年已获得了全新的关联性，因此，比以往任何时候都能够直观地理解图表的原因更多。 同样，理解如何制作图表以误导方式显示数据也同样重要。 实际上，我们已经在新的《 All Ages Version》中添加了一些“教师课程笔记”，并且有意创建误导性图表以了解数据操纵的工作方式是其中之一！

AB: Speaking of the All Ages version (which released last month), for each Kickstarter donation you’ve been distributing cases of the game to schools in need — which is awesome! Tell us a bit more about both the new version and the donation initiative.

AB：说到“所有年龄段”版本(上个月发布)，对于Kickstarter的每次捐赠，您都在将游戏案例分发给有需要的学校-太棒了！ 告诉我们更多有关新版本和捐赠计划的信息。

EK: We’re super excited about the All Ages version, which has successfully completed its Kickstarter thanks to 1,900+ supporters, many of them teachers. The new game is a standalone game that’s totally school appropriate (but still hilarious, even for adults!) and also works as an expansion pack to the original version. We donated 160 games to math departments around the country during the Kickstarter campaign, many of them being in lower income areas, and we plan to continue making school donations an on-going part of Charty Party: All Ages Edition even after the game is available at retail.

EK：我们对All Ages版本感到非常兴奋，该版本已成功完成Kickstarter众筹活动，这要归功于1,900多个支持者，其中许多人是老师。 新游戏是一款完全适合学校的独立游戏(但即使是成年人也很有趣！)，并且还可以作为原始版本的扩展包。 在Kickstarter竞选期间，我们向全国的数学部门捐赠了160款游戏，其中许多处于低收入地区，并且即使在游戏可用之后，我们也计划继续将学校捐赠作为“ Charty Party：All Ages Edition”的一部分在零售。

AB: Any plans for other versions of Charty Party or other data-related games that you can share with us??

AB：您可以与我们共享其他版本的Charty Party或其他与数据相关的游戏的计划吗？

EK: We’ve got lots of ideas (none ready to share yet!) and we’ll definitely continue releasing games. It’s not data related, but it’s equally quirky and funny — our other game, Puns of Anarchy, just became available for online retail. If you love wordplay, give it a look!

EK：我们有很多想法(尚未准备好分享！)，我们一定会继续发行游戏。 它与数据无关，但同样古怪有趣-我们的另一款游戏《无政府状态的双关语》刚刚可以在线零售。 如果您喜欢文字游戏，那就来看看吧！