The Best Graphics from The Times in 2025
Looking ahead at what 2025 might bring for The Times’ visual journalism is an exercise in educated anticipation. Based on current trends in data visualization and journalistic presentation, we can imagine how The Times might continue to push boundaries in presenting complex information visually to their readers.
The first half of 2025 would likely see The Times perfecting their integration of real-time data visualization with breaking news stories. Imagine interactive maps tracking climate disasters as they unfold, with layers of historical context accessible through intuitive user interfaces. These wouldn’t just be cold presentations of facts, but narratives told through a combination of human stories and data, helping readers understand both the statistical significance and the human impact of events. The pandemic-era graphics that showed the spread of COVID-19 would likely evolve into more sophisticated systems tracking multiple global challenges simultaneously, from disease outbreaks to economic indicators, all updating in real-time as readers engage with them.
By mid-2025, The Times would probably be pioneering new forms of personalized data journalism. Readers might be able to input their own information to see how global trends affect their specific circumstances—whether it’s understanding tax policy implications, climate change impacts on their region, or health research relevant to their demographic. This personalization would be balanced with rigorous journalistic standards, avoiding the filter bubbles of social media while still making global issues tangibly relevant to individual readers. The most compelling graphics might combine massive datasets with intimate personal stories, showing both the forest and the trees of complex issues like income inequality, educational outcomes, or healthcare access.
As 2025 progressed, we’d likely see The Times experimenting with more immersive forms of data visualization, perhaps using augmented reality to bring statistical information into readers’ physical spaces. Imagine being able to “walk through” a visualization of refugee movements, or see the scale of ocean plastic pollution represented in your living room. These technologies would be employed not as gimmicks, but as tools to help readers emotionally connect with issues that can otherwise feel abstract or distant. The Times’ graphics department would be finding new ways to make the invisible visible, whether that’s carbon emissions, wealth distribution, or patterns of urban development.
By the final quarter of 2025, The Times would almost certainly be leveraging artificial intelligence not just to analyze data but to help generate graphics that adapt to new information in real time. These systems would maintain the rigorous factual standards The Times is known for while allowing for unprecedented responsiveness to developing stories. We might see graphics that present multiple scenarios based on different policy choices, allowing readers to explore potential futures rather than just understanding the present. The best examples would combine algorithmic analysis with human curation, maintaining the contextual understanding and ethical considerations that purely automated systems might miss.
Throughout 2025, The Times would likely continue its tradition of deeply researched, visually striking special projects that take weeks or months to produce. These flagship pieces of visual journalism might examine historical patterns over centuries, environmental changes across decades, or social transformations across generations. The most powerful of these would likely combine cutting-edge data visualization techniques with archival photography, personal narratives, and expert analysis, creating multi-layered experiences that readers return to repeatedly, discovering new insights with each visit.
By the end of 2025, looking back at The Times’ best graphics of the year would reveal not just technological innovations but a deepening commitment to using visual journalism to foster understanding in an increasingly complex world. The most successful examples wouldn’t just display information beautifully—they would help readers see connections between disparate issues, understand systems rather than isolated events, and recognize their own place within larger global patterns. In doing so, these graphics would fulfill the highest purpose of journalism: not merely to inform, but to illuminate.
