Reflections on Visualizing the COVID-19 Pandemic for the Public

We are researchers from six different countries with diverse research backgrounds. We gathered at Schloss Dagstuhl to reflect on data visualizations for public health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. There, we shared what we had learned and discussed our experiences visualizing COVID-19 data to gain useful insights into the role of data visualization in future pandemics. In this article, we highlight missed opportunities and considerations and provide recommendations. We learned that visualization practices should include cross-disciplinary collaborators with socio-technical expertise, consider personalization and audience more extensively, and use coordinated communication pathways to ensure effective, timely communication in future pandemics.