[Due to popular demand, the contest deadline has been extended. If you’ve already submitted, you can work on your design even more and resubmit. If you haven’t started, or didn’t get your submission in on time, you’re in luck. The new deadline is Sunday July 22nd at 9pm PDT.] There’s nothing we love more at Visual.ly than great data visualizations — and encouraging people to create them. So we’re putting on a visualization contest, using the mountains of data over at HealthData.gov. You know as well as we do, that amazing data doesn’t do much good locked up in tables — and we’d love to see what you can create with it.

The Prizes

The top 10 will be showcased right here on the blog with some background on the creation process. The top 3 will get a Visualizer Profile Post on the blog showcasing some of their other work.

Third place gets a signed copy of I Love Charts: The Book by Jason Oberholtzer, as well as a copy of Show Me How by Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith, and Listomania curated by Mariah Bear.

gets a signed copy of I Love Charts: The Book by Jason Oberholtzer, as well as a copy of Show Me How by Derek Fagerstrom and Lauren Smith, and Listomania curated by Mariah Bear. Second place gets an ebook reader of their choice (up to $200 value).

gets an ebook reader of their choice (up to $200 value). First place gets a Tableau Desktop license from our friends at Tableau Software. They also get a full conference pass ($1945 value) to the upcoming Strata Conference + Hadoop World happening in New York, Oct 23-25! In addition, Visual.ly is throwing in $500 to help ease the travel expenses.

The Data

Any data from HealthData.gov is fair game. Mix and mash however you feel appropriate. Feel free to incorporate data from other sources as well, as long as the primary data source is HealthData.gov. Use it all and go big or aggregate it all down and go small; just make something great!

The Visualizations

We’ll take any visualization format you can imagine. Static infographics, infovideos, interactive visualizations, mobile apps, physical visualizations. No matter what format you chose, make sure to document the process and the end result. Your aim should be to communicate the data (and any stories you find in it) clearly and effectively.

The Entrants

There are no limits on team size. Feel free to fly solo or gather a team of data analysts and designers for maximum visualization power.

The Judges

The criteria for winning

Show something interesting.

Use good visualization practice.

Pay attention to aesthetics.

Do all of the above better than the competition.

The Submission Process

Email your submissions (or links to them) to contest@visual.ly. Don’t upload your submissions to Visual.ly until after the contest is over. Submissions will be anonymized before the judges see them. Please do not put your name or brand on the version of the visualization that you send in. Do not post any part of your submission to social media until after the competition. Do put your name or brand in the submission email. We will need this info for the announcement.

The Deadline

All submissions must be received by 9 p.m. Pacific time on Sunday, July 22, 2012. Judging will take place the following week and the winners will be announced on Monday, July 30, 2012.

The Sponsors

We partnered up with a few people to make all of this happen. Our grand prizes come from Tableau Software and Strata. Tableau has chipped in a license for Tableau Desktop, their amazing visual analytics software, perfect for discovering hidden patterns in data, finding stories, and reporting all of it. If you love data, the Strata + Hadoop World Conference in New York is the place to be this October! In addition to having all things data, the conference also has a vibrant Visualization & Interface conference track, and onsite visualization showcase. Visual.ly members can save 20% with code VISUALLY. Jason Oberholtzer of I Love Charts is providing the signed copy of I Love Charts: The Book. WeldonOwen is providing copies of Show Me How and Listomania. We hope to see some fantastic visualizations come from this contest. Start your eyeballs, and may the best visualizer win!