Buzzfeed’s Peter Aldhous and Charles Seife won the prize for dataviz of the year for their project on light aircraft/helicopter surveillance over America, Spies in the Skies. The judges said it was a “fantastic example of the layers and depth that only visualization can bring to a story”. It works because it’s more than just beautiful visuals — it adds another dimension to the story and makes it stronger. It’s also not a standalone visual, but part of a much bigger piece of work reporting the issue in forensic detail.