The challenge is open to any software, but here's a list of popular open-source tools to consider. No programming skills are required. Or if you are a programmer, no design skills are required.
- QGIS
- A Free and Open Source Geographic Information System. A desktop software that allows you to read/write multiple data formats and output (mainly static) maps.
- Kepler
- Open source geospatial analysis tool for large-scale data sets and for interactive maps.
- Aerialod
- Not really a GIS tool, but can be used to create some stunning 3D visualizations
- Blender
- Free and open source 3D creation suite. Check out the BlenderGIS extension.
- R packages for geospatial
- Python packages for geospatial
- geopandas, xarray-spatial, matplotlib, geoplot, hvplot and plotly to mention a few.
- Mapshaper
- Useful for geospatial data processing in the browser such as file format conversion, map projection, feature simplification, filtering, clipping, merging etc. Can also be run locally from the command line.
- Vega-Lite
- Vega
- More flexible but lower-level declarative visualization specification including cartographic output. Specifications can be written directly in JSON or via program language interfaces such elm-vega.
- Litvis
- Literate Visualization notebook environment optimised for specifying visualizations and documenting the design process. While not specific to cartography, can be a useful environment for exploring cartographic design.
- Observable
- Reactive notebook environment for generation of visualization and cartographic output embedded in a textual narrative. Focus is on using d3 for specifying visual output.