Week 7: Information Design

Information design is the visual representation of data in order to help people sort and understand the data in a manageable way. This clip for The Daily Show (view at 2:50) is a classic.

Information graphics are at the intersection of graphics, journalism and science. The goal is to efficiently communication information or trends by revealing important patterns or trends in the data. I recently stumbled on this extraordinary example, created by Kal Krause and distributed through Common Cause in the public domain. It communicates the information about the size of Africa relative to other countries very effectively. A narrative would certainly not have the same impact or be as memorable.

There are many forms of information graphics from simple line charts and bar graphs to more sophisticated examples that incorporate time and depth of data. The work of Hans Rosling is worth viewing. He has pioneered the use of digital media for understanding data and has debunked a lot of myths along the way. =

The ability to show the slides below represent a broad survey of information design typologies. Links to the live examples are below:

Geography- based data.

The following examples represent a wide range of ways we overlay or distort geographic data to tell a story.

New York Times: Disappearing Foods
Washington Post: A Neighborhood’s Evolution
SunBin: World Map Scaled by Population
New York Times: What Your Neighbors are Buying
Mapping the Measure of America
Mapping America’s 2010 Census
Visualizing Friendships

Line graphs reinterpreted:
Who is Making Money From All This Campaign Spending
New York Times: How this Bear Market Compares
World Cup Soccer Players
How the Tax Burden Has Changed Over Time

Bar graphs:
New York Times: The American Way of Debt

Pie Charts
Matt McKeon:The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook
Drawing Well Being (ITP thesis project)

Bubblegraphs
GapMinder
Timber Trade

Vorneo or Treemaps
Population Growth from US Census Data
Newsmap
SmartMoney: Map of the Markets

Pictograms
Living the Scientific Life: Depiction of Oil Spill
New York Times: Memorial Day Unknowns
Making Policy Public – Vendor Power

Storyboards:
What is Hydraulic Fracturing

Time based examples:
New York Times: Tracking the Oil Spill in the Gulf
Growth of Walmart Across America
How Americans Spend Their Day

Interactive Data Sets:
Pro Publica:Degrees from Hank Paulson
Baby Name Wizard
New York Times: Is it Better to Buy or Rent
Visualizing the Stanley Cup
Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes
Love and Hate on Twitter
TextArc

Use of information Graphics in video
True Cost of the Afghan War
I.O.U.S.A
The Seven Billion

This recent video from Ted is worth watching. David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, as he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut — and it may just change the way we see the world.

Week 7: Information Design

Thought Leaders

Blogs

Resources

Course Outline