Katherine Dillon Visual Communications Basics

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 true 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. Gapminder.org is his website. explore his interactive world map.

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
Tendermaps
Worldmapper
Mapping the Measure of America
Mapping America’s 2010 Census

Line graphs:

Brian Oakes: I.O.U.S.A
New York Times: How this Bear Market Compares

Line graph deception is something to keep an eye out for.

Bar graphs:

IBM Many Eyes Project: El Cerrito Crime in the Past 5 Years
Wall Street Journal: Measuring an Interactive Election
Good: Political Priorities in the US and How They Have Changed in the Past 5 Years
New York Times: The American Way of Debt
UWorld: Population Density in the Northeast

Bubblegraphs

IBM Many Eyes Project: Olympic Medals by Country
GapMinder

Vorneo or Treemaps

Newsmap
SmartMoney: Map of the Markets
New York Times: Year of Heavy Losses
New York Times: All of Inflation’s Little Parts

Pictograms

Good: Fuel Use of Various Modes of Transportation
Living the Scientific Life: Depiction of Oil Spill
Making Policy Public – Vendor Power

Storyboards:

New York Times: A Tour of the World’s Depths
Atlanta Journal Consistution: Obama’s First 100 Days
New York Times: Memorial Day Unknowns
Matt McKeon:The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook

Time based examples:

New York Times: Tracking the Oil Spill in the Gulf
Growth of Walmart Across America

Interactive Data Sets:

Pro Publica:Degrees from Hank Paulson
TextArc
We feel fine
Stimulus Bill Explorer
Baby Name Wizard
New York Times: Is it Better to Buy or Rent
World Cup 2010 Schedule
Visualizing the Stanley Cup
Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes
Love and Hate on Twitter

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.

Some of the masters in the field on infographics include:
Edward Tufte
Martin Wattenberg