Sent to you by Hemi via Google Reader:
I'm a fan of GOOD, a site that is "a collaboration of individuals, businesses and nonprofits…who have been making a magazine, videos and events for people who give a damn."
One of the things I like about the site is its use of infographics to explain complex ideas. If you've ever looked at an issue of USA Today, you'll know what infographics are about.
Back in December, GOOD decided to sponsor a contest for the best global finance infographic as determined by an economist. Judging is underway. GOOD will announce the winner, who gets $500, on March 11. In the meantime, GOOD has been showcasing some of its favorite entries.
Here's part one of a two-part infographic I like (click on the image to enlarge it):
Infographics puts information ahead of graphics (no surprise). They should be easy to read and understand; use color to guide the reader; and put information into its proper context. It's not about design, it's about the data. In that sense, an infographic is no different than a simple pie chart, tag cloud or word tree. There must be clear relationships among data points for an infographic to do its job properly.
Understanding how to visualize your data
IBM and The New York Times have introduced a terrific data visualization tool you can use to experiment with ways to graphically represent data. It's a tricky thing to do well, as I noted.
The newspaper's new Visualization Lab at The New York Times is based on IBM's Many Eyes project, which enables you to upload your own data–from Excel spreadsheets or tab-delimited text files–and create a variety of visualizations. You can generate maps and tag clouds, track rises and falls over time, compare a set of values, see relationships among data points and other visualizations.
Researchers at IBM's Visual Communications Lab, which is part of the Collaborative User Experience Research group, created the technology behind the NYT's and Many Eyes sites.
Once you've uploaded your data to the Many Eyes site and created your visualization, you can link to it or embed it in your site. (Many Eyes makes it easy for you and generates the code.) You can also create topic hubs to discuss your visualizations with other site users.
You must register to use most of the site's features. You also need to install Java if you haven't done that.
If you want to try this cool tool but don't have your own data, grab it from a U.S. government site such as the U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics or the Federal Reserve.
You can also try the Visualization Lab at The New York Times to create visualizations of data contained in NYT articles.
Many Eyes has a side project called Many Eyes Wikified. Wikified can be thought of as a remix of Many Eyes, with some powerful new features that explore a novel way to create and lay out visualization dashboards, the researchers say in their blog. It's not ready for prime time but you can sign up for the closed beta and get a sneak peek at what's in store.
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