A couple of weeks ago I launched a contest for one lucky reader to win a full conference pass to the O’Reilly Strata ‘Making Data Work’ conference taking place in Santa Clara, CA in February 2011.
The theme of this contest was visualisations in the wild and the challenge was to submit a photo of a great example of best practice information design being used in everyday life. I was looking for unique examples that demonstrated the value and power of good visualisation practice, designs that help to make everyday life go by that little bit more smoothly.
Finalists
The contest has now closed and I have narrowed it down to two entrants who now go forward as the finalists. One of these was submitted very early in the contest and was the clear leader until late yesterday evening when I received the other submission.
Originally I was going to judge the winner myself but I think it will be more fun and more democratic to open this process up. I would therefore like to invite Visualising Data readers, subscribers, followers and casual visitors to submit their choice for which is the best visualisation in the wild example (see below for instructions).
Visualisation A
(Click on image above for larger view or click here for the original AFSC design in pdf)
Entrant’s Description: 3ft Quaker appeal to spend on peace – not war. Shows % discretionary budget on military (red) and other categories. Powerful help to visualize and understand big numbers. The data is also available on http://www.oneminuteforpeace.org/budget in a pie chart, but I find the long strip to be much more powerful.
Visualisation B
(Click on image for larger view or click here for original demo of Duracell Powercheck)
Entrant’s Description: Duracell’s interactive animated single bar chart shows remaining battery charge in yellow when holding the battery on the dots.
Voting Instructions
Your assessment for choosing your preferred visualisation should be based on two criteria:
- How well the visualisation functions – the accuracy and clarity of the information exchange
- How elegant the visual design is – its visceral appeal
The only other rules are that the entrants themselves cannot submit a score and I also won’t accept any input from Sepp Blatter or anyone else at FIFA.
To submit your preference simply let me know which visualisation entry above (A or B) gets your vote either by commenting on this blog post below, sending me a tweet or sending me an email.
The closing date/time for all votes is 12:00 UK time on Monday 6th December. I’ll announce the winner shortly after.
Good luck to the finalists and thanks for all the entries!