At the end of each month I pull together a collection of links to some of the most relevant, interesting or thought-provoking web content I’ve come across during the previous month. Here’s the latest collection from March 2013.
Visualisations/Infographics
Includes static and interactive visualisation examples, infographics and galleries/collections of relevant imagery.
Peoplemov.in | Updated interactive slope graph by Carlo Zapponi to show where the migrant populations of the world are moving from and to as of 2010.
Economist | Simple but effectively executed video graphic to explain the trend-bucking recent rise in music sales
Microsoft Research | ViralSearch: Identifying and Visualizing Viral Content (video)
Washington Post | Where Americans go to work: commuting in and out of counties nationwide
Wired | Microsoft whiteboard unites big data, predictive drawing and autocorrect
University of Lincoln | Gallery of projects from the Graphic Design course, trying out visual storytelling
ChronoZoom | Interactive tool to convey and contrast the staggering difference in sizes of the Cosmos, Life and Humanity
National Post Graphics | Impressive collection of graphics from the National Post Canadian (online?) newspaper.
Reuters | A multi-media, multi-chaptered mini-site exploring the different dimensions of ‘Connected China’ (work by Fathom)
Behance | Cost to Cost: ‘visualising holidays for all budgets represented by a world map where the position of the different cities is not based on the real distance but on the price of low-cost flights from Italy and the cost of 3 nights in hotel during the week of Christmas’
Huffington Post | Exploring the people who have died in gun-related incidents since Newtown…
Slate | …and a very similar project from Slate
Data Blog | Re-creating John Snow’s cholera map with modern mapping tools
PRC Web | A experiment/demonstration of a wind map for the UK
Feltron | The Annual Report of Feltron 2012
FastCo Design | Infographic: An App That Maps The Web In Real Time
La Sombra Del Asno | Beautiful infographic about wine tasting that won a silver medal at Malofiej 21
Pitch Interactive | The widely seen and praised project about drone attacks ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’
Forecast.io | Very attractive looking aggregated weather forecasting tool, despite the persistant rainbow colour schemes.
Timeplots | New project from Timeplots: A visual history of US state boundaries
Articles
The emphasis on these items is that they are less about visualisation images and are more article-focused, so includes discussion, discourse and interviews
Harvard Business Review | Special data visualisation collection from the HBR with many articles from some very prominent names in the field: some good, some great, some mediocre.
Tapestry | The collection of presentations and talk slides from Tapestry conference
Data Remixed | Ben Jones offers some key take away points from the Tapestry conference…
Google Docs | ..and here are Enrico’s notes also from the Tapestry Conference
13pt | Annotated slides from Jonathan Corum’s Tapestry talk
13pt | … and the ‘dvd extra’ details of his deleted slides
The Why Axis | Bryan’s discussion with Interactive Things’ Christian Siegrist about the design process behind their World Inequality Database on Education project
IBM Business Analytics Blog | Guest post from Fran Van Ham offering a retrospective of six years of Many Eyes
Garcia Media | Reviewing the SND 34 competition and exploring the fate of two contrasting infographic entries
10,000 Words | 10 ‘Snowfall’-like Projects That Break Out of Standard Article Templates
Art Lebedev | The making of the Moscow Metro Map 2.0
Adam Crymble | The two data visualisation skills historians lack
Perceptual Edge | Stephen Few’s notable article criticising elements of Tableau’s latest release arguing that they are ‘veering from the path’
Simon Rogers | …and focusing on the particular exchange between Simon Rogers and Stephen Few
Vancouver Sun | Continuing the discussion with a well-argued article from Chad Skelton ‘In defence of eye candy, bling and Tableau 8’
iRevolution | ‘Doctor Snow’s Health Map Propaganda’
Marketing Land | What Makes A Great Infographic? 8 Experts Weigh In
iCharts | Interview with Moritz Stefaner the ‘Intersection of Truth and Beauty’
ProPublica | One of several great reviews of the Malofiej 21 event, this from Al Shaw…
Scientific American | …and this from Jen Christiansen
Jon Ferry | Detailed process narrative about Jon’s alternative design for the football table
Fathom | The design narrative for the ‘Connected China’ project
Science Careers | Article about modern mapmaking and the new cartographers
iA | Superb long article about how ‘learning to design is learning to see’
Mapping Complex Information | 10 factors to information design problem-solving
The Why Axis | Second great post from Bryan Connor, this exploring the Washington Posts’ project ‘How long will we live – and how well?’
Datavisualization.ch | Design narrative from Interactive Things about their work on the ‘Life After Fukushima’ project
Masters of Media | Interesting piece discussing colour, framed by Moritz’s famous ‘colour is difficult’ quote
Bloomberg TV | ‘A look at how this graphic form of business analytics and intelligence software is helping companies analyze data, forcing C-suite executives to develop what some call visual literacy’
Learning & Development
These links cover tutorials, learning opportunities, case-studies, how-tos etc.
Telling Information | ‘Before you hit the ‘chart’ button…’, useful advice from Lulu about choosing the right chart to illustrate different points about data
Eager Eyes | Robert explores the idea that ‘visual representation gives numbers and concepts a reality they don’t otherwise have’
Data Viz Blog | A review of Alberto Cairo’s MOOC ‘Introduction to Infographics and Data Visualisation’
Eager Eyes | A better definition of chart junk (particularly interest comments/discussion)
Stamen | Stamen announce their new mapping project titled ‘here’
Subject News
Includes announcements within the field, brand new sites, new (to me) sites, new books and generally interesting developments.
VisualizingEconomics | New book by Catherine Mulbrandon ‘An Illustrated Guide to Income in the United States’
UK Data Service | Newly discovered site with a collection of datasets providing ‘a comprehensive resource funded by the ESRC to support researchers, teachers and policymakers who depend on high-quality social and economic data’
Graphics Link | Conference: 17th International Conference Information Visualisation, 15th to 18th July 2013 in London
The Visual Agency | New design agency based in Milan founded by Paolo Guadagni
Sundries…
Any other items that may or may not be directly linked to data visualisation but might have a data/technology focus or just seem worthy of sharing
YouTube | ‘Michael Bentine explains why it would be madness for Britain to join the Common Market, while all hell breaks loose behind him thanks to a bit of Biographic genius.’
Vimeo | Brett Victor’s enviable portfolio of work (projects only from 2011-2012!)
New York Times | Evolution of the New York Driver’s License