I See What You Mean

This is an amusing yet cautionary illustration that expresses exactly what I hate about so very many infographics. This approach dumbs down the information under the guise of making you smarter. Hat tip: VizWorld .

At his blog, Michael Babwahsingh says a number of smart things about the current status and ultimate value of information design. Number 8 is an excellent sample of his sensible macro approach: 8. Commercialization For several years now, the infoviz/dataviz trend has become infused in popular culture; the influence of the information design aesthetic is everywhere, from movie sequences to music videos to art exhibits . Although the intent is often tongue-in-cheek , and may even indirectly promote information design, there is still a risk of diluting, muddling, or flat-out mocking a field that has yet to really define and take ownership of itself. News features and special issues on information design are becoming more common, particularly in the graphic design world, but the tendency is towards visual appeal and surface-level scans over deep investigation (examples include Grafik magazine’s April 2010 issue, Eye Magazine’s Winter 2010 issue , and Fast Company’s Co.Design blog posts...

Michael Friendly and Daniel J. Denis have a wonderful interactive timeline on milestones in the theory and practice of data visualization. Be prepared to spend a lot of time there; it's a deep well. Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography, Statistical Graphics, and Data Visualization

I've written before about song lyrics shown in graphic form . And it's Friday afternoon, so what the hey -- I'm going there again. Sometimes this visual gimmick really works. See " Pinball Wizard ," where the lyrics actually provide you with all the necessary data (namely, Tommy's various actions and their frequency). Other times, the song's structure or content just doesn't lend itself to any sort of proper graph. Consequently the message conveyed feels painfully thin, and the joke stupid and weak. One example: "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," rendered here . I say, if you're going to attempt the visual joke, why not do it right? To do so, we must face up to certain painful facts, namely: Many songs just don't feature quantitative concepts. In such cases, look to flow charts . After all, singing a song is a process. Flow charts proceed forward in time (just like music), often incorporating repetitions (verses or chorus) or variati...

Portuguese infoviz enthusiast Jorge Camoes has spent the last year and a half writing informed, insightful blog posts on the field, complete with examples and citations. To his credit, he approaches everything -- even the revered work of Edward Tufte and Stephen Few -- with loving skepticism. I'm gratified, too, that he seems to agree with me on one central point: Snazzy tools alone don't get you good data visualization. It all comes down to putting serious thought into the project before you plot the first data point. In future posts we'll discuss more of Jorge's ideas. Bem feito, o Sr. Camoes!

The ever-astute Lorelei Brown hips us to the "astounding data visualization critiques" at Graphic Sociology . That's one for the blogroll.

I was surprised to read this week that putatively educated Americans ( a Louisiana lawyer, a Colorado dentist , an ABC News reporter ) don't understand the concept of marginal tax rates. Because of this lack of comprehension, per ABC, the lawyer and dentist are vowing to keep their taxable income below $250,000 to avoid President Obama's proposed tax increase: "I've put thought into how to get under $250,000," said [the ill-informed dentist]. "It would mean working fewer days which means having fewer employees, seeing fewer patients and taking time off." Apparently some clarification is called for . Below is a US federal income tax table for 2009 ( source ). This does not mean that if you bring in more than $372,951, every single dollar in your entire pile of money is taxed at 35%. Only Dollar #372,952 (plus whatever additional money you may earn) is taxed at that rate. Dollar #372,950 is taxed at 33%. Meanwhile, Dollar #1 is taxed at 10%. Hence the ter...

The proprietor of Complex Diagrams , Noah Iliinsky, delivers an astute critique of two Seattle-area bicycle maps. The discussion illustrates (no pun intended) how even something as simple as a map legend can be rendered confusing or unhelpful through careless design.

At the PTS blog , Excel charting whiz Jon Peltier takes an all-too-common type of crappy chart and walks the reader through his methods for analyzing and improving it. He starts with this: ... and ends up with this far better version: The second version is far clearer and more scaleable — not to mention that it's more correct mathematically. (He alters the bars to make them all the same width; this does away with any questions about whether the varying widths mean anything, and if so, what that might be.) Overall, Peltier's site is a handy resource, with pages of newbie-friendly tutorials and tips here . Thanks, Jon.