Everything..... Visualized

Thursday, March 4, 2010

I hate to wait.

It isn't impatience, it's a deep need for efficiency.

Therefore, given a choice between reading 2 paragraphs about something or looking at a diagram-

well of course, I'll choose the diagram. 

Diagrams, charts, visualizations, graphs and maps are all part of a growing trend in information sharing. These tools are collectively called info-graphics.

 Photo Credit:
Flickr user, Shanairpic posted this interesting use of infographics from Kulula Airlines.

Blaze a trail with Trailmeme-

This up and coming site allows  registered users to create visual web maps for others to follow.

Eventually, I believe Google Wave will enhance this kind of collaboration. While Trailmeme allows users to follow a predetermined path in order to gain some knowledge or achieve an outcome; Google Wave will also allow personal media to be collected within the Wave and then shared.

Visualize your own data-

Tableau just released a free version of its graphic data software called Tableau Public.

Other visualization software is on the horizon.

Google Visualization API and Microsoft Pivot are in the development stages.

Visit some blogs completely devoted to InfoGraphics

Randy Krum's Cool Info Graphics

David McCandless' Information is Beautiful

And Just for fun, how about a little Graph Jam. This site comes from the creators of I can Has Cheez Burger. All graphics are submitted by users and some are pretty funny. This example was submited by user Vanitytree.  GraphJam has a "GraphJam Builder" that will allow users to import simple data sets.