Information is beautiful

by | Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Anybody who knows me (and/or reads this blog) will know of my love of issues related to representation (see all postings under that category). So I am always looking out for new and interesting representations. An lovely example sent to me by Patrick Dickson is website titled Information is beautiful. This site, and much of the work showcased there is the creation of David McCandless, a free-lance information designer. He describes his interests as being in “how designed information can help us understand the world, cut through BS and reveal hidden connections, patterns and stories underneath.”

For instance check out If Twitter was a community of 100 people
Twitter were 100 people

An example of how just visualizing and representing data can change one’s prior conception of a idea can be found at How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb (sort of).

The one that made the best connection to me personally was Caffeine & Calories.

Enjoy.

A few randomly selected blog posts…

Hello Taiwan

Arrived at Taipei airport and got through immigration and customs quite quickly. I was received at the airport by Waiway Lin, a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Curriculum and Instruction at the National Taipei University of Education. It appears that she...

Creativity Now!: Learning from Creative Teachers

Educational Leadership is the flagship publication of ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). It has a circulation of over 160,000 and is regarded as "an authoritative source of information about teaching and learning, new ideas and...

From incompetence to mastery, the stages

One who knows and knows he knows is a wise man, Follow Him One who knows and knows not he knows is asleep, Awaken him One who knows not and knows he knows not is a child, Teach him One who knows not and knows not he knows not is a Fool, Avoid him. -- Attributed...

We feel fine about ambient findability (really?)

Most of us live our lives with the assumption of practical obscurity - i.e. the idea that what we do, even in public places, is essentially private. There are just too many people and just too few ways of tracking us individually. So we were for the most part,...

A brief history…

... um... pretty much everything, rendered as a 2100 page-long flipbook. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNYZH9kuaYM&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

@ Purdue

Sending this note from Purdue University where I am visiting the School of Engineering Education. Had a great dinner last night with Karl Smith (whom I am catching up with after a couple of years) and Johannes Strobel. Karl picked me up this morning and drove me over...

Unleashing Creativity: ISTE interview

Unleashing Creativity: ISTE interview

A few months ago I was interviewed for an article in Empowered Learner, an ISTE member magazine. The final article, Unleashing every genius: Creative genius isn't rare – but the conditions that nurture it are is now online. You can access the entire issue of the...

1 Comment

  1. Bob Reuter

    There’s a very subtle omission in the visual representation… or I’m getting something wrong… Who or what are the grey people?

    Reply

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