In the last 5 years, I have seen a much larger emphasis on data visualization. Infographics are popping up all over the place. People love them. They are constantly retweeted. We have created two interactive infographics in the past month and I feel like that is not the end of them.
Before you can start to make data interactive, you need to make sure that your base is well designed and that it makes sense. The book, The Visual Miscellaneum, has some great examples of beautiful data visualization. The data is easy to understand and we designed.
One of my favorite data visualizers is Nicholas Felton, who is interviewed in Journalism in the Age of Data. I have been a fan of his annual reports since he started to create them. He was able to captivate me with his beautiful design, which was easy to follow.
Felton tracks data from his own life and displays it in really interesting ways. I could easily get sucked into his reports, despite the fact his topics were mundane. Why do I care what type of food he consumed in 2009? I don’t even know the guy. But, due to his beautiful, clean design, I do care to look at his report.
Felton is a master of data visualization, he does not even need any fancy Flash or JavaScript to pull his viewers in. Good design is key.
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