Selected Data Visualization Tools

The fine folks of data visualization.ch put together a selection of data visualization tools that they use the most and that they enjoy working with. It includes libraries for plotting data on maps, frameworks for creating charts, graphs and diagrams and tools to simplify the handling of data. Even if you’re not into programming, you’ll find applications that can be used without writing one single line of code. They will keep this list as a living repository and add / remove things as technology develops. YES!

How Common is your Birthday?

How common is your birthday?

(via explore / The Atlantic)

Geeks and Repetitive Tasks

(via Chart Porn)

Should I Check my Email?

Should I Check my Email? A flowchart by Wendy MacNaughton for a Forbes article on how and why to ignore your inbox.

(via Explore)

Pancakes Venn Diagram

This Pancake Recipe Venn Diagram made me chuckle.

Could anyone tell me who to give credit to? I found it here, but there’s no credit and a Tineye Search came up empty.

 SUPER GIANT FACEPALM: It’s by Stephen Wildish.

To Do

To Do, a new print by Wendy MacNaughton.

(via explore)

The World’s Population in One City

This is not a new infographic, but incredibly powerful nonetheless. If the world’s 6.9 billion people lived in one city, how large would that city be if it were as dense as…

(via Tim De Chant)

The Scale of the Universe

My sister pointed me to the Scale of the Univserse by Cary Huang. Definitely impressive to see scale proportions visualized like that. (But the illustration snob in me admits I’d see these illustrations done by someone like Julia Rothman)

(thanks Charlotte)

How Long Do Animals Live?

This is quite an impressive chart on animal longevity. Go turtles!

(via Maria)

How Photographers Actually Spend Their Time



How Photographers Actually Spend Their Time.

“In Caffeine We Trust Poster”


The “In Caffeine We Trust Poster” lets you track your monthly coffee consumption on a beautifully designed print. The poster is offset printed on 18×24 Strathmore 140 lb. acid-free heavy weight cold press watercolor paper with black ink. A product by Column Five.

Buy it here.

(Thank you Lauren)

21 Google Plus circles you can actually use.

This infographic on 21 Google Plus circles you can actually use made me chuckle.

(via David Pogue)

Sunscreen

An in-depth infographic on how much sunscreen you should wear by Information is Beautiful.

(via coudal)

Aaron Koblin: Artfully visualizing our humanity

Artist Aaron Koblin takes vast amounts of data — and at times vast numbers of people — and weaves them into stunning visualizations. From elegant lines tracing airline flights to landscapes of cell phone data, from a Johnny Cash video assembled from crowd-sourced drawings to the “Wilderness Downtown” video that customizes for the user, his works brilliantly explore how modern technology can make us more human. Watch his TED Talk below.

(via Brain Pickings)

DrawHappy

In asking [100] people, locals and tourists alike, what made them happy, Catherine Young realized that one of the most universal and clearest ways to record their responses was to ask them to draw what made them happy. Drawing is one of the earliest skills we learn; its basic elements are comprehensible to people of all ages, cultures and nations. Catherine reasoned that if people knew that they were happy, they should be able to identify the source and moreover, visually embody this joy.

Here’s one the submitted drawings that made me smile:

Eating with friends by Desire Go.

One hundred six submissions into this project, she has decided to visualize what she has learned so far. Behold, an infographic:

(click to view large)

Catherine presented this as a final project for Nicholas Felton’s Information Visualization class at the School of Visual Arts’ MFA Interaction Design program.

This is an ongoing project. If you would like to Draw Happy, yes, please do! Check the Submit page for details.

(thank you Liz)

how to credit?

Brilliant and necessary! How to properly credit an image visualized in a flowchart by Pia, Erin and Yvette.

(via designsponge / thank you Maria)

Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule

(originally uploaded by Nick Bilton)

Studiomate Chris pointed me to Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule. The non-clutter-person in me loves that he alloted time in the evening to ‘put things in their places’…

Do what you like. Repeat.

Found this over on ThinkingAloud. Not sure who to give credit to. The graphic is by Austrian based Moritz Resl and available for purchase.

Typefaces of the World

Typefaces of the World is a poster Shelby White created to show the typefaces that are most commonly used in a lot of today’s design. The poster includes information for each typefaces such as the year it was made, the location and the typographer. These 50 typefaces were chosen based on popularity and usefulness in present design. It was by mere coincidence that the typefaces were nearly split 50/50 between Europe and the United States. But it does show that the most prominent locations for typographers were in these areas.

What a beauty! I would love to hang one of these in my studio. Shelby says he is toying with the idea of adding a store to his site. Let’s hope he does soon! Typefaces of the World! Wishlisted!

Should I work for free Flowchart

My former studiomate Jessica Hische put together this flowchart answering the question “Should I work for free?“

The Universe and Forever



Today’s 20×200 edition by Wendy MacNaughton made me smile: The Universe and Forever.

A world of tweets

A World of Tweets shows you with a heat map visualization where people are tweeting at from the past hour. The more tweets there are from a specific region, the “hotter” or redder it becomes. This continuous collection of Twitter statuses shows in what an incredible tweeting world we live in. Check out the 3D view!

A project by Frog Design.

(thank you fabulous John Ford)

Lunchguest: David McCandless

Today, I am finally starting the long overdue “LunchGuest” category here on swissmiss. We often have interesting, smart people come visit Studiomates (our studio collective) and we’ve been talking for a while that we should simply start a digital guestbook of all the fantastic people that stop by.

Today’s studio lunchtable was more than packed: Studiomates were excited to meet and lunch with David McCandless, force behind Information Is Beautiful and this amazing TED Talk by David called The beauty of Data Visualization.

David McCandless is a London-based author, writer and designer. He’s written for The Guardian, Wired and others. These days he’s an independent data journalist and information designer. A passion of his is visualizing information – facts, data, ideas, subjects, issues, statistics, questions – all with the minimum of words. He’s interested in how designed information can help us understand the world, cut through BS and reveal the hidden connections, patterns and stories underneath. Or, failing that, it can just look cool!

More about David:

- A book of his information designs is published by HarperCollins in the US and UK in 2009.
- In the past, he has worked as a journalist, video games writer, satirist, copywriter, and creative director. His personal site.
- Check out his Google Shared Items scrapbook (Be warned: it’s mostly funny viral chaff and bizarro pictures)

Here’s David McCandless virtual Guestbook entry on our studio-ideapaint wall (link to view large)

It was great to have you, David!

Everything Explained Through Flowcharts

How is the world going to end? What’s the best way to win an argument? Which heavy metal band name is right for you? Learn the answers to these questions by reading Everything Explained Through Flowcharts by Doogie Horner.