visual data

This infographic from Floor Gem blasts the Transportation Security Administration's prodigious terribleness (prodigious in the sense that the TSA is a terribleness prodigy, on the level of Bobby Fischer and chess).

 

There's nothing that inherently lends this data to the infographic form. It's flawed. There's nothing that that the graphicality adds to the data. But, the infographic is just so good-looking, its imperfections don't matter. It affects you. You remember it. And that's really what counts when it comes to communicating data.

 What's striking and common in these and other visualizations is that their almost-fatal flaw -- persuasion by cherry-picking information -- is so plain to see that it, ironically, leads viewers to think more critically about the data-selection process, a phenomenon as valuable as the data itself.

The flawed infographic goes from factually misleading to leading you straight to the right question. So put on your critical thinking hats and have a look at both infographics...