information analyst

Josh Smith: "What starts as boring data will become a boring infographic unless a great story can be found."

Visually-compelling content can take many forms, from creatively produced videos to engaging Facebook photos. Today, we thought we would give a quick course in one of the the highest forms of visually powerful content: Infographics. Mashable defines infographics as graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge used to present complex information quickly and clearly. Infographics are becoming more common in the building industry, particularly on websites and blogs catering to architects and designers.

The best infographics try to articulate one of five key communications challenges. Read the complete article for an example of each of these challenges in action on popular industry websites...

The company has experienced meteoric growth over the last year, fueled by global expansion. And they're good at telling the story.

A company’s annual report is a go-to reference when sizing up a company’s health and prospects. All those facts and figures arranged in black-and-white tables also make up the perfect cure for insomnia. Why do corporate documents have to be so boring? They don’t, as the info-data genius Nick Felton revealed in 2005, when he began issuing his own highly personalized form of annual reports chock full of biographical details presented with design gusto. (You may recall that Felton is also responsible for inspiring Facebook’s new Timeline format.) It took a few years, but companies are finally catching on to the idea of leavening snooze-inducing data with exciting colorful graphics and easy-to-read figures.

The latest to jump on the Felton bandwagon: Airbnb, which comprises a global network of local renters providing alternates to pricey hotel rooms. The big news here--rendered in eye-catching red--is that the three-year-old company is celebrating its 5 millionth nightly booking (4 million of which were made in the last year alone). That meteoric growth has a lot to do with its global expansion: 75% of its business now involves an international guest, host, or both--a fine argument for opening six new offices in major international cities by March 2012...

'It's about having a holistic, functional system.'

To frame this series, I'd like to share with you the Two Things about web measurement. Since first thinking about this, I've revised them a few times, but I think I've settled here:
Thing #1: There are no independently meaningful metrics. It's about combining them to answer questions.
Thing #2: Anything can be a source of data.

I believe that if you stick to these two things as non-negotiable truths, you'll get the most out of the measurement you do...

Google has graduated Think Insights from beta. This tool now compiles real-time data from Google search and other platforms, combining those facts with additional studies, infographics, and more.

Users can find the site at ThinkwithGoogle.com, and then explore tools that focus on different sectors of the virtual world. Google described the site as an "information and resource hub for marketers" in the Official Google Blog post announcing Think Insights' graduation.

The post also indicated that Google will continue to use the site as a data-centric storehouse for "consumer trends, marketing insights, and industry research."

That storehouse is filled with specific insights from Google (frequently compiled as infographics) as well as studies, reports, a research library, a fact and statistic sheet, and planning tools. While some of the information comes directly from Google, a large portion of the studies are the result of independent or collaborative research...

Réunis le 15 juin 2012 au 104 par la FING, des experts et observateurs du numérique étaient invités à réfléchir au sens du "monde de données", qui englobe de plus en plus nos vies. D’où vient l’explosion des "data", sait-on la quantifier, quelles possibilités ouvre-t-elle ? Bref, que faire face à cette "inondation" de données ? Pour vous éviter la noyade : retour sur les principales conclusions de la conférence…

This seems like a straightforward question, but it’s proven to be a difficult one to answer. Even visualization researchers – people who think about the subject all day and every day – don’t have a clear definition of what visualization is. Is it synonymous with information graphics? Does visualization have to be computer generated? Does data have to be involved, or can it be abstract? The answers vary depending on who you ask.

To me, visualization is a medium. It’s not just an analysis tool nor just a way to prove a point more clearly through data.

Visualization is like books. There are different writing styles and categories, there are textbooks and there are novels, and they communicate ideas in different ways for varied purposes. And just like authors who use words to communicate, there are rules that you should always follow and others that are guidelines that you can bend and break...

Information visualization is all the rage recently with everyone trying to turn their data (or any data really) into a beautiful piece of art. Typically most of these projects fail at doing justice to the data they’re trying to visualize.

Enter data hero Michael Rigley, BFA of California College of the Arts’ graphic design program. His data visualization animation is does truth to the numbers in his piece about tracing what happens to the data that we spew into the digital landscape every day. Take a look at some of the sample screens from his animation and be sure to catch the video.