Richard Silvester
March 6, 2014
Reading time:
11 min
Category:
ALL
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“2014 – the year data visualisation turns from an afterthought to an essential starting point when informing an audience”

By now, the new years resolutions will be a distant memory for most of us, but for the infogr8 team there is one we managed to stick to – Welcome to the first infogr8 trend report!

568 days since inception, and over 1,000 snippets of inspiration brimming out of our information design cabinet, we’re bringing you a centralised monthly report to demonstrate how our relatively small industry is starting to take shape and merge ever closer with mainstream media and technology.

We’ve been inspired by a huge level of creative yet best practice work on whether it be a graph pushing the boundaries from Santiago Ortiz, a data visualisation from Google, a press piece from NYT or a well constructed process chart from our local ally Andy Kirk. This is a resource to showcase the latest goings on, difference being as the trend reports evolve we will try to focus more on relevance to the UK market we reside in and to become a table setter for those of you who are new to infographics, data vis and are thinking about adopting them into your future plans.

So, if you are looking for a space for technical practitioning this may not be your canvas, there’s plenty of well structured resources such as OUseful.Info, School of data, datavisualization.ch, Flowing data or Visual loop. Enought of the rambling, lets dive straight in to some of the good stuff…

 

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Image credit: ©Data Stories

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We all love data stories, not only because they define a visual practice in a refreshing format but there’s some nice camaradery between the commentators on this one.

Just like a Dire Straits’ record collection this is one to keep going back to, nice mention too on Nate Silver’s ESPN project being one to watch out for over the coming months.

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Image credit: CC-BY Josullivan.59 

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When we all saw, heard, felt this, we all got pretty excited. Someone even asked whether you could even smell the kerosene from the computer. You may want to get that fan checked out.

This interactive is a fine example of how we can utilise real time data and a mix of digital media to put history into today’s context whilst engaging all of the senses. The collaboration between The Guardian, Kiln and Flightstats helps captivate a broad audience – a benchmark has been set for the year ahead.

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Google Maps sure epitomize a fantastic tool for data-driven heat maps.

This remarkable interactive conveys data generated from multiple sources such as Foursquare, TripAdvisor, Wikipedia, Google’s own API, but the most intriguing platform used in the backend is clearly Panoramio, one of Google’s most unloved products.

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Image credit: ©Vimeo 

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Vimeo Annual Report 2013

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Move over Mailchimp, there’s a new report coming to steal your crown.

Brilliantly conceptualised way of condensing large sets of data into one animated GIF-like interactive. Highlights the best bits in a fun, engaging way. Less focus on stats and large focus on visuals – makes it digestible for a broader audience.

 

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Image credit: ©Nathan Yau

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Famous Movie Quotes 

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As the American Film Institute named the 100 most memorable quotes to celebrate its 100 years anniversary Nathan Yau used the power of charts, to cleverly visualise these. Some true classics are included like Casablanca, Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.

What other movie quotes can be visualised? Hit us a tweet!

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Build with Chrome

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It makes perfect sense for Google and Lego to come together and create one awesome online builder.

This recent project reminded us of the well constructed, simplified – ‘What is an infographic?

Any other analogies you might find interesting, don’t forget to tweet us @infogr8!

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Image credit: CC-BY-NC Infocux Technologies 

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What does big data look like? 

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Good data handling always leads to good insight. But with all the resources available it’s becoming a challenging task. This is where data visualisation comes to the rescue!

David Hoffer from Wired digs into the look and feel of big data outlining some key facts on how we can make it approachable and human. Fantastic resource of internal links and literal interpretations of data visualisation that goes overlooked (for example Google Maps being the largest interactive data resource on the internet). 

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Image credit: ©Maria Popova 

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Famous writers’ sleep habits 

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Simplistic yet impactful piece done by Maria Popova from brainpickings, Accurat and Wendy MacNaughton.

The infographic digs deep into information whilst being easy on the eye. Interestingly enough, as it turns out early risers get the Pultizer! Beautiful and artistic representation of how productivity effects creative work over the centuries.

[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][vc_tweetmeme type=”horizontal”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][vc_facebook type=”standard”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/6″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_cta_button call_text=”Like what you see?” title=”Download the full report ” target=”_blank” color=”btn-primary” icon=”none” size=”wpb_regularsize” position=”cta_align_right” href=”http://infogr8.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Information-Design-Trend-Report.pdf”][/vc_column][/vc_row]