Insight

ICYMI – Weekly round up of inspiring visual content Vol. 55

Missing your data-led visual content fix? Fear not, we got you. The team at infogr8 have curated the most inspiring and interesting visual content we have stumbled on this week.

A decade of cases in the world doping
José Alves
Infographic

It remains to be seen if Maria Sharapova can bounce back after her failed drugs test earlier this year, however it would appear she is not alone. This infographic highlights in which sports doping has become a major problem, with weightlifting being one that stands out among the rest. Thankfully there has been an overall reduction of positive cases, however we were amazed to see the number of guilty golf players is currently well over par.

Pigeon Air Patrol
Plume Labs
Data driven website

It’s still mid-March, so we assume that this can’t possibly be an April Fools’ Day hoax, but it would appear that in order to measure London air pollution, Plume Labs are attaching ultra-light sensors to pigeons. These devices can be kinda expensive, lets just hope they found some reliable homing pigeons. It’s all part of a wider project to promote a large, crowdsourced air pollution monitoring network. We could all soon be carrying one of these sensors which would allow us to check air quality on our phones in real time, allowing us to flock to wherever pollution is lowest.

Global Food Index
Oxfam
Interactive Module

It’s often easy to forget that food in some parts of the world is not so easy to come by as it is here in the UK. It makes you take a moment to think how fortunate we are. This is interactive module by Oxfam scales countries from best to worst allowing you to filter by things like ‘Enough to eat’, ‘Affordability’, and ‘Food quality’.

Grown by Woman
Taylors of Harrogate
Scrollable story

When you were sipping your morning coffee this morning, you were probably not thinking about the amazing journey it has been on. More than half of coffee produced in Peru is carried out by females, however less that 20% of arable land in the developing world is owned by woman, and they earn just 10% of the developing worlds agricultural income. Presented though beautiful coffee stained images in this scrollable story from Taylors of Harrogate, we can explore these and other interesting stats that really managed to perk our interest.

Task manager designed for visual thinkers
To Round
Data Visualisation

Task apps always seem to use a list view but To Round are trying something different. They’re using bubbles! Not real bubbles, but visual bubbles within their app to display your tasks. It’s an interesting idea, having all tasks on your radar may help avoid having things slip your mind — or it could be overwhelming. Like with most productivity hacks, you never know until you try it.

Graphic Designers Spill Their Career Secrets in Infographics
GraphicDesign&
Blog

GraphicDesign& have published a new book called Graphic Designers Surveyed which takes an in-depth look at the profession. Using a perfectly crafted survey, they were able to probe respondents for their experiences as designers, and how they really feel about their industry. The book has some nice data visualisation and seems like an informative read for those who work in the industry.

The Bat-man: Who he is and how he came to be
Tobias Sturt
Scrollable story

Batman will shortly return to the big screen, looking somewhat different to the character original depicted in the comic books in the 1930s. The US has also gone through its own transformation in that time, with various changes to the social and economic landscape. This scrollable story from Tobias Sturt visualises some of these changes in population, wages, and crime rates, and what was happening in the world of Batman at the time. Could it be a coincidence that the prison population in the US has risen dramatically in the last few decades, or could this all be down to the Caped Crusader?

Nest Is Learning To Detect When You’re Home
Fast Company
Animated Video

I’m a believer that real innovation comes in iterative steps. You realise mostly when you look back and think “Jeez, I used to use a passcode to unlock my phone” or “Did I really use to pay for things with cash?” It reminds me of this quote from Bill Gates: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.” As the Internet of Things gains momentum, and these iterative steps are being made, it won’t be long until our house will be like a servant — knowing when we wake up and having our coffee ready for when we get to the kitchen. This latest software update by Nest allows the Nest devices in your home to combine data from their sensors and from phones to know when you’re home or away and adjust thermostat settings, turn off your lights etc. These nice updates are illustrated in their simple animated video.