Have any data visualization recs?

October 19, 2009 12:34 PM

I need cool data visualizations to project. Any recommendations?

We want to project interesting data visualizations on the wall during an event. Ones that don't require any clicking or touching would be best. Thank you!

posted by k8t to grab bag (11 comments total)

There are some great sites out there that collect excellent data visualizations. My 2 favorites are Flowing Data and Visual Complexity.
posted by roscopcoletrane at 1:06 PM on October 19

Infosthetics, Timeline, Timeplot to name a few.
posted by mcstayinskool at 1:31 PM on October 19

Information Is Beautiful is chock full of original data visualisations covering a huge range of subjects, some of which are deadly serious and others more light-hearted. The author's blog links through to other data visualisation sites that he finds interesting.
posted by skylar at 1:42 PM on October 19

Edward Tufte is awesome. Check out some of his books.
posted by Madamina at 1:46 PM on October 19

Check out the brain.
posted by mathiu at 2:40 PM on October 19

Tufte is really really good reading.

Just understand: if your data visulization is not self explanatory for your audience and explicitly clear of what it represents and what it does not people will ask questions based on misinterpretations.
Also: if the data is not important, do not display the data. Display of data implicitly implies importance. Unimportant data makes people wonder why you have assigned value to the information displayed. People will ask questions based on the assumptions of their misguided interpolation of importance.

Also: this was a good list of excellent visuals from somewhere on the blue.
posted by Nanukthedog at 2:44 PM on October 19

To clarify: I'm not looking for infographics, rather I want interactive video-type visualizations.

This is for an academic group and we're looking to have something interesting (and free) on the wall in lieu of art.
posted by k8t at 2:47 PM on October 19

When I hear "interactive", I think of things that can be clicked or touch, just so you know.

But I love this guys visualizations, I linked to a great one that looks for tweets containing the phrases 'just landed in...' or 'just arrived in...'. Using the Twitter API he then plots these on a real map.

There are others there as well. If you look in the lower right-corner you can download a quicktime version in HD. To be a good net-citizen you should drop him a note if you do so, however.
posted by jeremias at 4:18 PM on October 19

How can they be interactive and yet "don't require any clicking or touching"? Are you looking for novel camera-based interface systems? Do you just want abstract-looking computer-generated movies?
posted by demiurge at 8:44 PM on October 19

You might try some of the work of Jonathan Harris. He did We Feel Fine a while back.
posted by sub-culture at 7:32 AM on October 20

point a browser at: http://www.gapminder.org/. Put it in fullscreen mode.
posted by at at 5:00 PM on October 21