Where to start with infoviz?

November 9, 2009 10:15 AM

I want to make a fancy image along the same lines as Feltron's annual reports, where do I start?

I'm currently in the process of immigrating to the US to be with my SO. Once it's all over and done -- or at some other appropriate milestone along the way -- I thought it would be nice to present her with something along the lines of a framed print visualizing a bunch of stuff related to this process. Very much inspired by Feltron's annual reports, but not quite on the same scale.

What I'm thinking at the moment:
- some kind of timeline that shows where we've travelled since the beginning of this year (when it all began)
- a map that shows the same thing, with lines connecting the places we've flown to
- a pie chart (or something) that breaks up time we've spent together, and time we've spent apart

I'll come up with some other bits (ideas appreciated!) but that basically sums up what I'm trying to do here, I think.

I'd like to see other examples of similar visualizations for inspiration, as well as some tips on how exactly I should be going about this. At the moment, my basic plan is get all the data together and fire up Photoshop or something, but that seems like it would be a fairly tedious way to go about it. I know there is software specifically made for this kind of thing, but what I've come across so far seems to be either a little over my head, or not quite what I'm after (too simple, too complicated). I've also come across some more programming-y options -- a friend suggested processing.js for instance -- but that also currently falls into the over my head camp. If programming turns out to be the best way, I'm willing to learn what I need to know, though. There's no real deadline on this, since we're still a long way from being done.

I'm on Mac OS X, by the way, but can switch to Windows if absolutely necessary.

All input is appreciated!

posted by nostrich to grab bag (7 comments total)

The report you linked to is definitely not something that was generated programmatically. It was probably hand-drawn in a vector layout program like Adobe Illustrator.
posted by odinsdream at 10:22 AM on November 9, 2009

This seems to me like graphic design/desktop publishing thing, and not something that involves programming. I'm thinking tools like Adobe Illustrator (perfect for the Mac).
posted by Harry at 10:26 AM on November 9, 2009

Adobe Illustrator offers a way for you create charts and graphs without too much trouble - just inputting the data, really. The charts won't look 'zomg amazing' but they're good if you don't know how to make a infographic.

I would bet that the Zeltron report was laid out in either Adobe InDesign or Illustrator.

Please don't use Photoshop to handle massive amounts of text.
posted by kerning at 10:26 AM on November 9, 2009

Have you looked at using Daytum? From what I remember, it was based on Feltron's annual reports, and Feltron even has an account.
posted by rhapsodie at 11:17 AM on November 9, 2009

Ah: "Daytum was conceived in 2008 by Ryan Case and Nicholas Felton as a way of creating an elegant and intuitive way to count and communicate the personal statistics generated by each of us every day."

There you go.
posted by rhapsodie at 11:18 AM on November 9, 2009

Thanks for the answers so far.

Illustrator it is, then. Are there free or cheaper alternatives on OS X? Buying Illustrator is going to be kind of a big splurge for something I'll likely only use once.

rhapsodie: I did look at Daytum. Not advanced enough to handle the kind of things I want to make. Plus I'd like an element of personalisation, since I intend for this to be a gift (quite likely it will be a wedding gift or a "yay, I'm American now!" gift).
posted by nostrich at 11:34 AM on November 9, 2009

You can download Illustrator as a 30-day trial from Adobe site.
posted by leigh1 at 2:51 PM on November 9, 2009