Monday, November 1, 2010

CCA DR Blog Post #8


This infographic comes from Visualizing.org.
Of course the infographic that appeals to me the most is the one about New York City. I think part of that is having just moved from New York, it is on my mind a lot. Some of the immediate appeal of this visualization was the emotional attachment that I have to this city but then there is also the experience that I have with the action they are visualizing: moving in new york. I'm sure that the same conversation topics apply here in San Francisco because it is an equally expensive city with a high demand for people wanting to live in it. Moving and subsequently real estate become fascinating topics that one brings up at parties and social events because one spends so much time dealing with moving in New York, particularly one in their twenties. It's an easy topic to discuss with others because everyone in New York has had some experience with it and it's a neutral topic like talking about the weather.

Another element of this infographic that is appealing is it reminded me of something that would appear in New York Magazine, which again holds emotional attachment because it is all about New York and in general, is just a great magazine.

However, despite this infographic being initially extremely appealing, it's not particularly easy to read. The graphics go back and forth between percentages and numbers and upon reading the description of the visualization, you understand that it's based on responses to a radio station poll. Without that information though, it's a bit hard to tell where the numbers originated from and why there isn't a consistency between expressing the data in a percentage or actual numbers. At the same time, the absence of uniformity forces you to pay a little bit more attention to the data and because it's not expressing an extremely complicated topic, it's never particularly confusing. It just takes a moment to figure out what information is being expressed. Overall it's really the aesthetics and the topic of this infographic that appeal to me.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks, Kristin. I agree with your critique. While I enjoyed the attractiveness of the graphic and its content, I did not think it made the information easier to understand. That's a top priority for a good infographic.

    ReplyDelete