FV #35 - Lots to Look At

Information is Beautiful released their visualization awards shortlist a couple days ago and if you like visual stuff you will want to check it out.  Dozens of excellent visuals divided into six categories.  It's well worth spending some time exploring so check it out when you get a chance.  I have not scrutinized them all just yet but here are some of my favorites so far (click to enlarge).

From the Data Visualization category
I love the concept of this one. Simple and brilliant. 

Interactive Visualization
I really like the interactive ones.  I was amazed at how small our debt payments and foreign aid were as overall percentages of the total.

Data Journalism
This visual makes it easy to establish the fact that you should stay out of Central Park (at night I would imagine).  This graphic would be interesting if you could adjust based on time of day or even a time range.

Motion Infographic
I had higher hopes for these.  Don't get me wrong, they are interesting; I've just seen better.  This one is about Apple.

Tools or Website
Ok, these are going to be fun to explore.  

I think it is good to consume these and think about how you can use them with students.  Students need to learn how to consume data when it is presented visually and they need to gain proactice in creating data visuals. Using some of the tools listed on the Tools or Website list or reverse engineering how some of these others were created and using those toos.  So how do these inspire you?  What can you do with them?

FV #34 - Global Issues of Olympic Proportions

I'm an addict.

A junkie, even.

I can't get enough of these Olympics.  I'm staying up way too late to watch events where I already know the results.  I'm watching (and loving) events that if they are on any other time of year I don't even tune in* (hello rowing, volleyball, field hockey, etc.).  

In honor of these Olympic Games I bring you today's Friday Visual (which was brought to my attention by the wonderful site Very Short List but there is a more detailed article over here at Co.Design).  

In this set of visuals, graphic artist Gustavo Sousa uses the iconic Olympic rings to represent which continents have the most prisoners, HIV patients, McDonald's, and more.  Naturally, the relative size of each ring correlates to the relevant data points.  

You can view a static version of each visualization over at Mr. Sousa's appropriately named OceaniaEuropeAmericasAfricaAsia tumblr 

I had a couple of thoughts/issues regarding this visual (which, indecently, I like very much).

First, There is no key as to which color represents which continent.  I did a quick search and found that the traditional belief (clearly based on stereotypes) is that the colors of each ring correspond like this: blue for Europe, yellow for Asia, black for Africa, green for Australia and Oceania and red for the Americas.  But the visual didn't seem to comply with this scheme.  I did some additional research and according to the International Olympic Committee the colors don't represent any specific continents anyway:

On the Olympic flag, the rings appear on a white background. Combined in this way, the six colours of the flag (blue, yellow, black, green, red and white) represent all nations. It is a misconception, therefore, to believe that each of the colours corresponds to a certain continent.

Hey, who knew?  So, I did a little deductive reasoning by interpreting the visuals and figured that:

• Red = Americas
• Green = Asia
• Yellow = Africa
• Black = Europe
• Blue = Oceania/Australia.  

This would be a great activity to do with students.  Have them figure out which colors represent which continent and have them back up why.  Although, it's also a good lesson to teach students to label their visualizations.

My second issue is that the creator (Mr. Sousa) provides no source as to where he procured the data to create this visualization.  Now, I have no reason not to believe the data as he visualizes it but call me old fashioned, I like to see the source.  This would be another good conversation to have with your students.

Finally, I was ready to call BS on the gun ownership visual.  After all, if there is one thing that the United States is good at it is owning guns.  So, the visual should be heavily skewed red.  But, I did some research on this too and... we are good at owning guns.  Reuters says we (i.e. civilians) own 270 million of them.  However, there are 875 million civilian owned guns worldwide (!).  Again, who knew... so, this visual appears to be accurate, too.  

gun ownership

So, other countries are gun crazy too... but we totally rule at McDonald's.  As always, I'm curious what you think about this one.

 *Let's be honest, these competitions ARE only televised once every four years for good reason.

FV #32 - That is Deep... 9 Traits of Good Visualizations

How crazy was James Cameron?  Our friends over at XKCD have brought out yet another informative web comic, this time focusing in on the depth of the Earth's oceans and lakes (among other things). Zoom in and take a look, it's really great.

This type of visual would be really simple to re-create (by you or students)... you could use paper and markers, construction paper, or PowerPoint.  

And now for the reflective portion of this post...

However, the value in this visual for me is that it got me thinking a bit about visuals and the characteristics of visuals that I happen to appreciate.  I put together a list of these thoughts... not all encompassing, just off the top of my head.  The best visuals are ...

1. Informative - The best visuals help me understand something better.  They are (mostly) self-explanatory and can break down a complex concept into something my pea brain can work with... even (maybe especially) if I don't really care about the content.

2. Accurate - Duh. 

3. Interesting - The topic can and should be interesting, but a few random bits of trivia in the mix can help spice it up.  In the visual above I learned that Emperor Penguins can dive really, really deep... crazy deep (although I still don't know why they do that), the Deepwater Horizon is also crazy deep, and that the Dead Sea is an amazing distance below sea level.

 

4. Data Visualizations - There are loads of lame, text heavy infographics out there... making it pretty with pictures really doesn't change the fact that I don't need an infographic representation of "iPads vs. Textbooks" to help me understand the issues.  Also, I hate scrolling down 10 pages with these...* the best visuals represent data and help me identify trends in that data.

5. Creative - I appreciate good design, but I'll take a creative visual over a well designed one any day of the week.

6. Humorous - I like visuals that make me chuckle.  I think they should (if appropriate) contain an element of humor.  Not forced humor, but creative, suble humor.  In the "Lakes & Oceans" visual above you can find some (of course, it's XKCD so that's expected).  I think humor can make the visual more memorable as well.

7. Offering something new - Due to James Cameron's historic dive to the Marianas Trench, there have been tons of visuals illustrating just how deep it is "down there".  All of these visuals look basically the same and show the trench as a steep, deep gash in the ocean floor.  This is the first visual I've seen that offered the Horizontal Scale... not only valuable information, but something I'd never seen before.

8. Not overwhelming - Too much is too much.  The best visuals have enough to keep me entertained and educated but don't get carried away.  I'm sure you've encountered examples of what I'm talking about. 

9. Relevant - I guess this is relative, but one of the reasons this "Lakes and Oceans" visual works is because James Cameron just went down there and its all fresh in our heads. 

BTW, if anyone can explain this to me, that would be great!

FV #29 - Major Leaguer

Knowing how geeked out I get about data visualizations, my school's librarian Ms. Eskin (she'll be blogging and tweeting soon!) brought me a present the other day... a book (naturally).

Now, I'm not a huge baseball fan but I like statistics and visuals... of which this book has plenty of both (and I can appreciate good storytelling, too - which this book has, too).  But since baseball season is upon us it seemed an appropriate book to talk about.  Let's take a look at a few of them that jumped out at me as particularly interesting. (clicky, clicky on them to make them bigger)

Now these are not very complicated visuals (but they are effective), and that is what I like about them.  There is no doubt that this type of visual could easily be created by students. Math teachers should have a field day with the amount of historical and current data that is available over at MLB.com.  I mean, there is a lot of math and research required to figure out how much money a season's worth of "stolen" bases are worth.  Then, you just need to fire up a graphics program or PowerPoint (which is what I would have the kids use) and create a visual.  

If you are interested, Craig Robinson has more complicated visuals available too.  I love this one... the team in RED won the world series and the position of the other teams (above or below them), indicates the relative payroll.  So, you ca see at a glance how impressive the 2003 champion Florida Marlins team was (say compared to the 1996, 1999, 200 or 2009 Yankees).  You could show this to students and just ask them what they notice... what inferences could they make...?

Like all great visuals, these visuals provide a depth of understanding and meaning that would be difficult to achieve with just words and numbers. This sort of data would be so hard to communicate without a well-crafted visual.

Many of the book's visuals (but not all of them) can be found on the author's blog.  The book is available on Amazon (and probably in book stores too assuming those still exist when you are reading this post).  So, if you (or someone you know) like baseball, statistics, or visualizations (or any combination of those)... you might want to check this book out.  

FV #25 - The Problem of Big Numbers

We humans have a problem with big numbers. Some of my favorite visuals help us understand big numbers in a way that we could never fully describe with words. Today's visuals are a compilation of a few of my favorite "Big Number" visuals.

1. Obama Budget Cuts Visualization - $100 million dollars sounds like a lot of money (and it is, right?). But what does a $100 million look like visualized against the budget of the USA? This simple, but very clever video answers this question.

2. US Debt Visualized - This powerful visual really puts into scope how much debt we we have here in our wonderful country. What if you used $100 bills to create a stack of money equivalent to our debt? Since we were talking about $100 million dollars earlier... here is your tease... I really don't want to spoil it for you! Click the image to see the full chart.

3. If The World's Population Lived in One City - 7 billion people, that's a lot. Hard to imagine that many people in one place. This visual does just that. It uses the population density of a few of the world's major cities to show how much space 7 billion people would take up if they all lived in the United States. Paris, for example:

4. Star Size Comparison - Our Sun is massive right? How big is it compared to other stars floating around in space?

BTW, YouTube and the web are full of these space comparisons, so if you liked that video, check out this one and this webpage too.

I've been thinking about why these visuals are so powerful. I think because they help conceptulize something very abstract (huge numbers) with something familar (pennies, dollar bills, etc.). And they accomplish this with almost no words at all (unlike this blog post). Amazing!

Now, most of these visuals really drove home how big "big" can be. However, the population visual made me think that 7 billion people is smaller than I ever would have thought... but it really hammered home just how large of a place our planet is (which, I now know that compared to VY Canis Majoris, it really isn't).

For all you math teachers out there, I'm curious how much our debt (or GDP) weighs. Can you have some of your students figure that out for me?

As a bonus... I know I've mentioned this video before, but if you haven't watched David McCandless at TED and you like the whole visualization thing, you should watch it.