Information Aesthetics
Infographically Enhanced Observation Deck at Zurich Airport
- Wed, 15 Feb 2012
BLOGS Information Aesthetics
The physical environment around the new 250-meter-long "Observation Deck B" [artcom.de] at Zurich Airport has been infographically enhanced by German interaction design studio ART+COM. Several media installations and interactive exhibits enable visitors to learn new insights about the airport and its activities on the tarmac.
The most magical addition consists of a set of see-through telescopes that overlay context-aware information on top of...
Exploring President Obama's Federal Budget Proposal through Bubbles
- Wed, 15 Feb 2012
BLOGS Information Aesthetics
The beautifully animated and interactive infographic "Four Ways to Slice Obama's 2013 Budget Proposal" [nytimes.com] by Shan Carter of the NYTimes shows how President Obama proposes to spend $3.7 trillion in 2013.
Each federal department is represented by a unique bubble, of which the surface area corresponds to the size of the according proposed budget, and the color depicts a positive or negative change in size. The data can be filtered in...
Mapping the Financial Impact of Population Movements in the U.S.
- Tue, 14 Feb 2012
BLOGS Information Aesthetics
The interactive map Where Does the Money Go? [stamen.com] by Stamen Design reveals the financial impact of the movements by the U.S. during 2009, on a county-to-county level. More specifically, Stamen used an open dataset containing all changes of residential address as reported to the IRS to figure out where people were moving to (blue lines), and where they originally came from (red lines).
In addition to a short description of insights,...
Metrography: London Reshaped to Match the Classic Tube Map
- Tue, 14 Feb 2012
BLOGS Information Aesthetics
In Metrography [looksgood.de], interaction design student Benedikt Groß presents us with an alternative view on London. What if the street map was reshaped according to the positions of the tube stations as placed on the Tube map?
The result is a 'warped' or 'morphed' map of London, that highlights the discrepancy between the stylized metro map and the geographically correct depiction. The resulting high-resolution prints can be viewed on...
Conveying GE Machine Usage Data: Balancing Art and Visualization
- Mon, 13 Feb 2012
BLOGS Information Aesthetics
Ben Fry's Fathom Information Design has released the video documentation of 2 interactive visualization installations that are meant to appear on large touch screens in the lobby of GE's headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. Due to its intended physical setting, the visualization had to work from a distance as well as close by, balancing artistic quality with the fact that the animations were informed by real data, generated by machines in...
Deluge: How 300.000 Norwegians Move House in a Year
- Tue, 07 Feb 2012
BLOGS Information Aesthetics
The short animation titled "Deluge" [bengler.no] by Even Westvang reveals how public data can be analyzed to reveal potentially interesting patterns. In particular, this movie demonstrates the patterns of 300.000 Norwegians moving house, by cross-referencing the tax records of about 4 million individual Norwegians from 2006 and 2007.
In the movie, the data is filtered by paramaters like yearly income or age, and a distinction is made between...
Super Chatter: Analyzing Conversations about the Super Bowl on Twitter
- Mon, 06 Feb 2012
BLOGS Information Aesthetics
The online dashboard Super Chatter [collemcvoy.com] designed by advertising agency Colle+McVoy acts as a visual overview of the true impact of the Super Bowl event in contemporary social media, and Twitter in particular.
An interactive timeline not only highlights some of the most important sports scoring events, but aligns them next to all the advertisements that were shown on television. A line graph then maps the rate of tweets-per-minute of...
Revealing the Impact of Super Bowl Advertising on Social Media
- Fri, 03 Feb 2012
BLOGS Information Aesthetics
The interactive dashboard at Brandwatch Super Bowl [brandwatch.com] shows the true impact of the highly expensive advertising that is shown during the Super Bowl, in particular on social online media.
Each so-called 'worm' represents a unique sponsor (including brands like Pepsi, Mars, Walt Disney or H&M). The accompanying number stands for the number of tweets that were made about that brand or their products over the last 28 days (and, yes,...
Revealing the Energy Consumption of Each Building in New York
- Thu, 02 Feb 2012
BLOGS Information Aesthetics
The remarkably detailed map [columbia.edu] developed by the Modi Research Group of the Earth Institute at Columbia University reveals the total annual building energy consumption of New York, at both the block and 'taxlot' level (which is nearly at building level).
The map was built using MapBox. The total energy consumption is expressed in kilowatt hours (kWh) per square meter of land area. The data actually was not retrieved from utility...
Comparing the Fundraising Performance of the US Presidential Candidates
- Thu, 02 Feb 2012
BLOGS Information Aesthetics
The NYTimes released a competitive dashboard of sorts, titled "The 2012 Money Race: Compare the Candidates" [nytimes.com]. Basically, the interactive graphic allows readers to contrast the various performance parameters in terms of fundraising from 2 presidential candidates next to each other. Another recent graphic [nytimes.com] lists the hundreds of organizations and people that fund the so-called Super PACs that are officially not controlled...
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