Author: Brendan Barry

  • What Philadelphians Think About Philadelphia

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yo, Philly, apparently Pew did a survey on what Philadelphians think about Philadelphia. And what better way to talk about a survey than through an infographic. So thanks to the Inquirer, that is what we have. The interesting bit is that while there is a black-and-white, presumably print version, the website broke the whole graphic…

  • Presidential Popularity

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    Brendan Barry
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    Presidents’ Day is actually Washington’s Birthday. That makes sense when you consider how Washington is still a much beloved president. And according to a recent survey, the most favoured president. What is worth nothing is that most Americans know little of the 19th century presidents, save the big names like Lincoln, Grant, and (Teddy) Roosevelt.…

  • The Crisis in Syria

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    Brendan Barry
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    The crisis in Syria now resembles more of a civil war. The UN General Assembly has condemned the conflict and passed a resolution calling for Bashar al-Assad to step aside along with a host of other steps to resolve the conflict. However, nothing can happen until the Security Council agrees on a measure, which is…

  • The 2013 Budget Proposal Visualisation Comparison Part II

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    Brendan Barry
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    The previous two entries have been about visualisations of the administration’s budget proposal for 2013. Today’s will be (probably) the last in such a theme. Perhaps some wonder if not the bubbles and circles of the Times’ visualisation, what? Some might answer bar charts. Because we all love bar charts. But, as in this example…

  • The 2013 Budget Proposal Visualisation Comparison

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday’s post was about the administration’s 2013 budget proposal as visualised by the New York Times. This morning we have a brief comparison to the visualisation of the Washington Post. The main visualisation shows spending by department compared against revenue, the difference between being the grey box of deficit. Of note is that this piece…

  • 2013 Budget Proposal

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    Brendan Barry
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    Normally, I look forward to the release of the president’s budget proposed budget—fully understanding that it will never pass as proposed. We get to see lots of visualisations trying to show that we really do spend quite a lot on defence. And an awful lot on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And a little bit…

  • Adding Guided Context to Maps

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    Brendan Barry
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    Maps are cool. They show the geographic distribution of data. And that is fantastic if there is a story in said distribution. But even if there is a story, sometimes given both the scale of the map and the amount of data encoded in the map, how could you possibly expect to find the story?…

  • Circle Charts ca. 1937

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    Brendan Barry
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    Another image from my 1930s algebra book is on pie charts, or what was then called circle charts. And while the utility of such a chart form has not changed, especially in these examples, the circle chart of the 1930s had one particular good use for students. Constructing it. Today a student plugs in numbers…

  • How to Use Good Data Visualisation in Your Private Life

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    Brendan Barry
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    Often we think of graphs, charts, and other forms of data visualisation as a means to exploring the economic growth of so and so, or visualising traffic patterns, of explaining the complexities of science, or the reporting of yesterday’s news. But, we can all use data visualisation in our own lives to help make better…

  • Comparing the (Display of) Results in Colorado

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    Brendan Barry
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    Mitt Romney lost badly last night. No way around that. But as I watched the results come in through various sources, I noticed two interesting design decisions that made me think; one from the Guardian (the British perspective), and the other from the New York Times. Using only Colorado as an example, here is the…