Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: Watching the Iowa Caucus Results
Last night I watched the caucuses from my dinner table via the internets. And I used this handy piece from the Washington Post. The screenshot is from early in the evening before most of the results had arrived. What is really nice is that the site refreshed every thirty seconds. Sometimes nothing happens in a county. But if something did, they…
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The Iowa Caucuses
Read on…: The Iowa CaucusesIf you did not realise it, today is the first day of the second phase of the American presidential election process. Phase 1 was all the posturing and getting-to-know-me stuff from every candidate. A few dropped out, but now the first votes will be placed in the cold and later tonight snowy town centres of Iowa. The big story for Iowa…
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The Zika Virus
Read on…: The Zika VirusThe Zika virus is the new health scare. But beyond that, what is it? Well the AFP put together this explainer graphic. Credit for the piece goes to John Saeki.
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Dude Where Did I Park My Car?
Read on…: Dude Where Did I Park My Car?Mother Jones had a lengthy but fascinating piece on urban parking. (I mention the lengthy bit only lest you think it a quick lunch read.) While the design uses a few factettes as sidebars to the main body copy: The more interesting piece is the illustrative comparison of a 1.5 vehicle parking space to the size of a 2-bedroom flat.…
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Blizzard of 2016 Snowfall Totals
Read on…: Blizzard of 2016 Snowfall TotalsYou may have heard that the East Coast received a wee bit of snow. Here is the snowfall map from the Wall Street Journal. I can report that my family received 30 inches. Which makes sense, because they live somewhere near here. That’s a lot of snow. Credit for the piece goes to the Wall Street Journal graphics department.
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US Fed Forecasts
Read on…: US Fed ForecastsOrganisations that forecast things are not often inclined to go back and review their forecasts against the actual results. So that makes today’s post from the Wall Street Journal fascinating. They reviewed the Federal Reserve’s forecasts for US GDP growth against the actual growth. And it turns out the Fed consistently overestimated US growth. From a design standpoint, what makes…