Examining How We Measure Our Lives
Commentary, critiques, and observations on information design and data visualisation
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Read on…: My Family Shrub?
One of the main objectives of my long weekend in Boston is to research my family history. Usually when you do that kind of research you see familiar visualisation forms: trees. And in this book on a New England ancestral family, I saw trees. But the problem is history is never as neat and clean as we would prefer it…
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iPhone Screen Size
Read on…: iPhone Screen SizeYour humble author has returned. And on my trip up to Boston I took plenty of photos with my Nexus 5X, a Google-designed smartphone. That is correct, this designer does not use an iPhone. But I am aware of the latest things coming out of Apple—after all this is being typed up on a Mac—and so the larger screen size…
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Pie Charts
Read on…: Pie ChartsToday is my Friday, everyone, as I am going away on holiday for a little bit. (You can expect me back mid-next week.) So, enjoy this design tip from xkcd on my favourite form of data visualisation: the pie chart. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
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Europe’s Far-right Parties
Read on…: Europe’s Far-right PartiesYesterday we looked at the rise of the far-right in Sweden based on their electoral gains in this past weekend’s election. Today, the Economist has a piece detailing their strength throughout Europe and they claim that this type of nationalist party may have peaked. The graphic fascinates me because it appears to be a twist on the box or tile…
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Swedish Election Results
Read on…: Swedish Election ResultsSweden went to the polls this past weekend and the results are mostly in, with overseas ballots left to be counted. But the results are clear, a stark rise for the nationalist Sweden Democrats, though not as high as some had feared late last week. Not surprisingly we had the standard parliamentary seat chart, seen below by the BBC. The…
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In-law Trees
Read on…: In-law TreesHappy Friday, all. I’ve been busy preparing for a trip to Boston next week where I’ll continue to research my family’s history. But family trees and generational relationships between cousins can be confusing. Over at xkcd, however, it turns out the in-law relationships are more confusing. I don’t think I blame him. Credit for the piece goes to Randall Munroe.
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The Rise of Online Dating
Read on…: The Rise of Online DatingThis past weekend I cited this article from the Economist that looked at the rise of online dating as a way of couples meeting. There was some debate about which channels of interaction/attraction still worked or were prevalent. And it turns out that, in general, the online world is the world today. My problem with the graphic is that it…
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Big Bulls
Read on…: Big BullsLast Thursday, the US entered its longest bull market in history. And the New York Times covered the story on the front page, which makes this another episode of covering graphics when they land on the Times’ front page. Of course, last week was a big news week away from the economy and so it is no surprise that the above-the-fold…