Tag: data visualisation

  • Surveys of Swing States for the 2012 Presidential Election

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    The New York Times has been conducting surveys or polls of voters and likely voters in swing states, i.e. the states where the 2012 election will be decided. The nice thing about the piece is that it allows the user to select different sets of demographics through which one can view the questions asked. Furthermore,…

  • Olympic-sized Appetites

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    Brendan Barry
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    The Olympics bring out the best. Well, at least in athletics. In terms of infographics, not always so much. This piece from CNN is a fairly unorganised mess with lots of individual datapoints. It’s a shame to see this at CNN when so many other news outlets are doing quality graphic work for the Olympics.

  • Obama Campaign Spending Breakdown

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    Brendan Barry
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    Over the weekend, the New York Times looked at how the Obama campaign has been spending its cash. I appreciate the value in these sort of block charts, but, I wonder if a bar chart would not have been more clear for the comparison. I like the block charts when the designer is rearranging the…

  • Weekend Work

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    Brendan Barry
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    Here’s a rare weekend post to showcase some Olympic-related work. The following graphic looks at how the ranking changes for the Top-10 countries if medals are weighted. To me it is ridiculous that Kazakhstan is ranked higher than Russia because Kazakhstan has won 4 gold medals compared to Russia’s 3 when Kazakhstan has a total…

  • Olympic Performance vs Economic Performance

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    Brendan Barry
    in ,

    The Olympics are now fully underway and we can begin to see some patterns about who is doing well and who is, well, not. This infographic has a lot more to say about who had been doing well up through 2008. That is important because that was the last year before the fiscal/financial crisis brought…

  • Comparing Ad Spending in Three Key Election States

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    Brendan Barry
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    In this infographic about campaign ad spending in three battleground states, the New York Times shows that small multiples can work to create effective comparisons through an efficient use of space.

  • Mexican Drug Cartels

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    Brendan Barry
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    Mexico has some serious problems. Primarily with the drug cartels. About two weeks ago the National Post created an infographic that looked at the northern spread of Mexican drugs into the United States. The infographic also included details on the transit and transportation networks the different drugs take along with the geographic spread of the…

  • Drought Footprint

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    Brendan Barry
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    A lot of people’s minds may be on the Olympics that open up today in London. However, a very important story that was covered a little while ago deserves a post. The United States has been suffering from a severe drought across much of the country. Droughts are nothing new, though climate change is likely…

  • Does a High Average BMI Impact a Country’s Chance at the Olympics?

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    Brendan Barry
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    It turns out not so much. A comparison of the 2008 data for average BMI (coarsely how fat a person is) for countries across their economic productivity (GDP per capita) and total medals won shows that a country’s health culture does not greatly impact said country’s Olympic chances. This is another from my work series…

  • Supreme Court’s Real Impact on Health Insurance

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    Brendan Barry
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    In a small piece, the New York Times looks at the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act. Fewer people are insured and total cost for the programme falls.