information aesthetics

FeedVis RSS Feed Tag Cloud Generator

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:53:38 +1100

FeedVis [jasonpriem.com] is an online tag cloud generator with some additional interactive features. Users can select specific time periods, common blog themes or individual blog feeds. Individual tags can be further explored to read specific blog posts of interest.

Tags are ordered by frequency and frequency change. Frequency denotes how many times a word is used per 1000 words. Frequency change measures the difference in frequency as a percentage: greener words are unusually popular; redder words are the opposite.

Thnkx Jason.

SpatialKey: Time and Location Based Information Mapping

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:40:11 +1100

The next geographical mapping startup, SpatialKey [spatialkey.com] is marketed as a "next generation Information Visualization, Analysis and Reporting System". It is specifically designed to help organizations quickly assess location-based information to allow for decision making processes and reporting requirements. There are several online demos available, ranging from "Wal-Mart store openings (1962 - 2005)" to "San Antonio prostitution arrests (January, 2006 - July, 2007)"

In practice, users can view and overlay all sorts of "geo-temporal data" (data with recorded location and time information) and generate time slices of the data, much like a moving weather map. The current visualization templates include three different map rendering techniques: heat map, heat grid and graduated circles.

SpatialKey somehow reminds me of Stamen's Trulia Hindsight. Via CNET News.

DoodleBuzz: Typographically Scribbling Online News

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:25:10 +1100

Doodle Buzz [doodlebuzz.com] is an online news aggregator with a visual twist. Users are requested to submit their favorite news theme or topic, and to draw a crazy, chaotic, all-over-the-place, messed-up, scribbled line on the white canvas. The line is then used as the framework to layout the headlines, summaries and related topics. The aim is to create an entirely new way of exploring information, one that allows for a kind of "quiet chaos" that gives people the opportunity to explore unthought of paths and connections along their news gathering journey. The data is fetched from DayPI, a recent service by DayLife that allows a new architecture of online news.

The visually chaotic and more playful approach towards exploring news seems like an interesting alternative to the more scientific-looking network graphs of news already out there, such as News Visual, Muckety, SiloBreaker, Libero, TextMap and CNET News Ontology.

The visual style of DoodleBuzz reminds me of Brad Paley's Map of Science. The idea of "sketching news" is still one of my personal favorites, like Week in Review. More doodle craziness can be found at Icastic Visualizing Time, Doodling Credit Card Statements, Indexed Doodle Graphs and Diagrams and the 4 Block World Doodles.

Call the Shots for Radiohead

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:38:11 +1100

Japanese TV station WOWOW has a feature on their site that lets you mix a video of a live Radiohead performance [wowow.co.jp] from the Saitama Super Stadium leg of their 2008 Japanese tour. A set of quite aesthetic data visualizations accompanies this online music video mix tool.

The video interface allows you to choose from 12 colour-coded cameras to record your own "rainbow" (the song 15 Step is the opening track from Radiohead's In Rainbows album). You can then play back your edit by clicking and dragging the playhead in the timeline, or view charts of the most popular shots (click on the two buttons on the right side, or see the screenshots below. There's some impressive juggling going on behind the scenes to keep the video playing as you hop from camera to camera, and I am always a fan of sites that don't worry about pixellation and opt for full screen content regardless.

I couldn't figure out if there was a way to watch other people's edits or to share your edit. If that feature is there and I missed it please let us know in the comments.

Guest blogger Tom Carden is an interaction designer at Stamen Design. He has recently contributed to several successful visualization projects including MSNBC's Hurricane Tracker, Trulia Snapshot and mySociety's travel time maps.

Sioc.me: 3D Visualization of Semantic Space

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:16:02 +1100

SIOC.ME [sioc.me] is a "real-time interactive visualization of boards.ie semantic data in three-dimensional space". The project was originally submitted for entry to the Boards.ie SIOC Data Competition that, based on over 10 years of online discussion and around 9 million documents, invited submissions to create something which uses the data in an interesting manner.

The visualization allows a user to select a forum from boards.ie and explore it within a 3D space throughout various spatial configurations (i.e. Carousel, Linear, Stacked, Random or Grid). One can either watch a small set of demonstration movies below, or try out the application live at online.

Thnkx Rob.

Three More Animated Infographics Videos

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:12:15 +1100

Three more animated infographic video that have not yet appeared on infosthetics. They seem to be particularly noteworthy, as they avoid using the now pervasive slick "animated infographic" style originally introduced by Google Master Plan, Iraq War Conspiracy, Electronic Surveillance Critique and Hidden Cost of Iraq War.

The three movies illustrate the relationship between nature and sugar, explain the sports football, and introduce the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator concept.

You can all watch them below. Via biofusiondesign.com

Vizzl: Visual Search and Shopping Engine

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:41:13 +1100

Vizzl [vizzl.com] is a new visual search / shopping engine that allows users to perform dynamic filtering, sorting and a number of view modes on all the search results retrieved from Amazon, eBay or YouTube.

As a new Adobe Flex based application, Vizzl features dynamic animations and transitions to deliver a more immersive search experience, in an aim to make searching information "fun and fast". For example, Amazon books can be sorted by relevance, best selling, price, alphabet, or release date, while views can be changed to reveal more or less detailed information.

The Vizzl application is also offered as a commercial application to the industry, such as "The Inspiration Room" [theinspirationroom.com], an online aggregator of the worlds best talents and work in the creative industry, as well as a Facebook spin-off called "Friendly Search", which offers a visual way of browsing your Facebook contacts.

See also:
. Amazon Windowshop
. Zoomii Visual Amazon Store
. Amazon Book Map
. Map Amazon
. AmazNode
. the still sophisticated Oskope Amazon Information Graphs
. Viewzi Book View.

Living Calendar: Everything Time at a Glance

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:06:09 +1100

The Living Calendar allows people to read the weeks, the months, the holidays, and the time, all at once and all in a glance. A large hand shows the current day, and the current month, thus doing a complete turn during 365 days. A little hand shows the current day of week, and the current hour, and accordingly does a complete turn for 7 days. Moreover, the calendar marks the date of public holidays, religious events and momentous days.

According to the echo chamber that is the blogosphere, this clock can be yours for $94,950 (yep).

See also, in between many other clock posts at infosthetics, the visually similar Train Time Alarm Clock, and the more "alive" Human Calendar.

Thnkx Andre. Via Born Rich and Yanko Design.

Life Flow Chart: Community Authored Flowcharts

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:05:32 +1100

Life Flowcharts [lifeflowcharts.com] is a community-authored flowchart based on the topic of how to live one's life. The system is based on Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) / Vector Markup Language (VML), and programmed within the Google App Engine. Users authenticated by Google can add, reconnect or reorder children boxes, or comment on, and vote on, individual decision boxes.

Thnkx Zeno.

Data Flow: Visualising Information in Graphic Design

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:34:58 +1100

The recently released book "Data Flow: Visualising Information in Graphic Design" available at Amazon.com and Gestalten.de seems to be an ideal Christmas gift. The book introduces an expansive scope of innovatively designed diagrams, and presents an abundant range of possibilities in visualizing data and information. These range from chart-like diagrams such as bar, plot, line diagrams and spider charts, graph-based diagrams including line, matrix, process flow, and molecular diagrams to extremely complex three-dimensional diagrams. Or, put differently: "The more concrete the variables, the more aesthetically elaborate the graphics - sometimes reaching the point of art - the more abstract, the simpler the readability."

While infosthetics would *love* a review copy to be featured on this blog, some teaser images of the book seem already quite seducing, and the online video trailer quite appetizing. Thnkx Jonas.

UPDATE: Corrected Amazon.com link

The Pentagon Information Graphics Machine

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:41:20 +1100

There is an interesting blog post over at wallstats.com (well known from the Death and Taxes), analyzing and critiquing some of the recent charts and graphs created by the US Pentagon. It demonstrates how the graphics coming out of each branch of the military are vastly different. For instance, the Navy's graphics are less polished with a focus on line charts and the occasional concept map, while the Air Force really goes over the top, from "baffling to well, more baffling".

The article raises the issue that these documents are used to brief major decision makers, and asks the question "Why does the Department of Defense, which is an economy the size of Turkey, put out such inconsistent and poor visualizations?".

Project Palantir: Facebook Interactions Visualization

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:09:59 +1100

The goal of Facebook's Project Palantir is to "visualize all the data that Facebook gets". Each Facebook action is geo-located on a 3D globe, becomes a particle that floats off the surface of the Earth, and then disappears. Facebook interactions (e.g. friend requests, pokes, wall posts) are shown by 3D splines or a trailing mesh connecting 2 locations, with each color representing a different sort of interaction.

Watch the demonstration movie at Facebook, or the high-quality YouTube version below.

Similar globe-based visualizations include: Google's Information Display at GooglePlex, 3D Live Stats, the still impressive InfoMagnet, Google Proximity between Cities. One more Facebook visualization is the Lexus social network graph, and there is a considerable collection at Many Eyes.

In the meantime, lets see whether the recent addition of Lee Byron as an Interactive Information Designer at Facebook, and known from the stacked Stream Graph of LastFM listening behaviors, will bring forward more Facebook visualizations!

Thnkx Nick. Via TechCrunch.

Infographic Critique: Iceland is Out of Orbit

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:08:14 +1100

A Junk Charts reader tipped us about this chart that appeared on the front page of one of their newspapers. It announced: "Iceland banks are in a universe of hurt".

As we all know, Iceland is bankrupt, and all its banks are spinning out of orbit. But is this outer-space concept successful in portraying the story? We think not.

Read the detailed critique below.

Ideas for Enhancing Information Representation

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:55:59 +1100

100 Ideas for Envisioning Powerful, Engaging, and Productive User Experiences in Knowledge Work [flashbulbinteraction.com] is an online reference for product teams creating new applications for work involving thinking, with a heavy emphasis on visualization in the example domains used throughout: Clinical Research (data analysis visualization), Financial Trading (market analysis visualization) and Architecture (building information modeling visualization). Specifically written for use during early, formative conversations, it provides teams with a broad range of considerations for setting the overall direction and priorities for their onscreen tools.

The ideas and illustrations in the "Enhancing Information Representation" and "Pursuing Aesthetic Refinement" sections are especially relevant to this blog's focus.

The work is freely available by the creative commons license as a browsable website, as a set of highly summarized idea cards (PDF), and as a printable 143 page book (PDF).

Advanced Beauty: Audio-Reactive Video Sound Sculptures

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:13:57 +1100

Advanced Beauty [advancedbeauty.org] is an ongoing exploration of digital artworks influenced by sound, as a collaboration between programmers, artists, musicians, animators and architects.

The first artwork collection includes a series of audio-reactive video sound sculptures, as manifestations of sound, sculpted by volume, pitch or structure of the soundtrack. The films embrace unusual video making processes, the visual programming language Processing, high-end audio analysis and fluid dynamic simulations alongside intuitive responses in traditional cell animation.

Rendered in the 1920 HD format, with 5:1 surround sound, each artist was given the same set of parameters to work within; to start, finish and exist within a white space, creating a seamless coherence, all sculptures sharing the same white environment.

Watch all the videos online here, or check out a few below.