My fascination with infographics

Like most marketing professionals at Dell I was recruited from business school for my ability to make charts and graphs.  In my last 4 years I have made somewhere between 10-15,000 charts and graphs.  Unlike mere mortals I do not use PowerPoint (charts for beginners) but instead purchased special chart making software (Mekko Graphics) which churns out incomprehensible but impressive looking charts shaped like boxes. From the right angle, a Mekko chart can be confused for a Tetris screenshot.

Fortunately most people are too embarrassed to admit they cannot read a Mekko chart which means I am rarely asked to explain or defend the data.  My MBA training has prepared me to use the exact same data to recommend we spend $millions, cut $millions or buy a small island in the south Pacific. 

Being my life's work I greatly admire others people's ability to visually show a set of data.  I thought this infographic from the New York Times comparing the volume of content on Wikipedia to the dictionary or an encyclopedia was a piece of art.  Too often people use tables of numbers to convey a point when a visual has so much more impact.

Comments

[Charlie Nichols Browning]

Hey Matt,

Nice post. You'll want to check on the link to the NYTimes infographic though. 8-)

I've been a great fan of good information design/visualization for years... Here are a few links to some of the sites I look at occasionally:
http://infosthetics.com/
http://dashboardspy.wordpress.com/
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/ A great blog and occasionally some great info graphics too.

Hope you enjoy!
Charlie
www.Seven87.com