The following infographic is truly amazing. The backstory: during the summer, NPR polled their listeners to find the 100 greatest sci-fi and fantasy novels of all time. The lovely people at SF Signal then took that list and created the most amazing interactive flowchart ever.
It’s amazing because what could just have remained a simple list (and seriously, who has time to go through 100 books these days?), has become almost a game. The questions that guide the reader through the chart are witty, and help one navigate through the choices to find likely reading candidates. They also provide entertainment for those people (me) who may already have read some (most) of the list (did I mention that I’m a geek?).
There’s even a non-pictorial version of the flowchart, which takes you through the questions using a questionnaire model.
This flowchart goes to show that a really useful infographic doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be designed in Illustrator, by a graphic arts major. All that a good infographic needs to do is to present the relevant information in a visual format that helps the reader to make better sense of the data. SF Signal elevates the lowly flowchart into a thing of geek beauty.
It’s really interesting!! Where can I get the original graph file? This is one is still too small to me…thanks!
This is incredible. It really demonstrates the potential of an infographic or other media that is somewhat interactive. Instead of having some glance through a list, you can really suck your audience in and keep them on your site. Thanks for sharing Kat! And if I ever hear anyone say, “I don’t know what to read,” I know exactly where to point them.
I love infographics! I believe they get the point across to your audience in a fun or easy manner, plus they are fun to create, as well as break up the consumption of regular media.
We had fun at REI, making one on the The Art and Science of S’mores (http://findout.rei.com/blog_detail/?contentid=5496892009878913438). It was great because everyone is very particular on how they build there S’mores. I enjoyed working with the team to create a fun piece. The best comment I have seen so far is, “Just went on Cub Scout Camping Trip and used Tortillas instead of Graham Crackers.. Sm-aco’s we called em… They were Delicious!! We put chocolate chips plus mini marshmallows in the tortillas and then wrapped it up in a piece of tin foil and put them on the grill that was still hot from the dinner meal.. about 3 minutes and they were so good!
”
This comment is proof that people are so passionate about the S’mores tradition that they can’t not have them, even if it means resorting to a tortilla.
I totally agree with the notion that an info graphic doesn’t have to be perfectly polished. It’s really all about the content, and the purpose of engaging the reader. For a person trying to decide which book to read out of NPR’s top 100 list, it’s easier having an almost human voice and set of opinions to help guide them. I really wish I had this kind of help deciding all kinds of things (movies, TV shows, especially music!). In a way, Pandora and MOG’s radio function do this, connecting the interests one has in one song to a set of others. I think the digital space, for this kind of media, is really benefitting from good editorial to help people find what they like, especially now that pretty much anything is available.
@Ko Yun Tsai (Coco) I did a little searching because I couldn’t read it either and found an enlargeable version.
http://www.box.net/shared/static/a6omcl2la0ivlxsn3o8m.jpg
Hope that helps!
And here I thought I wasn’t a Sci-Fi geek at all, but it turns out I’ve read all the “dystopian fiction” books. Not sure what that says about me.
As far as infographics go, I find this one to be a bit cluttered, but once I was able to enlarge it and zoom in on my areas on interest it wasn’t so overwhelming. Overall though, I’m finding the more I look at infographics, the more narrowed down and digestible they are, the better.
I love LISTS and infographics ! People who made this should get awards-big awards, seriously. I often find that infographics are so much more helpful when you trying to present a large network and the complicated relationships involves in. Like Sam said, I would totally LOVE it if people can help me like this when I’m looking for music and movies, especially movies! Say, I want to find movies with the same directors or actors in it. That would save so much work and time when you look things online randomly.
This is truly amazing! Anyone who is a big fan of infographic should read “The Visual Miscellaneum” by David McCandless. Tons of beautiful infographics in there. He also once gave a TED talk about this: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html
This is a fantastic example of ‘information is beautiful.” It looks great, it’s well structured, and it’s really useful. However, I agree the actual link to the infographic is necessary to really explore its usefulness as it’s too small here to really get anything out of it.
I especially like this post because it is a topic near and dear to my heart. Making data or information fly off the page and tell a story visually is so critical to ensuring:
1) people actually look at it.
2) people understand it.
3) people get something out of it that matters to them.
For more examples of infographics and other data visualizations that take dry facts and data and turn them into visual, informative delights, check out my blog: Global Health Matters: stats and stories http://globalhealthstatsandstories.wordpress.com/
There are great examples of innovative work being done that makes data interactive, tell a compelling story and matter to the viewer.