Cool Visualization Resources
After a few days of holiday vacation (one can only take so much business graphics), I'm back and ready to rock your collective socks off with my profound elucidations on visual communication, business process, and all manner of other buzzword-worthy topics. Unfortunately, I haven't prepared much for this week so I've decided to introduce you to some excellent resources for visualization. From visualizing social news to five-year discussions on the efficacy of the Gantt chart (those Tufte folks kinda scare me), you will undoubtedly find something useful and interesting among this collection.
information aesthetics
form follows data - data visualization & visual communication
Updated frequently, this is where I go to find the latest cool visualizations. As the subheading suggests, aesthetic quality is a top criteria for making it on this site so don't expect great business ideas. The astounding breadth of examples, however, proves that visualization applies across all industries and data sets. The moral here is that visualization applies to any group that consumes or produces data. That should cover just about everyone.
Junk Charts
Recycling chartjunk as junk art
Horrified at the misleading charts frequently printed in "reputable" sources? This community loves picking them apart. If you want to find out what not to do when making a chart, come here.
Communication Nation
Dave Gray is a strong advocate for visual communication. His company, XPLANE, specializes in complex visualizations. If you want to know about the endgame of visualization, check it out.
Smashing Magazine
Data Visualization: Modern Approaches
This article at Smashing Magazine covers some of the new and exciting uses of visualization (mostly web-based). In essence, it does the same thing that I'm doing in my post.
Edward Tufte Q&A Forum
If you are serious about visualization, read up on Tufte. Intense discussions on all types of business graphics abound on the forums, so wade in at your own risk.
Of course, I don't want this to just be about ogling pretty pictures.
You don't have to create magnificent art to take advantage of the
benefits of visualization. The abstract thinking required to create the
graphics in the first place is a useful exercise in and of itself. While you might not have time to create a procedural method for visualizing the data flow across your network, the fact that someone has should serve as motivation. Mapping out a simple process is cake-walk compared to that.
If I've left out your favorite resource, let me know in a comment.
