Lies people tell in online dating

August 5, 2010 to Statistics • Share on Twitter • Comments (7)

Online dating site OkCupid continues with amusing yet thorough analysis of their 1.51 million users. This time around, they cover the lies people tell:

People do everything they can in their OkCupid profiles to make themselves seem awesome, and surely many of our users genuinely are. But it's very hard for the casual browser to tell truth from fiction. With our behind-the-scenes perspective, we're able to shed some light on some typical claims and the likely realities behind them.

Among the findings:

People exaggerate their height by about two inches.
If someone says they make $100k per year, they probably mean $80k.
The more attractive a picture, the older it is.
Most self-identified bisexuals (80%) only like one gender.

Buyer beware.

New York Times on how they design their graphics

August 5, 2010 to Visualization • Share on Twitter • Comments (9)

Leading up to their book, Turning Pages: Editorial Design for Print Media, publisher Gestalten has a chat with Steve Duenes and Archie Tse — of famed New York Times graphics department — about what goes on behind the scenes.
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Browse street-side with Microsoft Street Slide

August 4, 2010 to Mapping • Share on Twitter • Comments (1)

When street view came out on all the the popular online map applications, we thought it was awesome. We were able to see photos of the actual buildings and people walking on the street. It's especially handy when you're looking for something in a brand new area. Street Slide from Microsoft Research is the next iteration of that.
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Inception dream levels explained in flowchart

August 4, 2010 to Infographics • Share on Twitter • Comments (47)

You knew this was coming. I'd call spoiler alert for those who haven't seen Inception yet, but honestly, this flowchart from graphic designer Sean Mort will just confuse you anyways. If, however, you've been fortunate enough to see the mind roller coaster of a film already, Mort's chart makes perfect sense and might clarify any confusion. Levels and dreamers are labeled accordingly. I think the line for Cobb to Limbo should start at Level 4 though.

[via datavis]

Update: Sean provides a revised version after seeing the movie for the third time.

What online marketers know about you

August 3, 2010 to Network Visualization • Share on Twitter • Comments (5)

Andrew Garcia Philips and Sarah Slobin (plus five data gatherers) of The Wall Street Journal report on the prevalence of trackers and cookies on the fifty most popular U.S. websites:

Marketers are spying on Internet users — observing and remembering people's clicks, and building and selling detailed dossiers of their activities and interests. The Wall Street Journal's What They Know series documents the new, cutting-edge uses of this Internet-tracking technology. The Journal analyzed the tracking files installed on people's computers by the 50 most popular U.S. websites, plus WSJ.com.

Websites (top half) and tracking companies (bottom half) are placed in the circular network diagram. Roll over a website, and lines flare out to the tracking companies that collect data about you on that site. Similarly, roll over a tracking company to see what sites they sit on. Lines are color-coded to indicate first-party tracker files and third-party ones.
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Inside the Glenn Beck/Goldline scheme

August 2, 2010 to Infographics • Share on Twitter • Comments (14)

Jess Bachman and Barry Ritholtz take a look at the Glenn Beck/Goldline scheme in standard flowchart fashion. In a nutshell: Goldline sponsors the Glenn Beck radio show; Glenn Beck supports them and tells listeners and viewers to buy from them; and now Congress recently opened an investigation on Goldline (and other shady gold dealers). Something is amiss.

Redesign of the Federal IT Dashboard

August 2, 2010 to Design, Statistical Visualization • Share on Twitter • Comments (2)

About a year after the launch of the Federal IT Dashboard, business intelligence consultancy Juice Analytics focuses on five areas — message, flow, charts, context, and design fundamentals — where the dashboard could use some improvement.

The first tip on message:

The information designer is responsible for presenting the data in a way that the message is delivered in a clear and understandable way. If the data is left to speak for itself, users can be left confused or frustrated. And in all likelihood they won't to [sp] see the full value of the data. That's particularly tough for this Federal IT Dashboard where a huge amount of effort has been put into gathering consistent data across agencies.

Totally agree with this, but to avoid confusion, let's clarify. You should always let the data speak for itself. It's just that what the data says often seems like a foreign language to non-professionals. It's up to you, the information designer, to translate. The better you can translate, the better the information designer you are.

See the rest of the redesign on Juice Analytics (who is hiring, by the way).

Best of FlowingData – July 2010

August 2, 2010 to Best of FlowingData • Share on Twitter • Comments (1)

Thanks again, everyone for sharing FlowingData. It was another good month, and it wouldn't be the same without you. In case you missed them, here are the most popular posts from the past month, based on views, comments, and links.

And remember - the FlowingData forums is still a great place to get your data questions answered, share tasty links, and post visualization job openings.