Infographics

• In investing, timing is everything

  January 13, 2011 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  When you invest in stocks, it's not just what you invest in, but also when you put the money in and when you get it out. The New York Times explains with this grid diagram:

  This chart at right shows annualized returns for the S.& P. 500 for every starting year and every ending year since 1920 — nearly 4,000 combinations in all. Read across the chart to see how money invested in a given year performed, depending on when it was withdrawn.

  Darker red represents greater loss while darker green represents the greater gains. Tan color indicates more modest gains.

  The method probably isn't new, but it's the first time I've seen it. I like it. I've only seen those "what if" calculators where you enter a value to see how it would've paid off. That only lets you see one scenario at a time. This type of chart lets you see multiple time spans at once.

  [New York Times]

• 7 billion people in motion graphics

  January 4, 2011 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  National Geographic argues a need for balance across the world population in the latest motion graphic video. As is usually the case with these, the video hits you with a lot of aggregate percentages and averages, but it's well-produced and good enough to make you care.
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• The real Inception flowchart by Nolan

  December 30, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  Inception was a complex film, so there was understandably some confusion over the levels and who was where. A couple of flowcharts tried to explain, but there was still some debate. So here is the flowchart to trump all other Inception flowcharts. It's by Christopher Nolan himself. Any questions?

  [In Contention via Waxy]

• Comparison of the largest stars

  December 23, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  You've most likely seen a couple of views of the universe to provide a sense of scale. Main point: you're tiny. Here's another video. This one focuses on star sizes. it starts with our solar system and then moves up to VY Canis Majoris, the largest known star in the universe. The video was actually made last year, but still fun to watch. It's got a few drops of dramatic music in there, too.
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• College football coaches’ ballots

  December 9, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  Brett Coffman and Juan Thomassie for USA Today have a look at how college coaches from the top 25 teams ranked other teams. You can look at it from two directions. You can look at the data by team, and see what all the other coaches ranked a team, along with rank by week. You can also see the data by individual coach to see his top 25 rankings. Albeit the latter view isn't very useful unless you have a specific coach in mind. [USA Today | Thanks, Kevin]

• Axes of peeing in public

  December 8, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  You might think this is a joke, but this is serious business. From Laura Noren, a PhD candidate in sociology, the axes of public peeing:

  This was something I used to help me think through the two main axes that determine peeing behavior – biological and social control. Urination is a biological function that has been subjected to a great degree of social control. Unfortunately, urban design has not kept pace with the demand for clean, easily accessible public restrooms for humans. And there has been no attempt to create any kind of system to deal with canine urine. In most cities it is illegal for humans to pee in public but both legal and widely accepted for dogs to pee where ever they like (in New York, they cannot pee on the grass in parks).

  It seems the only solution is to let people go wherever they want, as the dogs do.

  [Graphic Sociology]

• Relationships on the Bold and the Beautiful explained

  December 3, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  I don't get soap operas. People get married, divorced, evil twins show up, babies are born, people are shot, and every now and then someone becomes the hostage of an ex-lover. It's too complex for my simple mind. Luckily, here's a video that explains all of the relationships in the Bold and the Beautiful, from 1987 up to present.
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• What generation do you belong to?

  November 17, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  In this interactive, USA Today guesses your age, based on what influenced you as a teenager:

  The year you were born partly determines what generation you belong to, but so do your cultural experiences. The chart below shows the offset from birth years to one's teenage years — when people are most influenced by the world around them — and the music, movies, TV, news, fashion, technology, toys and sports of those eras.

  Simple and entertaining. I took the quiz twice, and it was different each time. It was one year off both times, so dead on when you take the average. What generation do you belong to?

  [USA Today]

• You fix the budget puzzle

  November 14, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  Not pleased with how the government is handling the budget and deficit? Fine. You fix it. The New York Times provides a budget puzzle:

  Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.

  Choose wisely.

  [New York Times via @mrflip]

• The Election on Twitter

  November 1, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  In what seems to have become an expectation during all major events, a Twitter tracker from the New York Times shows you what candidates are getting the most and least buzz. Each circle represents tweets from a candidate, retweets, and tweets direct at, colored appropriately by party. Press play and they grow and shrink over time. Select a specific candidate(s) to see the specific breakdowns.

• Animated graphic on why you should shut off your work computer

  October 19, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  Millions of people leave their work computer on every day, thus wasting lots and lots of energy through the night when no one is there. In this animated infographic, Nigel Upchurch describes what it means when you leave your computer on. As with most of these types of things, the numbers are a bit simplistic. Nevertheless, it's interesting to watch and well-designed. And well, it kind of makes me want to make sure I turn off my computer at night.
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• Explanation of current economic slump

  October 14, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  Neil Irwin and Alicia Parlapiano of The Washington Post report with this interactive graphic on why it doesn't feel like we're in a recovery:

  The nation’s economic woes boil down to this. Compared with a healthy economy, about 7 million working-age people and 5 percent of the nation’s industrial capacity are sitting idle, not producing what they could. The economy is growing again, but at a rate — less than 2 percent in recent months — that’s too slow to keep up with a population that keeps increasing and workers who keep getting more efficient.

  A step-by-step guide explains the output gap, the difference between potential and actual output.

  [The Washington Post via @hfairfield]

• Make your vote count with VoteEasy

  October 4, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  Do you know who you'll be voting for this year? It can be tough deciding with all of the different issues and candidates. The commercials on TV don't exactly help all that much either. VoteEasy, brought to you by Project Vote Smart and developed by Portland-based design firm Periscopic, helps you make an educated decision. Input the issues that matter to you, like abortion, public healthcare, or capital punishment, and VoteEasy will show you the candidates who best match your ideals in your area.
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• Charted history of airline mergers

  September 29, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  Airlines have been merging, going out of business, and growing since forever. Karl Russell for The New York Times shows just how much change there's been during the past few decades:

  The deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 led to a wave of mergers that continues to this day. But even as the legacy carriers have been consolidating and growing, they have been losing market share to low-cost carriers. Two of them, SouthWest and AirTran, have just agreed to merge and carried the most passengers in 2009 combined.

  The thickness of each flow represents the share of passengers during a given year forming a blockish Sankey diagram. Brown flows are those that were absorbed by a larger airline.

  It looks like anyone who's not JetBlue, Southwest, or Alaska Airlines can only survive with mergers. I wonder why. [New York Times]

• Who gets what if tax cuts are extended

  September 24, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  There are some major tax decisions to be made soon, and they'll affect you differently, depending on what bracket you're in. Bill Marsh of The New York Times takes a stab at showing the differences. The American population is put into context with a hypothetical population of 1,000. For example, if America was a population of 1,000 people, 125 of them would make less than $10,000. Piles of Benjamins shows average size of the 2011 tax cuts.

  We saw the same tax topic explored by The Washington Post, except their's was interactive and showed costs with Obama's proposed plan. Which one works better? My vote is for NYT. It takes up a lot more space, but it's much more straightforward and to the point.

  [New York Times via Cool Infographics]

• Bore hole for Chilean miners

  September 21, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  As most of you know, there are 33 Chilean miners trapped 2,230 feet underground. That's about two Eifel Towers, and it's going to be a few months before they're rescued. In the meantime, the necessities of life are being sent down to the miners through a 3-inch bore hole. This simple graphic/cutout from Newsweek provide some perspective. [Newsweek]

• Electronic Medical Records by the numbers

  September 17, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  In 2009, legislation mandated that doctors make use of electronic medical records by 2013 to help make the healthcare process run smoother and more efficiently. This information video (below) produced by HonestPancake explains the basics of the why and how. It's also sort of an advertisement for GE Healthcare's Centricity Advance.
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• Illustration of ideas and concepts

  September 13, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  In a different take on the infographic, RSA Animate illustrates the ideas and concepts proposed by invited speakers at RSA lectures. A recorded audio version lecture runs in the background a hand, possibly the same hand who played Thing on the Addams Family, draws what the lecturer is saying.

  Below is the illustrated version of Professor Phillip Zimbardo's lecture on the secret powers of time. The original video of Zimbardo speaking at a podium follows. Same message, but very different visuals.
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• How tax breaks could affect your bottom line

  August 26, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  Wilson Andrews and Alicia Parlapiano report for The Washington Post on how the fight over tax breaks affects your bottom line:

  Tax cuts enacted under former president George W. Bush are set to expire at year's end, and lawmakers are battling over whether to extend them before the November elections. Most Republicans want to extend all of the cuts, saying that any increase in taxes will hold back the economic recovery. President Obama and Democratic leaders would extend many of the cuts but say tax breaks for top earners should expire to pare down deficits. Each plan would affect average tax rates for income groups differently.

  Each row represents an income group, and you can flip between letting Bush's tax cuts expire, shifting to Obama's plan, and extending the current cuts. Bubbles on the right show the average tax change per taxpayer for each income group. Switch from the first option (letting all cuts expire) to the second (Obama's plan), and you'll notice some changes for top earners.
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• Election night in Australia relived

  August 24, 2010 to Infographics  •  Nathan Yau  •  Share on Twitter

  

  It was election night a few days ago in Australia, and News.com.au ran this graphic to show results in real-time during the election:

  Instead of presenting the count as a map, we've made each electorate into a little ball, which pulses and swings and fights for position against 149 others.

  As the votes come in, the balls spring to life, changing colour and moving towards the larger ball representing the party leading the vote. The colour will get deeper as the percentage of the vote counted rises.

  At first it displays the primary vote, then when it's time to call the seat for that party it switches to the two-party preferred or two-candidate preferred vote.

  There's also a scroll bar and a speed option so that you can go back and forth in time. Enter a postal code to highlight specific areas.

  I lack the context to fully appreciate this, but several Aussies have sent me the link, so maybe someone can highlight some of the interesting points. It's easy to see though how this could be fascinating during any election in your country or city, even if the floating animation is more for flash. A lot of the time we don't care so much about the geography as we do the party splits and our particular area.

  [Thanks, all]