Eye candy with a purpose: infographics and charting solutions

So we found a new site we LOVE and it’s called Chart Porn. It’s not porn, technically speaking, but seductive in a brainy-XXX kind of way.

Indeed, Chart Porn is about information and data and graphs and charts and posters. Since we are in the era of “big data,” there are really only two ways to go about it: bore people to death with spreadsheets or make it into cartoons. Creative nerds stepped up, and cartoon it is.

The explosion in art+data is mind-blowing. There are a couple of terms that describe what’s going on: "data visualization," "information graphics" and "info graphics." There are great websites, such as Flowing Data, Cool Infographics, Floating Sheep, Visual.ly and Infosthetics. 

How did we live without graphics showing flow charts of how to choose wine and cereal, the evolution of video game controllers or comparison of Tweets in the deep south: church versus beer?

Actually, there’s a better question in there: How can we use better information graphics here? First off, SRiQ is about knowing the city. We found this amazing graphic from People for Urban Progress (PUP) in Indianapolis about how to bring an idea to city hall.

What’s so great?  It starts with ideas --- not complaints --- it’s all in one place, and they have neighborhood liaisons. How great is that?  The city of Portland has an entire page devoted to Portland-explaining information graphics.

Think about the possibilities here in Sarasota.  We have lots of stuff going on that seems to be overly-complex by design. Government, in the name of reform, seems to add even more clicks and layers. Like other cities, we could use a collection of these for government process and the voting mess that doesn’t seem to be that clear, even with a talking baby.

Combine that with some of the best graphics arts in the country, and we could be cranking.  There are hundreds of high school and Ringling College kids who need projects for their portfolios. There are just as many things that need explaining. How can we make the hook-up? How about a collaborative?

What’s the best infographic you’ve seen (we’ll post or link to the best ones). What kind of visualization would help you know your city?