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Every day, billions of words of content are uploaded onto the web. There’s more content being published in a few hours than any human would have time to read in a lifetime. Data visualization helps to make it easier to understand information, cutting down on reading time by presenting facts in a graphical format.
The internet has, in its storied history, been compared to many things: a river; a superhighway; and, perhaps most famously, a series of tubes. But as it turns out, the most apt comparison of all just might be an iceberg. Like the mighty floes that break off from glaciers, only 10% of the network we […]
Depending on where you live, free and open access to the information and entertainment found on the internet might seem like more of a right than a privilege. But for folks who live in some of the world’s more restrictive societies, some or even most of the internet remains tantalizingly out of reach, blocked by […]
It doesn’t matter when or where. You could be sitting in a meeting at work, or listening to a lecture at school. You could be at the movies with friends, or at the dinner table with family. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing (as long as you’re not driving). Your fingers are twitching. You find […]
In 1993, at the very dawn of the World Wide Web, Peter Steiner, an illustrator at The New Yorker, created an iconic cartoon. It featured two dogs in front of a computer. One of them said to the other, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” It was an instant smash, pinned on office […]
When WordPress was born back in 2003, the web was a much different place. In fact, “WordPress started… with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers and toes.” For those of you who don’t remember the content management system in […]
It’s interesting. There was a time — about two decades ago now — when most of us didn’t know about the Internet. Sure, some of us had been exposed to Lycos and AltaVista, but the Internet and, specifically, search engines as they stand now? No way. If we wanted to contact someone, we looked them […]
In late September of 2016, Yahoo! announced a massive security breach whereby hackers stole information from around half of their one billion users. The catch? The security breach occurred in 2014. Data from the Ponemon Institute shows that the average time it typically takes for companies to identify a breach is 191 days. It then takes, […]
In a 2015 survey conducted by Adobe Systems, it was found that US workers, on average, spent 6.3 hours checking emails daily (with a 50/50 split between personal and professional messages). How many emails do we receive each day where the average time spent reading, organizing, and responding to them is six hours? According to the Adobe […]
Year after year, we watch as media consumption rises — in our homes, our professional workspaces, and even while we’re out and about. According to Nielsen’s Total Audience Report from the first quarter of 2016, our consumption of media has increased by a whole hour since the same time period in 2015. The reason for this […]
From government to business to regular individuals, encryption is important. It’s how we maintain some level of privacy in our lives. It protects our email and our credit cards. For some, it can be a matter of life and death. And it’s a risky business. We never know if our passwords have been compromised, or […]
If you have a blog, you most likely want to reach as wide an audience as you can. But as much as people may say that content is king, there is a lot more to growing an audience than creating great content. One critical element is branding. To a lot of people, branding is kind […]
Admit it, there’s at least one game on your smartphone that you’ve played in the last week. Chances are, it’s more like ten (or more) mobile games, and you’ve already played one of them today. We love games, and mobile games are even better —you can play them anywhere! We also love a bargain. Dishing […]
Website accessibility is a huge issue, but one most people don’t think much about. Imagine for a moment that you have limited mobility. Maybe you can’t use a mouse, and the only way you can navigate a computer is by tapping a single keyboard key at a time. Try it out. Click the arrow buttons […]
In web years, animated GIFs are ancient. From the beginning, they enlivened Geocities pages with animated construction workers, spinning globes, ubiquitous dancing babies, and other old school animated GIFs you saw on every site and forum signature. Even if no one can agree on how to pronounce “GIF,” we can all agree that the web […]
When Tim Berners-Lee invented the hypertext webpage, he envisioned a world of shared information. It didn’t take long for businesses to realize that the web was a new shopping platform too. In fact, years before the web, in 1989, the first ever internet affiliate program was born when William J Tobin enlisted people to refer customers […]
Data visualization has gained new traction off the back of infographics, which allow complicated concepts to be described visually. But visualization is not new. It’s a technique that dates back to the production of maps, cave paintings, and even primitive diagrams showing the movements of the planets in the solar system. Data visualization is also very useful when describing a process or list; airline safety cards are a great example.
On the web, we use data visualization to present a large amount of information in educational and entertaining ways. Businesses produce infographics to describe the evolution of certain technologies, or show complex numbers in a visually appealing way. If your dataset includes obvious patterns, a visual expression can help to highlight those patterns. Often, these kinds of visualizations are more impactful than basic charts and graphs, since the web allows us to use a combination of text, graphics, video, audio, and interactive animation.
If you’re interested in data visualization, or you’re developing new visual content for your own website, we have some resources that will help.
If you’re creating infographics, analyzing data or creating informative visual guides for the web, there are a range of hazards and pitfalls you need to consider.
Sourcing reliable data online can be harder than it first appears. With the entire web at your fingertips, you’ll run into conflicting statistics, as well as websites that are biased or out of date.
Many people use desktop applications to develop data visualizations. However, you may need specialist tools, or services from your web host. Here’s a brief run-through of some resources that can help you to create and serve your visualizations.
Publishing lots of large images can be resource-intensive, particularly if one of your creations goes viral. You also need to ensure that your hard work is not stolen by a competitor.
Creating infographics and other forms of data visualization is a great way inform your readers. But there is a lot to it. Use the resources here to help you make the process as painless as possible.
