Visualization for the Masses: Information Graphics and the New York Times

He explained how a 30-person team creates the impressive infographics and visualizations we see on the newspaper every week.

information r/evolution movie

This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique & share information, a nice video illustration of some of Shirkey's essays.

demographics by ZIP Code - ZIPskinny

Colorful visualization comparing demographic attributes of zip codes.

Have you run into this problem: you have a list of phone numbers and associated values which would be best shown geographically to see patterns, but there isn't a clear way to put the data on a map. Maybe you'd like to see a map of customer service calls by call duration or inbound sales by average order size.

I wanted to share how to MacGyver a solution with a piece of twine, bubble gum, Excel, and a free online map tool. To me, this is a nice testament to the simple but powerful data visualizations that can be accomplished without programming skills or expensive applications.

1. Pull out area codes

First I pulled the area codes from my list of phone numbers using the formula below. This simply checks if the phone number starts with 1, then grabs the appropriate three digits for the area code.

=VALUE(IF(LEFT(E7,1)="1",MID(E7,2,3),MID(E7,1,3)))

2. Convert area codes into states

For my purposes, mapping the phone numbers by state was sufficient. Ideally, we would map the phone numbers to precise latitude and longitude coordinates by doing a reverse lookup of addresses then using the Excel geocoding tool.

First I needed a lookup table that could link my list of area codes to states. I wasn't able to track down a good data table, so I grabbed the data from All Area Codes and cleaned it up. Here is a lookup table of area codes by state.

An aside: I have a pet peeve with people who sell data that feels like it should be publicly available. You'll run across these businesses when looking for basic information about ZIP codes, MSAs, or area codes. Here is an example of one of these parasitic businesses.

3. Create your summary data set

I used a pivot table to summarize metrics by state.

4. Create colorized map of the US

Our friend Ducky Sherwood has generously put together a online tool called Mapeteria that will generate a colorized overlay of US states. In Ducky's words: "Want to make a choropleth thematic map (i.e. coloured based on your data) for Canadian provinces, U.S. states, or French départements?" This overlay can be viewed in either Google Maps or Google Earth.

Here's where it gets a little tricky. You will need to provide Mapeteria with a URL to a properly structured CSV file. Posting a CSV file to a web server isn't trivial if you aren't running your own web site. I found one free service called FileDEN that did the job (other suggestions?). Beware all the advertising—and in all likelihood they immediately sold my e-mail address at registration. Nevertheless, you can upload a file here and it will give you a URL which can be used to create your map.

Here's an example of the results:

Modest Maps

Modest Maps is a BSD-licensed display and interaction library for tile-based maps in Adobe Flash 7+, written in ActionScript 2.0.

glTail.rb - realtime logfile visualization

The Problem With Presentations

Don't let presentation software keep you from getting your story across,

Webfoot's Mapeteria: Map Colouring

Want to make a choropleth thematic map (i.e. coloured based on your data) for Canadian provinces, U.S. states, or French départements?

The Econ 101 Management Method - Joel on Software

Instead of having smart people figure out how to train their frontline customer service workers to serve customers well and profitably, they make up metrics that sound good and let the low wage, high-turnover customer service people come up with their own.

The rise and fall of IT | Perspectives | CNET News.com

Scrap IT? A well-reasoned argument for scrapping the term "IT."

Gallery of Data Visualization

Summize - Summarized product reviews

A nice visualization for showing rankings.

The Extreme Presentation(tm) Blog: Choosing a good chart

A client recently asked us if we could help him find the five locations that have the most customers nearby. I dug into the annals of our blog to find two tools that together ("wonder twin powers activate... shape of mini-GIS solution") could solve this problem:

1. Juice geo-coding tool lets you get the precise latitude and longitude for a list of addresses and plot these locations in Google Earth.

2.ZIP code finder lets you enter a US address and returns zip codes within a certain number of miles of that address.

Led by our resident Excel guru David, we combined these features into an Excel tool that lets you answer common location-based questions such as:

• How many libraries are within 10 miles of Worchester, MA?
• Which cities have the most libraries within 10 miles? 20 miles?
• Could I see the library locations on a map, please?

Here's how it works:

1. Drop your location information into the "Geocode data" tab. We are using the Yahoo geocoding service.

2. Go to the results tab and fill in the table with your selected location addresses and distances. Press "Calculate."

Download the Excel file here: Juice Distance Tool

We had a couple other features in mind, but thought it would be better to get some reader reaction before we loaded it up.

This tool is released under the MIT license.