Edward Tufte is a statistician, computer scientist, and writer of several books about conveying information and data visually.
His favorite data visualization (below) is a French graphic from the 1800s. It illustrates Napoleon’s attack on Russia.
The brown line shows the invasion, with the width representing the number of troops in his army – which was half the invading size by the time they arrived in Moscow. After they were defeated there they started their long retreat. As you see the army dwindle down to just a handful of men by the time they left the country, on the bottom you can see the falling Russian winter temperatures they experienced.
Has any graphic communicated more human suffering without even a single image of a person? It is heartbreaking.
Now compare this to some marketing “infographics”. While some are very good, such as this one which shows worldwide oil consumption…
…others are long mashups and smashups of so much data in such a random layout that, really, are you going to remember anything from it?
Don’t do that. Remember: people see thousands of messages a day. For them to remember yours you need to focus on just a few key points.
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