

Can someone please stop the infographic madness? - taylorbuley
http://om.co/2012/03/12/can-someone-please-stop-the-infographic-madness/

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jgrahamc
Even the people who are supposedly masters at this type of data presentation
mess it up big time: [http://blog.jgc.org/2009/11/how-to-fail-at-data-
visualizatio...](http://blog.jgc.org/2009/11/how-to-fail-at-data-
visualization.html)

~~~
tel
I find there are roughly two clusters of infographics people.

One side is the statisticians who are adept at handling large data and making
reasonable inference from it. Their primary goal is to tease out a story from
the data. Unfortunately, they often don't care if it's ugly or impenetrable so
long as it's "correct" or at least strongly defensible.

The other side are the designers. Their primary goal is to explore the
attractive nature of patterns in data and use those patterns to tell people an
interesting story. Unfortunately, if the data doesn't seem to fit the story
they want to tell then they're likely to fall prey to confirmation bias and
other errors of detail that can completely change or pervert the support for
their story.

Neither side is successful in isolation.

~~~
essayist
Somewhat parallel to what I see as the two legitimate uses of infographics
(with no claim that there are _only_ two):

1\. presenting/supporting analytical results

2\. providing the viewer/reader with a way to explore data for new conclusions
(cf Tufte)

The first one is easier. E.g. I've identified that there were successive waves
of support, in the Republican primaries, for Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, etc.
and I can show a chart drawn from the Nate Silver do support this -
[http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/reads-
re...](http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/reads-
reactions-16/)

The chart both shows and supports the conclusion. Another "type 1" infographic
in a poster/narrative style (via Tufte himself):
[http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-
msg?msg_id=0...](http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-
msg?msg_id=0002w4)

The second use is more tricky. The famous "Napoleon's campaign against Russia"
chart does it well -
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.pn...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Minard.png)

You can explore lots of different points. (And it works in the first sense as
well - hitting you between the eyes with how many French soldiers died).

My test for the first purpose is "what's the story?" If it's just "ooh, look
at the pretty", the infographic has failed. And then of course you verify that
the story is presented fairly.

My test for the second purpose is whether the infographic rewards more
examination, and, even more so, whether I can find patterns or links that the
author/graphic artist might now have anticipated. E.g. in the Minard/Napoleon
graphic, you could check how losses en route to Moscow correlate with losses
on the way back.

Given how often infographics fail both these tests, I'd say we're in an
infographic bubble. Can't wait for it to burst.

~~~
tel
I agree with all you've said here. Infographics is fashionable today in the
same way that every hour there's a new article on how Big Data Will Change
Everything. As an article of fashion, it's easy to see that people have a real
desire to understand their world.

So the trick is just to prove that you're _actually_ better at it than
everyone else. Tufte has done this, I think. In some circles.

------
prat
Very generally speaking, any successful idea accumulates adulteration over
time as it is overused and over-exploited. The number of high quality
instances do not decrease but have to be sifted out from a larger group. If
the author hasn't realized this yet, he need not look far for numerous
examples in writing, music, movies, startups; appealing to make a u-turn on
the "madness" is futile.

------
brown9-2
The problem with ending the "madness" is that you need to convince the web
spammers that create these solely for increasing pagehits to stop doing so.
That doesn't seem likely to be successful as long as it is still a workable
strategy.

~~~
ilamont
I got two solicitations yesterday to place infographics on some sites I own.
Here's the pitch:

+++++++++++++++++

I came across __________ while searching for resources around education and
quality and was wondering if this is the correct contact in regards to the
content on the site. My team just created a graphic on these topics, would you
be interested in taking a look? I'd appreciate any feedback.

Thanks in advance.

+++++++++++++++++

My site ranks highly for several keywords related to online education, which
is why I got this pitch. The other pitch came from someone who saw that I once
posted a gag infographic on another site.

------
Brajeshwar
I stopped looking at Infographic as they've become cheesy these days. The
purpose of an Infographic is to simply data consumption and allow a consumer
to get as much data with just a glance or a cursory browse.

Many seem to have taken to the Infographic craze with bizarre and meaningless
meandering, that makes things lot more complex than the data being conveyed.
Well, there are Infographics where a simple bulleted list would have done a
much better justice.

------
ari_
From an online marketing perspective: We'll stop producing them when you stop
linking to them.

This is like asking Om not to take money for GigaOM..

------
andyfleming
I will admit that there are lots of "spammy" infographics running around on
the web. A lot of people use them without good reason.

However, I feel that they are a great way way to visualize data and
communicate to an impatient audience.

------
hartez
Ending the infographic plague:
[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/ending-t...](http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/ending-
the-infographic-plague/250474/)

------
koichi
I don't understand what you're trying to say... if only you could tell it to
me in some kind of visual, easy to understand format...

------
suking
Well with visual.ly's launch on HN - one of the worst launches I've ever seen
by the way - I think it's almost over.

