From The Economist: “A good graphic can tell a story, bring a lump to the throat, even change policies. Here are three of history’s best.”

From one of the guys who put together ChartChooser: “Here’s something we came up with to help you consider which chart to use. It was inspired by the table in Gene Zelazny’s classic work Saying It With Charts.”

“Google released a chart generator service they are calling the Google Chart API. Usage is quite straightforward: you link to an image in the form of a parameterized URL and Google returns a PNG graphic containing the chart.”

“As it turns out, though, it appears that most of these examples probably wouldn’t be considered “information visualization” by the “information visualization” community represented by the InfoVis conference, presumably because, for the most part, they aren’t designed as tools with which you do rigorous analytic work.”

“Bringing together leaders in visual thinking for the first time in one location, the VizThink ‘08 Conference (http://www.vizthink.com) is an opportunity for executives to understand ways of incorporating visualization processes into business, learning and communications strategies to gain faster and more effective results. Hosted by Portland, Ore. based VizThink LLC, the conference will include breakout sessions and forums facilitated by some of the most recognized names in the visual thinking space, including the distinguished Bob Horn from Stanford University, renowned author and artist Scott McCloud, award winning designer Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design, most notably known for her work in Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, and Nigel Holmes formerly with Time magazine. The conference will be held at the Westin San Francisco Market Street Hotel from January 27-29. Registration (http://www.vizthink.com/reg.html) is open now.”

“A while back we had a roundabout discussion about the term illustration and its limitations. Bob Flynn and Jaleen Grove both pushed back a little against my impatience with the term, and the supposed tyranny of the word which I decried… Frustrated by the lack of a larger narrative in which to locate genres, careers, and achievements, I have been working on visualizations of the development of commerical images. This week I have blundered into print with one such attempt: Commercial Images: An Evolutionary Scheme, a two-page infographic that occupies a central spread in the new Modern Graphic History Library catalogue, out this week. It posits two basic strands in commercial image history: illustration and cartooning, increasingly intermingled but distinct.”

“Find and download great looking Excel and PowerPoint charts. Our Chart Chooser lets you explore many different well designed charts and download templates for Excel or PowerPoint with a click. Chart Chooser is an online tool that answers two questions we commonly get:
1. What type of chart should I use to show my data?
2. How can I make good looking Excel or PowerPoint charts?”

“Information visualization for lay users seems to be a pervasive theme at the InfoVis conference this year. Matthew Ericson, Deputy Graphics Director at The New York Times, gave a keynote entitled: ‘Visualizing Data for the Masses: Information Graphics at The New York Times‘.

He explained how a 30-person team creates the impressive infographics and visualizations we see on the newspaper every week. Matt emphasized their role as journalists (instead of illustrators) and explained how they get from raw data to finished graphical pieces that make information understandable for more than a million readers.”

Noah Iliinsky: “My master’s thesis is a system for creating good diagrams. It starts with the basics of perception and cognition, and walks the reader through the process of making appropriate choices for their particular design problem.”

“I can’t imagine that a modern day pharmaceutical company would produce a book like this one. Although this was produced by Pentagram in 1971, the diagrams look as contemporary as any found today. A truly splendid book to lay your hands on if you can. This is one of the sad things about so many great books, they are in such rare supply. This book must be considered one of the definitive examples of diagram heaven.” (Thanks Heath!)

“Checking out the New York Times’s infographic on the housing bubble, I thought ‘wow! Look at how much prices climbed!’. Then I read the fine print and realized they’ve completely distorted the vertical scale to make the increase look enormous.”

“Data charts and diagrams are used when statistical data has to be presented in the most convenient and usable way. Visual charts are clear, visually appealing and easier to perceive than some simple enumerations or tables — mainly because users don’t have to analyze the meaning of presented facts, but can perceive main tendencies through the visual weight of the facts — directly.

You can create charts in graphic editors or use special applications (software or web-apps) which can help you to create your charts in few minutes. However, once you’d like to update an old chart, or create a new one, you have to run the application and create new images over and over again. That’s not flexible. Or maybe you just want to offer your visitors not a simple image, but a powerful dynamic chart.”

“The emerging field of visualization studies examines the use of pictures to improve the access to information, the quality of software, or the communication of knowledge. Prominent research fields in this area are information visualization (a domain of computer science), scientific visualization, or software visualization. Other highly relevant research sectors for the understanding of pictures in communication are design studies and the psychology of perception.”

“We create informational graphics that tell stories about subjects, time periods and events. Our purpose is to inform and entertain you with intense content embedded in an elegant design.”

“An interesting infographic trend: Square blocks of color are now being used to represent percentage-based statistics instead of the traditional pie chart.”