As Josselin Perrus of Linkurious interviewed by Science & future said: “The brain processes the image 60 000 times faster than a text”. We understand the interest of the graphic representation to understand complex information.
To visualize mega-data a picture is worth a thousand words. That old saying has been adopted by the entire community of big data. Data visualization developed in parallel to the control algorithms and to open data. This process is a tool of data processing: have a graphic representation of a mass of information facilitates their understanding and their use.
Then, when it comes to communicate data to the public, three media are mainly used: maps, graphs, and info graphics.
Computer graphics is an illustrated story in which the user go through. It leads us from data to data, bringing a development perspective of the information. The Regional and Interdepartmental Environmental and Energy Direction of the island of France explained trades and jobs of the green economy of its territory.
The graph is often used by journalists to present the relationships between the actors in a complex case. Linkurious is part of the tools to ferret out the links between the available data. He notably served to journalists who have investigated in the case of Panama Papers.
[Emphasis: the interactive map is the fun tool]
From a business perspective, the map has the advantage to be playful and respond to the law of proximity . Each person consulting it can inquire about the place where it or its close resident, or a place he enjoys. A simple way to catch the attention and get him interested in a product or a service.
In summary, data visualization facilitates the understanding of a complex subject. An info graphic can explain a project, a graph gives in a glance the links between the stakeholders in a field, whereas the maps placing the services in space.
The most impressive maps produced with data
Discover three cards at once beautiful and useful made from data.
All commercial flights of 2010
This card is an animation of the 30 million commercial flights of 2010, 2.8 million passengers. The busiest roads are those of Southeast Asia, where domestic traffic is very developed. View the map on the site metrocosm.com held by Max Galka, author of the map.
Weather predictions of winds
Ukko project aims to provide to professionals wind energy and markets of seasonal predictions about winds represented on maps. For each region, the presence of wind equipment is listed. Appointment on the project site to view the map of the world.
The canopies of the cities
The site of National Geographic published maps representing the canopy of 9 U.S. cities. Besides the poetic aspect of the thing, these representations are valuable clues for designing new urban services. Trees and green spaces contribute to the quality of life in the city by the withholding of rain water in groundwater and in improving the quality of the air. They are the subject of local public policies explained on 9 maps online.