Information is Beautiful!

Who among us doesn't suffer from information overload? But information can and should be a beautiful thing, and no where is it displayed more beautifully than at informationisbeautiful.net created by David McCandless, a London-based author, writer and designer whose passion is visualizing large quantities of information with nary a boring Powerpoint chart to be found!

Here are some of my favorites. Click on the image to go to the original post which usually includes the sources used to create the chart.

Left vs Right
This visualization is particularly intriguing, and can provide endless hours of debate. Click, and then click again, for a larger, readable version.

The most common words in toy ads targeting boys

Books everyone should read



 

A decade of fear
The timeline is the last decade to 2010. Yellow is bird flu, pink Swine flu, orange is SARS; and the lonely gray peak right at the left of the chart is, of course, the Millenium Bug. Click for the full key.



 

Lastly, my current favorite:
The true size of Africa

Which is your favorite? Do you know of any other good sites for displaying complex information in intriguing ways!?