Internet Love #002: 7 Interactive Infographics we Love
By: Univers Labs
Tags: Interactive Infographic, Data Visualization, UX Design, UX Research, UX

In today’s world, individuals are inundated with information on a daily basis. From swiping through our phones to travelling to work and watching TV…our modern day lives are full to the brim with it! But with our brains being forced to filter the relevant from the irrelevant information at an increasing rate, it begs the question, how much information do we actually absorb?

A study conducted in 2012 by researchers at the University of California and San-Diego, found that individuals are exposed to the equivalent of 34 gigabytes of information every day. To put that into context, that’s enough information to overload an iPhone 10 in 2 days! With so much information being exposed to individuals, it’s important to determine how organisations can distribute information more effectively to their audience.

Humans are naturally visual creatures, therefore, it makes sense that individuals are more likely to interpret information if it is visually communicated to them. Interactive infographics are a great way to help individuals understand information and put the data we’re being exposed to into context.

To quote David McCandless, “[Information] is like an organic network, with connections, roots and branches of knowledge’. Interactive infographics tell the story of data and enable us to contextualise information and make truly meaningful connections with it. If individuals are able to connect with the information they’re exposed to, they’re more likely to remember it and be persuaded by it.

We have been lucky enough to work on a variety of interactive infographics in our time and we truly believe that data visualisation is a powerful tool to be utilised. That’s why we’ve compiled our 7 favourite interactive infographics of all time. From simplistic and slick designs which hold huge data sets to highly visual interactives which tell complicated stories over time, this list is sure to give you some inspiration for your next project!

Number 1. Wikipedia’s People Map

This interactive infographic was developed by Matt Daniels and Russell Goldenburg. This visual replaces city names with the person who has been most searched through Wikipedia and is associated with that location. It’s interesting to see the locations which some famous names are associated with. Some names are more surprising than others but we expected to see Alan Turing for Bletchley, David Bowie for Brixton and Winston Churchill for Woodstock!

Number 2. Wind map

This beautiful and informative visualisation was created by HINT.FM to show the direction and speed of wind systems in North America. This visualisation was inspired by the awesome energy in which wind power possess. It visually communicates the invisible energy which powered the first explorations across the world and the energy which could be conserved to sustainably fuel the future.

Number 3. You vs John Paulson

From the very beginning of Univers Labs creation, this infographic has been a firm favourite of ours. This visual, which was created by MahiFX, shows you how long it takes John Paulson, a New York investment manager, to earn your annual income and how long it would take you to earn his. FYI, if it takes John Paulson longer than 4 seconds to earn your income, you’re doing pretty well.

Number 4. The evolution of the web

This beautiful infographic was created by Google Chrome to promote the new HTML5 software. This visual is a really cool and easy way to visualise the evolution of the World Wide Web and shows you when different technologies and browsers were established. It’s interesting for those UX designers out there who wonder when things like drag and drop became available!

Number 5. The evolution of Western Dance Music

This highly visual infographic was designed to indicate the cultural navigation of music across the world. Developed in collaboration with Univers Labs, Chris Nuelle and Mark Johnstone, this visual aimed to map out how music travelled to different locations from 1800–2000. This infographic caused a lot of controversy and we gained a lot of different opinions about when different genres were transmitted. Which just goes to show how wide and varied people’s perception of music can be!

Number 6. Urban Population by Country

This simple but slick infographic was created by our friends at Flourish. This straightforward but visual graphic shows the urban populations of different countries. Flourish now even lets its users create their own cool infographics which are really easy to make!

Number 7. The Seas of Plastic

This infographic was developed by Dumpark and represents a very relevant issue for all of us and provides a clear visualisation of a major environmental challenge. This data visual aims to determine the main sources of plastic pollution which is dumped into the oceans and the areas of the ocean which have the highest plastic pollution. It’s an interesting interactive infographic and is a sobering reminder of just how big a problem plastic pollution is!

Find out more about some of the interactive infographics we’ve worked on!