Instead of learning from many excellent visualizations of different data sets, what can one learn from investigating different visualizations of an identical data set? Accordingly, communication designer Lauren Manning decided to represent the same dataset in over 40 different ways , ranging from simple to complex, and from literal to abstract. The resulting data representations, infographics and illustrations explore various visualization methods, techniques, styles, degrees of complexity, and context, among many other varying elements.

The dataset that was consistently used includes the time and frequency with which different foods were consumed by the author over a time period of 2 years.

The work also includes the distribution of “experience cards“, which aims to track the differences in user experience, by asking people to report what visualization they checked out first, looked at the longest, thought was the most effective or thought was the least effective.

Via datavisualization.ch.

The infographic representing the meanings of different colors in different cultures by David McCandless has been featuring the cover of his book Information is Beautiful. About a year ago, it was also the subject of a visualization critique [PDF] by Stephen Few, in which he remarked its “design failures”, and questioned its “integrity” and “usefulness”.

However, some people seem not to have minded and created an identical diagram, but then with some powerful interactive features added. The visualization Interactive Colours in Culture [zoho.co.uk] thus reveals, among others, how the color red conveys success and good luck in Chinese culture, whereas Westerners connote it to danger. No universal contest exists on the dominant color for ‘evil’, however.

UPDATE: An interactive version of Stephen Fews’ grid view is now available as well.

See also Revealing the Top Albums of 2010 from all Available Rankings and Charts for more sinful circular mapping.

MAYA Design CEO Mickey McManus has recently demonstrated the power of using subtly animated infographics during a live TEDx talk. While the talk on “Information Liquidity” is already mind boggling by itself, the short visual interruptions that merge sophisticated illustrations with the concept of old-school overhead projectors (or maybe they represent the prototypes of next-gen thin film computers…) is quite an original approach to keep the audience engaged

Watch the presentation below.

See also Explaining Gender Imbalance Statistics through an Infographic Presentation for another live infographic-augmented presentation.

Via Huffington Post.

Next to their established offices in Boston and Milan, MIT Senseable Lab is now also active in Singapore, where they just launched an impressive exhibition [senseable.mit.edu] with five different graphical perspectives into Singapore’s social, economic and mobility patterns. The five visualizations are all based on real-time data recorded and captured by a vast system of communication devices, microcontrollers and sensors.

What seems to be in the pipeline is an open API to allow others access to the rich data streams: “The exhibition is just the beginning of something that aims to develop into an open platform for the management of urban real-time data and the engagement of developer communities in writing innovative applications for the city.”

“Hub of the World” shows the ships and containers arriving and leaving Singapore. “Isochronic Singapore” deformes a street map of the city proportional to its travel time. “Raining Taxis” combines taxi and rainfall data to establish the experience of not finding any taxis when it rains. “Urban Heat Islands” combines ambient temperature and energy usage to investigate whether cities are indeed warmer than the surrounding environment. “Formula One City” conveys the impact of the sports competition, for instance in terms of geo-located text messaging behavior. Lastly, “Real Time Talk” indicates the level of cellphone network usage throughout the city.

The exhibition runs from April 8th until May 1st at Singapore Art Museum.