The Map of Scientific Paradigms

One of the projects from Information Esthetics, the Map of Scientific Paradigms by Kevin Boyack, Dick Klavans and W. Bradford Paley shows how scientific papers in different fields are connected through their citations.

As to what the image depicts, it was constructed by sorting roughly 800,000 scientific papers into 776 different scientific paradigms (shown as red and blue circular nodes) based on how often the papers were cited together by authors of other papers. Links (curved lines) were made between the paradigms that shared common members, then treated as rubber bands, holding similar paradigms closer to one another when a physical simulation forced them all apart: thus the layout derives directly from the data. Larger paradigms have more papers. Labels list common words unique to each paradigm.

 Thanks for sending in the link Alwyn!

U.S. Flag Infographic

For the 4th of July, I wanted to post a new link to the U.S. flag as an infographic, but it looks like the "Meet The World" brazilian website that I posted about in February 2008 is down right now.  I still have the image, and its from the flag series by artist Icaro Doria. 

Icaro Doria is Brazilian, 25 and has been working for the magazine Grande Reportagem, in Lisbon, Portugal, for the last 3 years. He is part of the team (with Luis Silva Dias, João Roque, Andrea Vallenti and João Roque) that produced the flags campaign which has been circulating the Earth in chain letters via e-mail.

The Summer of Pool Shows

Another page of quirky charts from Andrew Kuo that I came across from October 2007. These try to represent information about the 2007 summer's series of concerts at Brooklyn's McCarren pool.

Found on CoolHunting.com

Grocery Aisle Nutritional Values

Three different ways to view the grocery store from Wired Magazine Infoporn January 2008 (16.01) by Dan Marsiglio. Cost per Calorie, Calories by Weight and Sugar by Weight.

If you're trying to cut back on the sugar in your diet, stay away from the cereal aisle!

Car HUD from the future

From the January 2008 (16.01)Wired Magazine; Artifacts from the Future, by Chris Baker. This future automobile HUD has some really cool features like a DUI driver identified ahead, in-car video chat, live GPS map with directions and a coupon for the Starbucks at the next exit. He's doing 90MPH, eating an energy bar and he's in the slow lane! For California, there definitely aren't enough cars on the road!

Looks a lot like a bunch of widgets on the desktop of your PC. It definitely seems too cluttered, but I think it was necessary to fit it on a narrow magazine page. I love that it seems to use a multiple-blink interface. Check out the calendar appointment in the top left: "...blink 3 times to reschedule."

If only this future were closer. I'm a real fan of car HUD interfaces. It's one of those promised technologies that still haven't become reality.

Code Swarm: Eclipse

code_swarm - Eclipse (short ver.) from Michael Ogawa on Vimeo.

Created by Michael Ogawa. Check out the website describing the project here.

This visualization, called code_swarm, shows the history of commits in a software project. A commit happens when a developer makes changes to the code or documents and transfers them into the central project repository. Both developers and files are represented as moving elements. When a developer commits a file, it lights up and flies towards that developer. Files are colored according to their purpose, such as whether they are source code or a document. If files or developers have not been active for a while, they will fade away. A histogram at the bottom keeps a reminder of what has come before.

Thanks Alwyn for sending in the link!

The Cost of Gadgets

From Wired.com, this is really a 3-dimensional chart. I liked it because there are very few 3D charts that actually portray 3 dimensions of data. (This is actually 4D if you include the different products as a dimension) Usually 3D charts are just bad use of chart styles from PowerPoint. I also like the perspective from above. Although unusual, it helps to see the whole chart.

WarCraft III DotA Poster

Created by Alwyn B., this hierarchical tree shows the complex Hero Item recipes for the WarCraft III MOD "Defense of the Ancients". As a fan and a player of the game, Alwyn painstakingly created his own infographic and then posted in on the Internet to share with other players. This makes a fantastic poster!

More than just the item combinations, the poster shows:

• Shows the basic items and how to combine them to form better items.
• Shows where to buy them, and for how much.
• Mini Map that shows shop locations
• Shop Item Layouts

When I looked today, this chart had been viewed over 100,000 times. Great job Alwyn, and thanks for sharing.

The Flickr User Model

Designed by Soldier Ant (his real name is Bryce Glass), the Flickr User Model attempts to map out the Flickr user experience. This is version 0.1, and I think he's working on version 0.3 now. Also linked on visualcomplexity.com

On his post on October 24, 2005, Bryce explains: "I've been doing some concept diagramming for work lately, and I've found myself enjoying it immensely. (...) However, since it's for work I can't share much of it. I did post some sanitized versions, with all the object-names obsfucated, but that just didn't seem wholly satisfying. So over the weekend I invested some time in a diagram that I can share with the internets: a simple Flickr user model (regrettably incomplete -- but I realized that if I tried to include the whole Flickr-verse that this diagram would go beyond labor of love and straight into excercise in folly)".

Thanks Rex for sending in the link!

Beware of Search Spider Traps

Another good SEO infographic on making sure your website is friendly to search spiders from Elliance.com. Don't forget, you can sign up to receive their weekly infographic email.