Infographics and Statistics“A picture is worth a thousand words”

Mr. Zoltan Nagy – Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social affairs, United Nations

United Nations Regional Workshop on Data Dissemination and Communication, Manila, Philippines, 20-22 June 2012

Boring ???

Interesting!!!

Why Infographics?

Short attention span Information overloadEasy to understandVisual retention is better the

reading retentionImages are more appealingPeople love to share “nice”

finds on the Internet

Slide 5

1644 - Michael van Langren

Most likely the first visual representation of statistical data.

12 determinations of the longitude from Toledo to Rome.

Slide 6

1765 - Joseph Priestley

The first timeline

Slide 7

1800’s - William Playfair

The ”father” of business graphics

1958 – Florence Nightingale

Slide 8

Polar area diagram

1858 – Charles Joseph Minard

Combination of maps and piecharts

1869 – Charles Joseph Minard

Presentation of multiple variables on a 2D chart.

Slide 11

1967 – Jacques Bertin

”Semiology of Graphics” – theoretical foundation of data visualization

How to use Infographics?To advocate an issueTo show the status of an

indicatorTo illustrate trendsTo compare indicatorsTo demonstrate correlations

To advocate an issue

To show the status of an indicator

To compare indicators

To demonstrate correlations

http://www.cacoo.com

http://visual.ly/

http://charts.hohli.com

http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/

http://www.statsilk.com/

More Tools

http://stephenslighthouse.com/2012/03/23/over-100-incredible-infographic-tools-and-resources-categorized/

http://www.webadvantage.net/webadblog/30-really-useful-infographic-tools-resources-4453