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This test will ask you 10 questions to determine how well you understand the principles of good table and graph design. Good luck!

(fell free to post, by comment, your results)

amMap, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

Data charts and diagrams are used when statistical data has to be presented in the most convenient and usable way. Visual charts are clear, visually appealing and easier to perceive than some simple enumerations or tables – mainly because users don’t have to analyze the meaning of presented facts, but can perceive main tendencies through the visual weight of the facts — directly.

You can create charts in graphic editors or use special applications (software or web-apps) which can help you to create your charts in few minutes. However, once you’d like to update an old chart, or create a new one, you have to run the application and create new images over and over again. That’s not flexible. Or maybe you just want to offer your visitors not a simple image, but a powerful dynamic chart.
To gain a greater level of flexibility you need to take a closer look at further approaches. One of them could be a flash-based solution which loads the data from server — from a config-text file. And this is exactly what amCharts offers. There are 4 sets with predefined Pie & Donut, Line & Area, Column & Bar and Scatter & Bubble. Generated Flash-files are dynamic and can be presented in 2D or 3D.

times cancer chart, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

Chris Gemignani was impressed by the particular information graphic in the Sunday New York Times about cancer care

So he decided to recreate the image using Excel. He created a screencast in which he demonstrates the process of making that graphic.

(via Jon Udell)

londons kerning, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

Dog thinking, originally uploaded by densitydesign.
“When you live with a dog for five years, as I have with Mister President, you get to know him pretty well. They’re a beautiful, complex species, but really, they have some fairly simple, predictable behaviors: eat, sleep, play, eat some more. That’s part of what makes them so lovable.Over the years, I’ve marveled at how straightforward and consistent Mister President’s behaviors are. I often joked with my ex-girlfriend how easy it would be to plot out most of his operating logic in flowchart form; heck, his decision-making flow is so simple I could describe it to most folks in a few words and they’d get it.

A Picture with Words Is Worth a Thousand Words
Still, for an interaction designer, what fun would it be to just describe it when I could make a diagram out of it? Which is just what I’ve done this evening, finally completing a flowchart that I’ve scribbled numerous times and recounted in conversation even more often over the years. It’s not a comprehensive topography of his logic, to be sure, but it does chart the most crucial routine of all: eating.
Gawd, I hope more people find it funny that I did this than they find it sad.”
(Khoi Vinh @ subtraction)

oil, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

Paris – Carte Intégrale, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

BBC World, originally uploaded by densitydesign.

See also:
Karen Minot.
BBC Press Office.