McCandless - Information is Beautiful

Contents Foreword This book started out as an exploration. Swamped by information, I was searching for a better way to see it all and understand it. Why not visually? In a way, were all visual now. Every day, every hour, maybe even every minute, were looking and absorbing information via the web. Were steeped in it. Maybe even lost in it.

So perhaps what we need are well-designed, colourful and hopefully useful charts to help us navigate. A modern day map book. But can a book with the minimum of text, rammed with diagrams, maps and charts, still be exciting and readable? Can it still be fun? Can you make jokes in graphs? Are you even allowed to? So I started experimenting with visualizing information and ideas in both new and old ways. I went for subjects that sprang from my own curiosity and ignorance - the questions I wanted answering. I avoided straightforward facts and dry statistics. Instead, I focused on the relationship between facts, the context, the connections that make information meaningful.

So, thats what this book is. Miscellaneous facts and ideas, interconnected visually. A visual miscellaneum. A series of experiments in making information approachable and beautiful. See what you think. David McCandless (August 2009)
Foreword to the Kindle Edition Well, I didnt expect to do this.

This started as a funny experiment. Could I take a rich, chunky, visual feast of a book and distill it down into a series of little blacknwhite pills? I just started playing. And to my surprise, it worked. It really worked. Myself and the team here set about reworking and revisioning every single image of Information is Beautiful. Discarding the many infographics which just didnt work.

Sniggering at the few that should not have worked, but did. Crunching them all down and enjoying the creative limits and odd charms of the Kindle retro-tech. (I love its smudgy 8-bitness. The grayscale. The way the previous screen ghosts under and illuminates the next). Actually, this book might illuminate a key aspect of infography and data-visualisation that is often forgotten.

That is, concept. If your concept is strong and clear, the information design doesnt have to be complex, or wall-sized, or interactive - or even colourful. In this medium, concept is the invisible glue between data and design. More than that, concept is non-physical. Its not necessarily limited by the size of the canvas. It can be compressed into the tiniest space.

And then slipped quietly into your mind on the train, on the bus, in the bath... Wherever youre reading this, it hope it tastes sweet. David McCandless (Jan 2013)

For best results Make sure your Kindle device is set as follows

In this Book Contents

Books Everyone Should Read The most mentioned books in Top 100 polls and charts

Kilograms of Carbon Entire supply chain emissions per year

Tonnes of Carbon Entire supply chain

International Number Ones Because every country is the best at something

Cocktails

Cocktail Cures

Body By...

Which Fish are Okay to Eat? Crashing fish stocks. Pollution.

Low Resolution Amount of sensory information reaching the brain per second

What is Consciousness? Make up your own mind

The Sunscreen Smokescreen Everything you need to know