J464 Infographics • Fall 2007 • IU School of Journalism

Several links to useful sites that relate to the course contents are included below, organized by the three course units. I have annotated some.
Obviously, you should not limit yourself to these sites. When I typed “informational graphics” into a search engine, it found more than 685,000 pages with the term. A wealth of information and examples await you on the Web.
If you encounter a good infographics site that is not listed here, please email me the URL. If you encounter a dead link on this page, please notify me.

General

Edward Tufte’s Website. An emeritus professor at Yale University, Tufte is the leading scholar, authority and promoter of information design. His numerous books are elegant and his statements constitute a high call to the ethical and effective practice of informational graphics.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

Nigel Holmes’s Website. During his long tenure as head of informational graphics at Time magazine, Holmes was influential in popularizing the “chartoon” approach. His current work appears occasionally on The New York Times’s oped page.
http://www.nigelholmes.com/home.htm

Interview with Nigel Holmes
http://www.creativerefuge.com/pages/spotlight5.htm

Primer on newspaper infographics from the American Press Institute
http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/content/1465.cfm

The Associated Press news site, including stories, photographs and graphics. All good forresource materials. Claude will give you the login in class.
http://www.yourap.org/

Sources for data

The Congressional Budget Office’s Website. Great, nonpartisan, resource for data. You can read the information Online or download PDF files.
http://www.cbo.gov/

The United States government’s official Website.
http://www.us.gov/

The United States Census Bureau site offers a wealth of data.
http://www.census.gov/

The Statistical Abstract of the United States, is a great source of information on a wide variety of topics, published by the U.S. Census Bureau.
http://www.census.gov/statab/www/

Facster hosts the Statistical Abstract, but also offers statistics and facts on a wide range of other fascinating topics.
http://www.facster.com/

The State of Indiana’s official Website.
http://www.state.in.us/

The Indiana Business Research Center is an extensive resource for data and analysis of economic and demographic information needed by business, government and nonprofit organizations in Indiana and throughout the nation.
http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/

Graph unit

Rene Descartes, the seventeenth century French philosopher and mathmetician started it all. His discovery of the grid, with X and Y cordinates that permit plotting points, forms the basis of our graphs. For more, check the first two links:

Mathmetical explanation of the grid from the Wikipedia encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_coordinate_system

Historical account and appreciation of Decartes’s discovery.
http://www.13moon.com/descartes%20prophecy%20link.htm

Graph theory from Topics 2 Explore. Lots of links to a variety of formats and examples.
http://www.42explore.com/graphs.htm

The Evil Tutor's Guide, created at the Department of Physiology at the University of Western Australia, “illustrates how to fail properly and what to do to get really the lowest marks.” A saterical site, with good advice on graph production — if you do the opposite of what it says.
http://www.psreporter.com/evil/eviltutor0.html

Graph theory from the a mathmatics professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/courses/ci330ms/youtsey/intro.html

Graph theory from VirtEd.
http://www.mcwdn.org/Graphs/TabGraphMain.html

How to use Illustrator to automate graphs that get updated and republished regularly in your publication.
http://bing.biz/samples/smartcharts.jpg

Inflation calculator. Enter the amount of money, the initial year and the final year, then click the Submit button. The site calculates how much the money has inflated from the first to the final year. Created by S. Morgan Friedman, who offers several other interesting links about inflation and money.
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

The radar graph format. This page from the SPSS site explains that a radar graph is a two dimensional polar graph that enables you to simultaneously display many variables. It does this by plotting each variable along a different radial axis emanating from the origin of the polar plot.
http://www.spss.com/science_papers/creating_radar_graphs.htm

SPSS home site. Information, case studies, support, training opportunities from this vendor on how to use its software. If you’re serious about statistics, SPSS is the application. The first time you visit, you will need to register.
http://www.spss.com/

Universal Currency Converter. When comparing money from two or more countries, you need to convert them all to a single denomination. This site does that for you instantaneously.
http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Another currency converter site. This one, from Yahoo, offers a table.
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency?u

Map unit

The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, at the University of Texas at Austin, “is a general collection of more than 250,000 maps covering all areas of the world. More than 5,000 map images from our collection are also available online.” Great resource!
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html

National Geographic's map resource: “Find nearly any place on Earth, and view it by population, climate, and much more. Plus, browse antique maps, find country facts, or plan your next outdoor adventure with our trail maps.”
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/

“TopoZone is the Web’s center for professional and recreational map users. We've worked with the USGS to create the Web's first interactive topo map of the entire United States.… We've got every USGS topographic map, orthophotomap, and aerial photograph in the entire United States.”
http://www.topozone.com/

“A repository of aerial photographs and satellite images taken from miles overhead that you can view online or purchase. Features digitized aerial photos of the United States.” Sponsored by the U. S. Geological Survey.
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/

A commercial site that sells antique maps. Great source for historical perspective on map making and for charting chaging national borders.
http://antiquemapgallery.com/pastpresent/index.html

Tutorials about maps and map making, plus reference information about maps from the University of Iowa Center for Global & Regional Environmental Research.
http://www.cgrer.uiowa.edu/servers/servers_references.html

Recent site with numerous maps on the tsunami damage at Phuket Island, a resort area in Thailand.
http://www.phuket-maps.com/

“Cartography and geographic research for the human rights community.”
http://www.rightsmaps.com/

Mapquest
http://www.mapquest.com/

Scroll down and click the links to see PDF maps of the New York City boroughs.
http://www.nyc.com/visitor_guide/new_york_maps.aspx

Map sites using flash

Der Spiegel, a major German newspaper, uses Flash to great effect in creating this interactive tour of the Vatican in Rome. Note there are four parts, accessible via the menu at top left. The first part makes a particularly effective use of rollovers to add information and photographs about important sites within the Vatican. The second part is a spin-around that incorporates zooming; the drawing was created with a 3D modeling program.
http://www.spiegel.de/flash/0,5532,11169,00.html

An interactive experience that lets you make decisions for the 1805 Lewis & Clark expedition into the Louisiana Purchase. Match wits with sandstorms, grizzly bears, hostile native Americans and even more hostile weather. Will you make it to the Pacific Ocean?
http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/into/index.html

An interactive look at the history, geography, religion and culture of the Emerald Isle. Keyed to the PBS program, In Search of Ancient Ireland. Beautiful example of using Flash to turn maps into educational experiences.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ancientireland/journey_flash.html

Can you locate Uzbekistan? How about Chad or Qatar? Try this map puzzle.
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

Can’t decide where to vacation this summer. Check out CNN’s interactive guide to great get-aways.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/summer.trips/map.html

Explanatory graphics unit

An online visual dictionary from the Oxford Dictionary folks.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/pages/VED_samples

Great site. Lots of photos, diagrams and text. Good resource for projects.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/index.htm

One example from the How Stuff Works site on the human heart.
http://health.howstuffworks.com/heart.htm

Chuck Carter shares numerous explanatory diagrams he’s created for National Geographic magazine. Inspiring models.
http://www.chuckcarter.com/info.html

VisualJournalism.com - An eye on the graphic news
http://www.visualjournalism.com/index.html

Several full page graphics produced by The Poughkeepsie Journal in New York.
http://www.shopthejournal.com/store/page15.html

Sample page by the design firm Art Translations of its infographic offerings.
http://www.arttranz.com/pp_infographics.shtml

Menu page for Athnor Creative’s informational graphics. Especially strong on illustration.
http://www.athanorcreative.com/illustration/

Portfolio of work by Alexander Tavshunsky
http://members.rogers.com/alex.tav/multimedia.htm

Animal and wildlife graphics designed for Web presentation.
http://www.mattix-illustration.com/web.html

Animated graphics

Lucid Animation, work by Alisa Placas. Most of the animation here involves panning and zooming over maps or drawings. Good use of sound.
http://www.lucidanimation.com/html/work.html

Another one from the folks at the German magazine der Spiegel, that makes concrete the size of the new European air bus.
http://www.spiegel.de/flash/0,5532,10309,00.html