David McCandless loves pie. And he loves information, too. But he hates pie charts. So, he\u2019s doing something about that. Calling himself a \u201cdata journalist\u201d and \u201cinformation designer,\u201d McCandless has given himself the task of turning facts, data, ideas, issues, statistics and questions into visual information.<\/p>\n

Describing himself as \u201cinto anything strange and interesting,\u201d he describes his work this way:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m interested in how designed information can help us understand the world, cut through BS and reveal the hidden connections, patterns and stories underneath. Or, failing that, it can just look cool!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A look at his website demonstrates McCandless\u2019 skill in combining intellectual curiosity, data and imaginative design. The result of his wide-ranging efforts is Information is Beautiful<\/a>, a treasure-trove of information that\u2019s presented in often unusual–but highly informative\u2014visualizations. Not one of which is a pie chart.<\/p>\n

Among his works is \u201cMountains Out of Molehills<\/a>.\u201d In a \u201cchart\u201d [don\u2019t tell him I used that word, please] in which data forms mountain peaks of varying altitudes, McCandless presents a timeline of globally hyped media scare stories from the past decade. Most of the scares concern dire predictions of mass deaths caused by flu, the SARS virus or even \u201ckiller Wi-Fi,\u201d and a collision between Earth and a giant asteroid. \u00a0You see the duration and intensity of media attention, and the actual outcomes. Information sources are as varied as the topics, and McCandless is scrupulous about crediting other researchers and news sources.<\/p>\n

One relatively steep \u201cmountain range\u201d represents media stories from 2005 through 2007 about the \u201ccatastrophic threat of bird flu.\u201d In a key below the visualization, McCandless reveals the actual number of bird flu deaths reported by the media: 262. As for that Earth\/asteroid collision scare, it creates a low-rise but pesky group of hillocks that persist from 2000 into 2009 [the last year represented in the visualization]. Number of deaths reported as a result of this non-event: 0 [to date].<\/p>\n

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