A pie chart displaying how often users returned to one of the Argo sites over the past month.
Ezra Klein does this thing sometimes where he builds a post out of a single chart or graph. And he titles the post, brilliantly, “The [giant complicated social phenomenon] in one graph.” Here’s a good example: “The last 30 years of the job market in one graph.”
The headline is a wonderful come-on. Who doesn’t want to understand something complicated in one graph? But it’s a little deceptive, of course; typically the graphs themselves need to be parsed and explained, so the reality is more like “The last 30 years of the job market in one graph (with a few hundred words of explanation).” But it’s effective. Just having a strong, informative visual helps provide the motivation to engage with a nuanced point.
The moral of this story: Don’t knock the power of a simple infographic to provide the visual that compels users to read your post.
States I've lived in. Darker blue means I lived there longer.
And the point of this post: The other day, Wes reminded me of a terrific tool to help you make simple, pretty infographics of your own – Google Chart Wizard.
All of the Argo-bloggers have made posts that hinged on a key statistic or data-nugget that just begged to be illustrated with a pie chart or bar chart. Here’s one from yesterday on On Campus, for example. Google Chart Wizard saves you from having to run Excel to make these simple infographics.
There are many, many types of charts available – from standard pie, bar and line charts to Venn diagrams and “Google-o-meters.” I’m not going to go into detail here. Just go play with the shiny toy, and teach me something in one graph.
