What It ShowsThis infographic displays the dos and do nots for improving your credit score using a game board as a format.Why It’s GoodIt’s important to maintain a solid credit rating, so it’s nice to see informational tools to help. There is a lot of information here as a collection of what seems to be pretty much all you would want to know about what to do to evaluate and improve your score.The format is interesting. On one hand, I feel like a list of good ideas and another list of mistakes would probably serve me better. On the other hand, I like how the board’s path represents a kind of order to things, starting with checking a credit report and moving forward from there. The order is rough, and it’s not really step-by-step, but I think it’s enough of a chronology that the board game format works.Aesthetically, the infographic is satisfying enough.What It’s MissingIt really doesn’t flow perfectly. For example, #4 on the infographic says “‘Borrow’ another’s record”, and the next part of the board (the curve) gives a range of credit scores, with the sentence being finished on the space after the curve, with “by being added to a credit card as a joint account holder or by getting someone to co-sign a loan for you”. I think that explanations like these are necessary for the infographic to be functional, but the breaking up of sentences across multiple board spaces is a bit annoying.
What It ShowsThis interactive multi-layered infographic breaks down last year’s spending in America by category (and sub-category), region (and sub-region), and demographic (and sub-demographic).Why It’s GoodThat’s… uh… a lot of data. Bundle has undertaken and succeeded with a rather massive project to present a huge amount of collected information. You curious to know how the 90% percentile of single males aged 36-49 spent on electronics in October 2009 compared with those 18-25 married with kids in California? No problem. There is a fantastic level of data depth and detail here, making it a great tool for investigation, with an option for comparison.The navigation/interface is rather intuitive considering just how much information is available. Really, that’s the make-or-break aspect of this data tool, and they managed to make it quite reasonable. It’s a bit intimidating at first, but really, I’m not sure how I would improve upon it.On top of that, separate infographics were created drawing conclusions from the data pool, like the one below that shows the top spending and lowest spending cities in America: What It’s MissingThe package on the whole is great, but I didn’t like the starting page. I don’t like that I needed to click on text links below the initial image to start getting around. Links presented in a contextual way like that don’t immediately make you think you have to click on them to proceed, so I think a bulleted list could have been more effective. I would have liked maybe some old school image maps on the initial image, too. A more organized and even visual table of contents-type setup could have oriented me better.Once the initial stats were presented as annual totals, I would have liked that option in the timeline dropdown, instead of just picking by month.While I can understand why they didn’t want to include the mortgage/rent information, it’s a bit weird to cover that much to do with spending and not really talk about it, considering how much of an expense it represents.A data tool is great, but to me, an infographic should really give you take home information and not just expose you to ways of gathering your own data. That’s why I think it was quite admirable of them to take what was already a solid data tool and use it to provide the additional infographics.
What It ShowsA flowchart to ascertain eligibility for government tax credits in purchasing a home, as well as remodeling opportunities, all tied to the economic stimulus plan.Why It’s GoodThe infographic does a good job of taking a potentially dull topic and making it easy to understand. The flowchart was an excellent choice for relaying this kind of information. Also, the relevant information was there, and the infographic is self-sufficient and thorough enough to be useful.What It’s MissingIt’s not the sexiest infographic in the world, but far from the ugliest. I also like when an infographic that introduces a topic gives sources and references for further background reading. The goal is to impart knowledge, so why not? In fact, the page on the source site that discusses this infographicdoes give more information, so I would have liked to have seen the URL to that page in the infographic itself.
What It ShowsThis infographic breaks down the variety of areas where low-cost airlines have managed to cut corner to save money and pass those savings onto the consumer looking for cheap flights.Why It’s GoodThe information is very comprehensive, and you come away with a fairly solid grounding of knowledge as to how low-cost airlines can offer such cheap travel options. As a frequenter of RyanAir, I had always wondered how they could possibly cost so much less. Having seen this infographic, it makes a lot of sense. The employee to passenger ratio is probably the most interesting stat, and I’m glad they’ve included it.The infographic is a pleasure to look at, too. I like the little icons for each variable, and how they are consistent but differ slightly and constructively between the expensive and cheap sides.What It’s MissingThis didn’t necessarily need an inforgraphic to portray the data, and it doesn’t really capture any heavily multi-parameter comparisons. That said, I’m glad it was presented as visually as it was, even if the visuals weren’t crucial for the data.
