A couple of websites have picked up the news of an interesting little coffee table book called ‘The Little Book of Shocking Global Facts‘. Those in the visualization & infographics communities have been shredding it as a perfect example of some of the worst infographics ever made.
Pitched as the combination of “startling graphic imagery with truly shocking facts gathered from the world’s most authoritative sources”, the book seems not to have convinced everyone. Reviewed instead as a “compendium of awful graphics”, its illustrations seem to ignore even the most basic rules of good infographic design, while the lack of any source material does not make the resulting insights trustworthy.
While I haven’t seen the book myself, the graphics floating around truly are bad. The one above (click for fullsize) is simply ghastly. From the unreadable text (I honestly thought it was some type of Pictograph at first), to the horrible moire pattern black and white pie chart, with 3 slices that I can’t tell any difference in, it really is an early contender for Worst Graphic of 2010.
via Question: Is This the Little Book of Shocking Infographics? – information aesthetics.
Hi Randall, this really has caused quite a buzz today! I came across the book last night and posted a response this morning (http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2010/07/worst-graph-design-ever/) where I declared it the worst graph I’d ever seen.
It was also published (without critique) and discussed (with critique!) in the UK design mag Creative Review (http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/july/barnbrooks-little-book-of-shocking-global-facts#feedback) its interesting to note the Creative Review appear to be lining up a future issue where they will be addressing the subject of data visualisation and the growth of infographics.