The beauty of data visualization

David McCandless, a London-based writer, designer and author of Information Is Beautiful, sees information overload not as a problem but as a design opportunity. In this TED talk from 2010, he shows how data visualization can make sense of large amounts of information.

Working as a kind of data detective, McCandless brings information into relevant proportions and exposes patterns that would otherwise stay hidden. He describes design as solving problems and providing elegant solutions.

For anyone working in information design, the talk is a short demonstration of how visual form helps people grasp numbers and relationships quickly, an idea related to the picture superiority effect and to pattern recognition.