Information is Beautiful
David McCandless's poster-grade infographics on everything from relative drug harms to the meanings of colours.
Opens in a new tab. We do not control this site and it may have changed since we catalogued it.
How to get the most from it
Information is Beautiful sits in Data Visualisation under Learn, filed as coffee break.
- Set aside five to fifteen minutes and give it your proper attention.
- It works on a phone or a desktop, so open it on whatever is nearest.
- It works with the sound off, so it is fine on a train or in a quiet office.
- No account needed — you can start without signing up.
- Go in expecting something beautiful and brainy.
About this category: Visual journalism and open data done properly — charts you can interrogate rather than just look at. The argument is in the interaction.
Good for
- Filling a coffee break properly
- Looking at something lovely
- Giving your brain a workout
- A quiet break at your desk
- Killing time on your phone
- Trying it with zero commitment
Information is Beautiful: quick answers
Is Information is Beautiful free?
Yes. Information is Beautiful is free to use and needs no account.
Do I need an account to use Information is Beautiful?
No. You can use Information is Beautiful without signing up for anything.
Does Information is Beautiful work on a phone?
Yes. Information is Beautiful works on phones as well as desktop browsers.
Is Information is Beautiful safe for work?
Yes, we file it as safe for work. It also works muted.
How long does Information is Beautiful take?
We file it as "Coffee break": Five to fifteen minutes of proper attention.
More in Data Visualisation
All 15 in Data VisualisationEvery open source project plotted as a landmass, with related repositories clustering into continents you can pan across.
- 2 min
- Desktop
Notebooks for building charts in the browser, with a public gallery of thousands you can fork and pull apart.
- 10 min
- Desktop
Oxford's open charts on poverty, energy, health and war, with the underlying data downloadable from every single one.
MIT's ranking of historically famous people by how many language editions of Wikipedia bother to carry them.
- 10 min
- Desktop
Same mood: beautiful
All beautiful sitesDrags the guts of a JPEG around with three sliders, producing the smeared colour blocks that only broken files make.
- <1 min
Documentation of the vast Victorian asylums built to one architectural theory of curing madness, most now empty or demolished.
- 10 min
Tarot taught properly, with free card meanings, a clean illustrated deck and lessons that never ask you to believe anything.
- 10 min
Thousands of landing pages sorted by industry and style, which makes it the reference for anyone writing one.
- 1 hr+
- Desktop
Keep exploring
Category
Time and mood
Have a site of your own? Suggest it for Detour or browse the AltFTool backlinks hub.