Dataset
YouTube Trends – https://www.youtube.com/trendsmap#sex=0&age=0&type=1

This dataset is compelling to see as video viewerships shifts from broadcast to user-generated content. While the amount of views and shares of videos may not tell us if the videos was good or not, it does give us insight on the cultural movements of the internet. What I really like about the trend map is how it ties these somewhat abstract number of view with locations. Somehow, the data feels much more grounded to see plotted geographically. Perhaps because internet users tend to be anonymous and faceless.

Provocative
Gravity Interest Visualization – http://whatspop.com/entry/gravity-interest-viz

This visualization was very interesting to see how interests brought friends together. It’s great to look at your friends and trace their lines back to common interests that you may not even know you had. It reminds me of the “6 degrees of Kevin Bacon” game, but flipped inside-out and visualized.

Well-Crafted
Points – http://infosthetics.com/archives/2013/06/points_smart_robotic_street_sign_rotates_to_direction_of_content.html

Points is a well-designed robotic street sign that can adapt to various contexts. It not only can tell you information about fixed locations, but also events and news. I love the fact that it can combine or split the screens up to visualize information spatially. This is an excellent example of what you can do with a single color display, but with lots of contextual information.