Map of Moon Exploration - How Far Did Armstrong and Aldrin Walk?
Image from Strange Maps (source from NASA)

Good data visualization should convey a simple message to viewers. Quite often I see examples of information design that are overly complex or focus too much on presentation than communication goals. I think the mistake is that these designs fail to tell a comprehensible story, or to say, lack of a central idea that explains the purpose of the data.

This is probably why Map is such a unique and compelling form of communication. Not only it visualizes the relationships between elements, but also it represents one’s mind. It is the journey behind the lines and numbers that fascinates people who love to explore.

You can spend hours on this site if you like maps as much as I do.

Link: Strange Maps

Ideo.com - Screen capture

IDEO’s new site is a little tricky to navigate, but the magazine-style layout really shines here with powerful shots of the wonderfully designed products. Hands down one of the most visually intelligent web designs I have seen in a long time.

Link: Ideo.com

A series of weekly lecture podcast provided by Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Speakers include Larry Page (Google), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Sue Decker (Yahoo) and leaders from various industries such as web2.0, biotech, venture capital, academic and entertainment.

I especially enjoyed the latest episode on Music Business Entrepreneurship with Quincy Jones III, Chamillionaire, MC Hammer, and Mistah FAB. The content is very informative and honest.

Link: The Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders lecture series

Vi.sualize.us is a social bookmarking site for images. Developed in 5 months by Victor Espigares, “a Spanish software engineer who loves photography (as described on the site)”.

I like the simple look and the tone of the early content. Features like Safe Browsing and Tag Cloud are well suited for its purpose. Firefox Addon is also provided allowing users to summit the image in one click via the (right click) contextual menu.

Link: vi.sualize.us

Want to make a point but couldn’t do it alone? Start a campaign on ThePoint.com.

I first saw this site about 4 or 5 months ago and really like the concept. The Beta tag was recently dropped with a redesign and some new features. Had to say that I personally like the old NewYorker-ish page style a little better.

Link: ThePoint.com

Related Article: How to Avoid the Curse of Vision Overload
by Andrew Mason (ThePoint.com Founder)

Evernote provides the tool to capture and save your browser’s clipboard data and post it online in one click. This is one of the best online services I have seen this year.

Link: EverNote.com

An interesting online bookstore that has a Google Maps-like interface.

Link to Zoomii.com