Dimensions

Posted by David Bushell

Dimensions takes important places, events and things, and overlays them onto a map of where you are. The website was built by BERG (a design consultancy based in London) for the BBC.

Dimensions is an experimental prototype for the BBC. We want to bring home the human scale of events and places in history. The D-Day landing beaches measured from London to Norfolk in the UK. How far would the Titanic stretch down your street?

The software takes advantage of Google Maps to create the overlays. It's a simple but very powerful way to communicate information on a relative scale. Taking huge, meaningless numbers and presenting them in a different format is the core of information graphics.

If you watched BBC Newsnight recently you would have seen Neville Brody and David McCandless discussing the value of info-graphics in today's culture. Brody doesn't does his reputation any favours by coming across as the most boring, out of touch, unenthusiastic wanker ever to take the stage. That's a shame, because anyone with eyes can appreciate the value of such graphics.

Dimenions is a form of interactive info-graphics, and a very good example of making information easier to understand.

Be sure to check out Information is Beautiful for amazing graphics.