GOOD highlights submissions from their latest infographic contest: create an infographic about childhood obesity. Many may not be Tufte-friendly, but they do get right to the heart of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative to “Raise a Healthier Generation of Kids.” This is a positive step in the involvement of design to raise awareness and offer new ways of thinking to solve some big problems.
If there’s one thing I learned in information visualization last semester it is to be cautious in studying how graphics are represented to make an editorial point. This map at GOOD.IS shows 5% increments from 0-30% obesity, and the rest of the country is mapped from 30-100% obese. It gets a little vague, however there is no denying that a large span of adults in our country, being over 30% obese, is a problem.
The author, Andrew Price, states, “Part of the problem there is that a salad costs more than a Big Mac. So that’s something to remedy. More cycling and walking would help, too.”
I am hard-pressed to consider ways to “remedy” this situation, above and beyond a simple call for more cycling and walking.
