The digital age has brought us numerous life-enhancing benefits. Some of the most obvious include super fast communication regardless of geographic location, social networks and virtual communities, and online shopping, just to name a few. But in terms of information consumption, there’s an interesting shift worth noting. I am referring to the infographic, the visually pleasing crossbreed between information and graphics that makes complex concepts, statistics and processes much easier to digest when compared to plain text-and-number info. Here at All My Faves we’ve already featured a few infographic sources, and we also have a special Infographics Mini Faves page for it.

So what makes infographics so different from charts and graphs, you might ask. These, too, serve as visual aids that facilitate data analysis and comprehension, right? Well, as Cool Infographics creator and Inforgraphic Designer Randy Krum explains, “Charts and graphs can communicate data; infographics turn data into information.”  The bottom line characteristic of infographics distinguishing it from conventional data information is this: readers of infographics not merely acknowledge changes of statistics and data; they get the bigger picture fast and understand why these changes occurred in the first place.

Let’s dive right into the visuals and you will see why inforgraphics are making a steadfast appearance all over the Web (not to mention in major news websites and newspapers’ printed editions such as the NY Times). The first example is “The 10 Most Expensive Cities to Live In 2010” infographic by the Australian brokerage company, HomeLoanFinder.

Another great infographic example is this one below, showing the Rise of Walking and Biking, from 1990 to 2009 (source: Department of Transportation, appeared in GOOD Magazine, Jun 24, 2010). Click the image to launch the interactive infographic.

This third one is a knock-out, both in terms of aesthetics and functionality. Created by the talented team over at Information is Beautiful, Visualizing Bloodtests is the ultimate data-into-info example, and there’s no wonder why this visualization scored the 1st place in Wired Mag’s re-envisioning medical data design competition.

A standard bloodtest data document. Almost impossible to fully comprehend what’s going on there. and this is crucial to someones’ life!

Now see the magic of infographics (thanks to Information is Beautiful), turning the uncomprehensible document from above to an easy to digest content:

To wrap things up, see this interesting video talking about the use of infographics in the New York Times (via GestaltenTV).

Simplenote – This handy tool by Simplenote is a great (and free!) organizational service you will appreciate. Aside from the obvious note keeping, you can share notes and lists with friends and family, and access all of these on multiple devices -including PC, Mac and most smartphones- that are automatically updated with any changes you or others make to these notes.

Managing your notes and lists is super easy and fun. I gave it a try on my iPhone, and here are the Simplenote perks I loved: you can see each entry’s word and character count, which is useful if you wish to share it via web or phone, you can pin specific items to the top if priorities sudden change, and you can view each list/note in full screen mode. Simplenote is super versatile in terms of operating devices and publishing options. If you’re not a big mobile device fan, it’s good to know you can always use their Web app.

GroupMe – This service is essentially a group chat room that’s been modified to text messaging mode. It works with every cell phone that supports texting, so you don’t need a fancy iPhone or any other smart phone to use GroupMe (although iPhone and Android users have the GroupMe app available). You can create multiple groups while each network receives a designated number you will use for texting its members (sending and receiving). Some classic group categories I can think of are friends, colleagues, family, carpool group, etc.The possibilities are endless.

For quick GroupMe actions (i.e. key shortcuts), read this help section. Although there’s no limit to the number of groups you can create and be part of, GroupMe recommends keeping an ideal number of 4-10 members in each group. Apparently a higher number leads to clutter and noise, which makes sense. So what other functions are available on GroupMe? Aside from sending text, you can share photos with your group and make conference calls. Oh, and using GroupMe is free by the way. The only downside to this service is that it’s available only in the US for now. The GroupMe team says it’s working on making it available in other countries as well. Let’s hope that happens sooner rather than later.

Teach Parents Tech – Don’t we all have at least one member in the family who has given up all efforts to learn how to make the most out of the Web? My 86 year-old grandma uses her PC offline to play solitaire, and online to read the news -she visits over 10 major news sites per day!- and receive emails, as long as these are text-only, basic messages without any attachments or links. On numerous different occasions I have tried tempting her to learn the wonders of the Web, but she would always reply with the same aphoristic claim: “Honey, I’m too old for that.”

My relentless efforts of Web-pushing (including creating for my grandma an All My Faves mini user showcasing all the news and health sites she reads obsessively every day) fail to lure my granny into deeper levels of Web exploration and interaction. It seems she’s dead set on keeping it as basic as possible, and even that, she says, is way too much. Seen as my grandma’s case is a familiar one among seniors, baby boomers and individuals with a low-tech life approach, it was wonderful to discover Google’s recent initiative, Teach Parents Tech, helping to eradicate the strong technophobia pandemic among older people.

Beautifully designed and super-easy to use, Teach Parents Tech is a two-part process; first is the form (shown above) you, the experienced Web users fills out, checking the boxes next to the online actions you wish your parents/grandparents/aunts & uncles would learn. Once you hit Preview you will be taken to a new page structured in a letter format including how-to videos corresponding to the issues you checked in the form. Next all you have to do is provide your and the recipient’s email addresses, and you’re good to go.

For my grandma I picked the two how-to videos below (how to copy & paste, and how to change the PC’s desktop background, respectively). The Teach Parents Tech project is outstanding in both its concept and execution, and I highly recommend using it for the technophobes in your family. This is a keeper!

I wonder how long it would take for my grandma to learn how to use Google Reader. On second thought, I think I’ll just take it one baby step at a time…

Jumo – This website is simply amazing. It has cleverly combined the world of NGO/NPOs with the social network sphere, making it the best ‘follow your cause’ venue currently on the Web. In simpler terms, Jumo “makes it easy for you to find, follow, and support the issues and organizations that are important to you.”

Once you’ve signed up via Facebook, the Jumo platform asks you to select your areas of interest (such as human rights, environment and animals, poverty, art & culture, etc.). Next, based on your location, the Jumo system showcases nine different organizations and causes for you to follow in each of your chosen fields. See it here:

When you’re done, you’re taken to Jumo’s silverlining page: a Facbook profile-like page, customized according to your preferences, displaying important news and updates -feeds, really- relevant to your profile, plus suggested causes and organizations to follow. It looks amazing, includes content I’d actually like to read and it’s all for a good purpose. Hooray Jumo!

Daily Infographic -The sharp rise of infogrpahics (short for information graphics) attests to the growing trend of consuming complicated data in a visual way, which makes the understanding part both fast and more memorable, as opposed to simple numerical statistics. Infographics are particular handy when it comes to complex processes (such as financial, geo-political scenarios, etc.). Daily Infographic vows to post an interesting infographic every day, and they certainly keep that promise.

What kind of infographics will you find on this Weekly Blog winner? See the two interesting posts below, 16 Facts About Sleep and Colors of the Web. Enjoy.

20 Things I Learned About Browsers & The Web – Google sure knows how to pack each of their projects with creativity, interest and a taste for more. This project, published by the Google Chrome Team, cleverly makes the user feel as though he or she is reading a cute and engaging book, telling the story (in simple terms) of the Web, how it works, and explaining relevant key terms (such as cloud computing, web apps, HTML5 and more).

The beautiful illustrations you’ll find as you read along are simple yet super adorable, and they add to the overall look and feel of the 20 Things I Learned project (illustrations by Christoph Neimann).Reading the book from start to finish will take you less than an hour, and it will give you a solid idea of what and where the Web is today.

Fluent in 3 Months – Meet the magical website of Benny Lewis, a delightful Irishman promising to let you in on the all the language hacks out there so you can master language fluency in no time. The content you will find on Fluent in 3 Months is based on hardcore, firsthand experience: Benny was out traveling the world for seven years, meeting various nations, cultures and languages along the way.

Before he set out to his worldwide experience, Benny spoke only one language: English. This is a nice reassurance that learning a new language is more than possible, well after one’s school days are over. Fluent in 3 Months was a winner Weekly Blog, hence its Weekly Fave position. So go ahead and enjoy discovering a new language, and I suggest starting with Benny’s Language Hacking Guide. By the way, if you’re interested in additional language learning resources, check out our Language faveline on the Education page.

Damn You, Auto Correct – This Weekly Blog winner is one of those funny cases where technology is developed to make our lives easier, but instead, it makes it more complicated. Damn You, Auto Correct puts the iPhone’s text auto-correct feature in the giggles spotlight and ridicules honest messages gone bad as a result. This is hilarious, surprising and addictive. There, I warned you. Below are a couple of especially funny examples.

VYou – An innovative and fun idea that makes social interaction much more personal: “you record video responses to messages entered by friends and fans. VYou organizes their messages and your videos into conversations, making the experience feel continuously live even though the content is stored.” Still in beta, VYou offers a unique -and free- tool you ought to make use of, or at least try out.

The traditional concept of video chat is also available via VYou -there are over 55 topics by which you can find video conversation buddies- meaning all the other features I’ve mentioned above are sheer added value.

The VYou tool can be embedded and posted anywhere on the web, which gives it a creative spin in the realm of social interactions online.

Influencers – A most inspiring and thought-provoking project, Influencers is a short documentary film by David Johnson and Paul Rojanathara, focusing on the factors that create fads and trends. The film was shot in New York City, featuring different professionals from the creative field who share their opinion on what or who is an influencer or trendsetter. The creative agency R+I Creative came up with the concept of this amazing short.

The film is in HD quality and the post-production editing made it especially powerful and captivating. The film is less than 14 minutes long, but the inspiration you draw from it will be long lasting. And don’t forget: ideas spread just like viruses do!

AMDM – This amazing Adobe Museum of Digital Media is a whimsical cyberspace presenting “the good the bad and the ugly”  of how we explore digital media, and in turn, how it influences our society in this day and age.  Describing the AMDM in words would be futile. Therefore, I invite you to dive in, see the museum’s curator Tom Eccles’ introduction to this space, and start exploring the museum’s first exhibition “Valley” (second screen shot below).