Visual.ly opens it's doors for infographic creation. • Hacker News Board

Re: Visual.ly opens it's doors for infographic creation.

#11

Post by maukdaddy » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 6:34 PM UTC

suking wrote: post #4

guywithabike wrote: post #3

It's fairly unclear to me how this works. Clicking on the "Use Theme" buttons doesn't do anything. The "Working" and "History" buttons in the left panel don't do anything. You can't scroll the sidebar at all, so content is just cut off. So far, it seems like a complete non-starter. I have no idea what the hell this site does, anyways. It's just templates for so-called "infographics"? Worse, the screen is completely f…

I second all this. How a company like this raises VC is just dumbfounding. Why the F do graphic designers need to raise VC to pump out more infographics. Isn't that fad over with anyways?

Just another sign that there's a huge VC bubble forming in the Valley.

Yes, there are plenty of legitimate companies that will generate substantial value for VCs, but when you see money being thrown at companies who exist to make infographics it smells of trouble.

Re: Visual.ly opens it's doors for infographic creation.

#12

Post by suking » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 7:28 PM UTC

maukdaddy wrote: post #11

suking wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second all this. How a company like this raises VC is just dumbfounding. Why the F do graphic designers need to raise VC to pump out more infographics. Isn't that fad over with anyways?

Just another sign that there's a huge VC bubble forming in the Valley. Yes, there are plenty of legitimate companies that will generate substantial value for VCs, but when you see money being thrown at companies who exist to make infographics it smells of trouble.

No doubt. How any VC thinks this type of company would sell for $1-2mm+ is beyond me. This is a profit type of company run out of a basement, not a VC investment. Yet somehow they got some top tier angels... Sometimes it's more about who you know.

Re: Visual.ly opens it's doors for infographic creation.

#13

Post by ptvan » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 8:21 PM UTC

maukdaddy wrote: post #11

suking wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second all this. How a company like this raises VC is just dumbfounding. Why the F do graphic designers need to raise VC to pump out more infographics. Isn't that fad over with anyways?

Just another sign that there's a huge VC bubble forming in the Valley. Yes, there are plenty of legitimate companies that will generate substantial value for VCs, but when you see money being thrown at companies who exist to make infographics it smells of trouble.

We exist to make software that makes infographics and visualizations so that the designers can move on to next-level work like doing more research, better analysis, more interactivity. We coordinate these projects, but don't make infographics ourselves.

Re: Visual.ly opens it's doors for infographic creation.

#14

Post by ptvan » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 8:34 PM UTC

cgarvey wrote: post #9

I feel like this site would be a lot better if it didn't purport to be an infographic creation tool at all. The core concept of infographic templates is completely flawed. Infographics are supposed to be designed around the data which they wish to represent, so how could one design work for various sets of data? Sure you can categorize and make themes for say food or finance, but what about the scale of data? Wouldn'…

This is a valid concern that hinges on the predictability and consistency of the data being used.

There are two approaches to visualiation: exploratory - When you don't know what the data looks like, you use this to find out what's there. expository - When you do know the data, you can use this approach, which is what the Twitter and Facebook infographics are. We designed the templates around the known scale and range of the data.

If these templates don't work for you, there's additional variety and customization to come that will abide by standards of analysis and visualization.. :)

Re: Visual.ly opens it's doors for infographic creation.

#15

Post by paulofisch » Mon, Mar 12, 2012, 9:00 PM UTC

ptvan wrote: post #14

cgarvey wrote: post #9

I feel like this site would be a lot better if it didn't purport to be an infographic creation tool at all. The core concept of infographic templates is completely flawed. Infographics are supposed to be designed around the data which they wish to represent, so how could one design work for various sets of data? Sure you can categorize and make themes for say food or finance, but what about the scale of data? Wouldn'…

This is a valid concern that hinges on the predictability and consistency of the data being used. There are two approaches to visualiation: exploratory - When you don't know what the data looks like, you use this to find out what's there. expository - When you do know the data, you can use this approach, which is what the Twitter and Facebook infographics are. We designed the templates around the known scale and rang…

Good to know. Will look forward to it.

I also see you've been firefighting today. Hope it's all been a learning experience, and mostly positive :)

Re: Visual.ly opens it's doors for infographic creation.

#16

Post by suking » Tue, Mar 13, 2012, 1:05 AM UTC

ptvan wrote: post #13

maukdaddy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just another sign that there's a huge VC bubble forming in the Valley. Yes, there are plenty of legitimate companies that will generate substantial value for VCs, but when you see money being thrown at companies who exist to make infographics it smells of trouble.

We exist to make software that makes infographics and visualizations so that the designers can move on to next-level work like doing more research, better analysis, more interactivity. We coordinate these projects, but don't make infographics ourselves.

That's a huge opportunity... software to make infographics... lol. What are VC's thinking and what were YOU thinking. How Not To Launch 101. Site is unusable, 15 seconds are up.