Outside of the nonsensical urban tesseract known as the West Village, Manhattan’s street grid system is famously simple: Avenues run north/south(ish), streets run east/west. A phrase like “5th Avenue and 33rd Street” isn’t just an arbitrary address, it’s a cartesian coordinate that can actually help you get to where you’re going as well as recognize when you’ve gotten there. With a system this easy, it’s hard not to wish the whole world used it. Harold Cooper’s brilliant Google Maps mashup, ExtendNY, gives you an idea of what such a world would look like: Punch in any address or location on the globe, and it tells you what its NYC-style address is.

via Infographic Of The Day: What If The NYC Grid Took Over The World? | Co. Design.

Our world is get instrumented, augmented, and enhanced at a stunning rate. Digital displays, touchscreens, and sensors are blooming on even the most mundane surfaces from laundry machines to taxicabs. Each of these interfaces seem to have an internal logic that is not self-evident. It is like they are speaking slightly different languages from each other.

via Why Does Interaction Design Matter? Let’s Look At The Evolving Subway Experience | Co. Design.

The creative folks over at MoonToast have created a wonderful infographic aptly titled “The Anatomy Of A Facebook Fan” which clearly and concisely lay outs exactly how the entire journey of engagement begins and its ultimate outcome.

via The Anatomy Of A Facebook Fan | INFOGRAPHIC | So Bad So Good.

The old stereotype that scientific breakthroughs result from some lone rumpled genius toiling away in his basement laboratory hardly abides nowadays. Scientists collaborate. A lot. And in some unlikely ways, as this data visualization by the always-brilliant Moritz Stefaner (with support from agency Onformative’s Christopher Warnow) shows.

Max Planck Research Networks (screencast) from Moritz Stefaner on Vimeo.

via Infographic: How Scientific Ideas Flow Around The World | Co. Design.

Sometimes, we’re all in the mood for a thick and meaty infographic. Other times, especially Fridays, we’re in the mood for something that’s simply gorgeous and excellent, like these visualizations of iPhone-tracking data by Michael Kreil.

via Infographic Of The Day: iPhone GPS Data Looks Like Glowing Fireflies | Co.Design.