I’ve previously noted my appreciation of a good infographic [The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts 1986 — 2008 (Information Design), Dec. 29, 2008].  Nevertheless, while a good infographic about movies is a fun romp through pop culture, none is so appropriate and powerful than the one which educates.

We know that there are three styles of learning: visual, auditory, and tactile. A great infographic will contain at least two of these elements and is the essence of the “interactive” experience itself. We often see infographics that use visual and tactile – the very genre is impossible without the former and almost predicated in situations with voluminous data for the latter. But auditory is quite often overlooked in cases where its apt use hearkens back to our school days of classroom learning – only with better visual, and slightly interactive, accompaniments.

How the Government Dealt With Past Recessions uses narratives from top academic economists along with a simply embellished timeline to tell the story of U.S. economic policy’s response to the past 50 years’ recessions. The whole experiences takes less than 5 minutes, and it’s 5 minutes wells spent: the average Joe walks away with enough cocktail party knowledge to look like a smartie ahead of his time.

Then, if you’ve still got time, go read the related article.

P.S. Check out that fabulous “Learn for Growth” illustration by the folks at the Heads of State. Hubba, Hubba.