There seems to be a commercial market emerging around the idea of automizing the creation of infographics. Toronto based start-up vizualize.me [vizualize.me] is currently developing an online application that can automatically translate any online LinkedIn profile into an online infographic. In particular, the new service aims to overcome the issue of reading overly long or highly complex resumes by showing the same information in a more readable and attractive way. The start-up has been coding the online application only since the last 2 months, and is currently still in private beta.
First peeks behind the beta service show how this can become particularly useful for those that like to change jobs often, have a high amount of skills or know quite a lot of languages (unfortunately, my current own resume is not that compelling). The infographics are automatically generated through logging in with LinkedIn credentials. One can still edit each individual item, change the 'theme', 'colors', 'fonts' or the 'background' image. 'Themes' actually include different visualization techniques, which currently include a horizontal or vertical bar graph slash timeline and a more risky arc diagram-style approach.
While the idea seems certainly useful, one would certainly wish for the availability of more subdued visual styles, in particular for those people who appreciate more classical visual styles when applying for high-end, important jobs. I also foresee some critical comments on the color palette for the 'language' world map.
Notably, Visual.ly is also betting on the future of semi-automized online infographics, as it is currently in the process of launching an online infographics authoring tool.