Jose Duarte, a graphic designer, has lately been presenting information using physical objects. These balloons, for example, represent the number of Internet users in (from left to right) China, the EU, India, Brazil, Mexico, and Portugal.
If you have ever had the misfortune of encountering an automated telephone menu then you will already know exactly how terrible the user experience is on these things.
If you haven't here's how they work: rather than talking to a real person you are played a recording of a person introducing the service you have just called up (the recording has been edited and compressed so much that it sounds like a robot voice). The user is expected to select their options by timing their response precisely and pitched perfectly. The voice recognition software is often incredibly flawed at best, and the resulting user experience is enough to put you off ever using that service again.
This brilliant recording demonstrates just how frustrating automated telephone menus can be:
A fantastic parody of an automated telephone menu is here by the Fonejacker:
