Infographic: The World’s Biggest Heists

This infographic was submitted to us by HomeSecuritySystem.com

I really like the aesthetic of this graphic. Each section is cleverly laid out, it uses a color palette that’s easy on the eyes and it’s easy to navigate. It’s a bit text-heavy but doesn’t go overboard.

We don’t have anything visualized here, though, so I can’t really call this an infographic per se. There are numerous values that could have been visualized–the value of the heists, 10 layers of security, 100 million lock combos, 14 bound members of staff, $650 million out of $920 million recovered, etc. But the viewer has to read all of these numbers instead of getting a visual representation of them through charts, graphs, icons etc. It would be faster to get through the graphic and would also cut down on text if the designer had chosen to visualize these numbers.

I did also want to point out a quick grammatical thing–the sentence “$650 million was later found hidden in walls in Saddam Hussein’s palace by US troops” separates the verb phrase so extremely that it isn’t clear whether the money was found by US troops or hidden by US troops, or even that the palace was near US troops. I was amazed to read that US troops had stolen money and hidden it in Saddam’s palace until I figured out what the sentence was supposed to say!

Overall I’d give this graphic a B, though as an infographic it’d be more of a C or C- given its lack of visualized data.

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