I read about Worldmapper and one of their studies on BBC News. Worldmapper itself is an initiative of various geographers at Sheffield University (and one at University of Michigan...) that reinterprets maps to visualize different demographic information. The map shown above is from a series of population maps that the group developed to emphasize population densities in different countries.
Professor Danny Dorling, who oversaw the study, argues that the creation of these maps "changes how you think about places...if you really want a fair map of an area you do it by population. What you are interested in most of the time is people." (via BBC News)
While I don't necessarily agree with this statement (depends on what field you're working in!), I do agree, of course, that population is a critical measurement to take into consideration when studying regions. On a country-by-country level, I don't think that these visualizations really add much to the comprehension of population densities. However, from the perspective of say, a planner trying to get his/her bearings on a new town, city county etc, this would be a really helpful visual tool to interpret population trends throughout the area of study.
Many of the other visualizations Worldmapper does are really instructive, such as an animation that displays internet usage over time or one that shows age of death worldwide.
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