Response to Rosling and GapCast#1

Tout d’abord, merci de tout coeur d’etre venu sur mon blog Dr Rosling!

How neat that someone, let alone Dr Rosling himself, should take the time to view my first “attempts” at blogging!

After viewing the brief but informative Gapcast#1, I again found the disconnection between health and economic growth interesting. Where academia was awarded between 1953-82 in Sweden for its research and discovery, it appears the public did not directly benefit, at least physically. Or perhaps this period took time to produce results that could be implemented to the masses? In any case, I still think this trend, again, leads us to a need to coerce our priorities to shift away from economics to quality of living. Maybe we are deceiving ourselves in measuring our progress in number of awards or amount of funds for research. I hear more and more often our education system is failing us, our obesity rate is climbing, and every time I turn on the TV there’s a new ad for a new ailment whose cure will “bring back your life.” All our cures and quick fixes don’t suggest we’re a healthier happier, and more powerful nation, but the opposite.

Gapminder’s visualizations, like IBM’s ManyEyes, have great power to catalyze conversation by getting straight to the point. The graphics almost fall into a new category, combining kinetic typography and information architecture into a compelling animation, rich in data, but not as overwhelming as a complicated, static chart can be. They embody all of the principles of good design that has a real purpose. I am inundated with comical, frivolous flash animations so often, that it is refreshing to see data used in a similar simple, format to create such an effective, narrative visualization.

Response to Rosling at TED

Hans Rosling presented quite an impressive multivariate, relational information graphic. (The sword swallowing wasn’t bad either!!)

The first trend I found interesting was that despite our economic growth, the United States falls short of less developed countries socially and in overall health. This reflects our country’s trend of valuing money and material success before everything else, including our own well-being. Rosling’s chart may be further proof that money can’t buy happiness. I wonder, too, though, if his “y” axis representing “mortality rate” is directly proportional to overall health of a nation? Or is this perhaps just his conjecture based on the new available data from the UN? His following personalization of the data with family names made it a little more clear and, of course, refreshed my memory of who in my family might have been affected during the time period he was discussing.

Rosling revisits the idea that money should not be a goal of a developing country in his final powerpoint slide, claiming culture supersedes all other factors, being the “value of living.”  I would like to hear him elaborate on this idea, which I feel was an important theme in our recent Design Dialogues lectures. That is, the idea that responsible design is going in a direction towards serving others and improving upon existing conditions rather than creating more “junk” just for the sake of producing something new. I felt Rosling’s message also to be one of empowerment, telling his colleagues that is within our means to share our knowledge with others and make the world more equal. I would also like to hear Rosling’s proposed solutions to help developing countries, being that the overall tone of his talk was very hopeful for the future. Was he commending Africa, for example, for coming as far as they have in the past fifty years by having the will to overcome great hardships, or because of all the humanitarian efforts that have not been in vain.  Perhaps he sees a combination of the two, which has been a good start and needs more momentum, awareness, and above all action to continue.

chp5 & 7

Morville’s mapping in Chapter 5 of a homepage as a series of either push or pull sections reminds me of the student work Dan Boyarski shared in his design dialogue lecture. This abstract piece revealed with a series of radiating lines that one homepage offered 8 paths to “escape” the site altogether, either through related links or other advertisements. This confusion also can also lead to information overload as Morville later discusses on p.165, deterring a user from even trying to decide where to go next. If I wanted to buy a house, but the neighborhood was in disarray with trash and dilapidated structures surrounding it, I’d keep looking. If I come across a messy, out-dated website, advertising things I don’t care for or about, I will also keep looking.
It seems Jeff Hawkins’s memory-prediction framework is a similar metaphor that reiterates we learn what to trust and how to respond through what we already know to be safe and reliable. And in a time when no one seems to trust the government or any large corporation anymore, I guess I’m not too surprised about Steven Levitt’s discovery that abortion might be the real reason behind lower crime rates. Perhaps there is almost too much going on in the world for the news to keep up with and they are pressured by speed and quantity of information rather that quality. I often find the same thing paraphrased ten different ways if I search for a particular news story, telling me everyone is assuming the first and most frequented site has reported the correct information. Under this media pressure, web designers have to be responsible in choosing who they are representing and if the information they make “findable” is truly helpful. I think Morville sums up his message nicely in stating “information that’s hard to find is information that’s hardly found.”

thoughts on Chp.3,AF

This chapter explains well the definition and nature of the word information.

The first time I arrived by myself in Paris, I got tangled in a combination of poor service and information design, beginning with my attempt to find the right RER ticket. A kind French businessman behind me in line (who was also clearly in a hurry) asked me where I was headed and helped me buy that. Then when I found the entrance I needed to go through, the turnstiles wouldn’t take my ticket. Seeing my struggle, a nice French homeless man came over, held one of the turnstiles in mid-rotation (trapping a very surprised woman inside) and motioned for me to go through with her. After getting off of the RER at the Gare de Lyon, I missed my train by 2 minutes…

If the screen at the RER had begun with a more simple choice for a newcomer, I might have been on my way faster. Though I recall the option to change the language, I was quickly lost in the next steps. I think this situation can relate to Morville’s “People Problem,” when the existing knowledge of the user throws a wrench in the layout of a database. If that screen had begun with a few simple paths with buttons reading “I know what I want. Take me to my choices,” then “I do not know what I want, but I know where I’m going,” and finally “I know where I’m going, but not how to get there.” It would make sense in such an international location.

I also found Roger Simon’s quote claiming “information will be used in direct proportion to how easy it is to obtain” to be helpful. Like an overconfident IT who arrives to “fix” a problem while using condescending techno-jargon to describe the complexity of the motherboard, technology (websites come to mind first) can unnecessarily flaunt their countless choices and wealth of information from the get go. I know the computer is smarter than me, but it doesn’t have to rub it it! For me, there seem to be more ways to get lost and more things that can go wrong in a search for information. Dan Boyarski touched upon the beauty of balancing micro to macro in data visualization, which I think aids in not only in keeping the viewer focused, but preventing that overwhelming feeling of being lost in a maze of too much information.

On page 48 Morville describes the transformation of large bodies of text into easily accessible, divisible information. This reminds me, too, of Wikipedia, a wonderful tool for gaining general knowledge about almost any subject, which can be validated with further research in more, well, reputable sources. I wonder, though, if there is a growing danger of cheating ourselves into rarely knowing a subject profoundly because the work of research has been done for us? Or are we more often benefiting from this, collecting more resources because information we would have spent hours filtering ourselves is discarded for us?

design dialoque lecture 1&2

I have enjoyed the first two Design Dialogue lectures and was glad each had different yet equally important messages.

With a main expertise in architecture, William Tate began with a comparison of caustic versus benign grids. This alludes not only to overdeveloping human living spaces but to all design that is for the wrong reasons. I think this gives new meaning to the area of “sustainable” design to be more than just environmentally friendly work but design that is timeless and will benefit its users for years to come. In proudly describing his newborn architecture school Umbau, Tate promoted being assertive and ambitious when networking and to not be afraid to start a dialogue with designers whose work you admire. For me his closing emphasis was on shifting the motives of design to worthwhile causes.

Dan Boyarski opened with the notion that “design is the first sign of human intention.”  His numerous quotations from Herb Simon’s “Sciences of the Artificial” emphasized intention in design, or asking ourselves exactly what we are improving upon before jumping into a project.  This idea of knowing “the current state” well and making “an existing situation into a preferred one” reminded me of Malcolm Grear’s advice to know your client inside and out in order to make the best possible result. Boyarski spoke, too, to the instructors in the audience and called for more collaboration across disciplines as new technology empowers us to visualize others’ work digitally and in other dynamic, industrious ways. I also really appreciated his remarks about preserving “beauty” in our work even though aesthetic decisions should be practical.

On a completely unrelated note, I came across this short animation on Yuxt.com that combines Alisa’s handwritten text for the SECAC introductions with Andrew’s animated skateboarding motions and thought I’d share:

http://yuxt.com/videos/215340

inspirations from Wattenberg…

Martin Wattenberg’s Copernica site for Nasa is a stunning interactive visualization, though I wish the artworks could be displayed in greater detail, unless I missed that option. I wonder, too, how neat this visualization might be were it taken a step farther in the three dimensional realm, with more celestial bodies and their revolving counterparts added. Perhaps this could develop into a software cataloging program, allowing someone to organize all his or her collections in a personal universe. The beautiful, abstract nature of space lends itself well to this type of fluid, expansive data. In fact, I am thinking of pursuing this in visualizing my abstract design exhibit classifications.

Wattenberg’s Shape of a Song visualization is similar in nature to Tanu’s nice arc mapping for the design exhibit. I’ve often wondered about the “formula” many pop songs have that sounds so similar, and this is a great way to see the recurrences throughout. Much like a successful design, there is a large encompassing portion that sustains the piece, medium sections creating continuity and repeated unique detailing adding precision and depth. Its simplicity reminds me, too, of my first graphics assignment teaching the basic principles of good design via drawing, refining, and arranging 4 tension curves together.

design economy and kinetic typography…

Tufte’s final chapter seems to reinforce the principals found throughout the text, those of data and design economy. And I was glad to see his remark that there are some information graphics for which there is no formula. How unfortunate that those are the ones we want to imitate the most!
His disapproval of the pie chart is surprising, since it seems this graphic is by itself a faster way of comparing quantitative data than viewing the same in a data table. The book sample with dozens of overlapping pies is a poor example, though it IS successfully multivariate – the pie location gives geographic identity, their subtle changes in circumference indicate changes in population density, and each pie visually compares the same data set. Perhaps a few pie charts, side by side, with the geographic location written rather than shown would be a more successful relational study in this case.
Tufte’s rules for line weight and lettering prove that if everything is heavy and competing for attention then hierarchy disappears. I have seen too many a threatening worksheet with ten fonts sizes, half bolded, bulleted, numbered, and underlined in a teacher’s attempt to convince students that everything on the page is important. Tufte reminds us that within a successful information graphic, if the text is present, one can assume it is important and should therefore not be further decorated.

Designing with Time…

silly beeps and quacks:)
I appreciate Dan Boyarski’s concern for more practical, purposeful sounds in our everyday software. It does seem that most of computers’ complimentary audio is nothing more than irritating gimmicks which compel me to turn off the speakers as soon as I hear them, as I do with the infamous “Mr. Paperclip” when he dances to offer assistance.

“I think also future designers have to be proficient to some degree with some programming.” This is a growing concern of mine as I feel far behind on most software learning curves and most of all on employers’ requirement of advanced knowledge of various “coding.” I would not be surprised if in the near future all design students were required to take advanced CS courses.

Claiming that perhaps using a computer for static imagery alone was becoming redundant, or rather, not using the device’s full potential Boyarski remarks, “Don’t replicate one in the other. Why replicate paper on computers, when computers have nothing to do with paper?” Once an artist has a concept and basic composition in their mind or sketched out of a piece of paper, I think the computer is what brings beauty and precision to an idea. Even without taking advantage of visual tricks and effects only possible in photoshop, we can explore and experiment much more efficiently and freely with type, arrangement and color with a computer.
In some ways, I feel it is equally challenging, if not more so, to create a successful static piece because the composition must read both as a whole and in the correct hierarchical order. Whereas with “kinetic typography” you do, as Boyarski discusses, have control over every moment of the viewer’s experience, static typography challenges us to create movement, emphasis, and sensory experience with no more than the ink on paper. Perhaps this relates to the importance of teaching foundation art courses with very limited use of technology, so students’ do not become jaded with too many “special effects” at one time.

“Now if you want to present a fact that moves people to some action, then you have to shape the information in a way that it will in fact affect them, upset them, excite them and move them to some kind of action,” says Boyarski in reference to a student work that paired money spent on advertising in one day in the US with the number of teens who began smoking. This is a good example of a persuasive use of a relational data set we have discussed in class. It reminds me that one approach to creating such a comparison is to think about what may have caused or influenced one set of data, then presenting your hypothesis as a visualization. This is also the ultimate goal of the ManyEyes website, to help instigate change in revealing new connections.

data vs. design variation

I understand Tufte’s explanation on p.59 that the data is more clear in the second fuel economy chart, and his theory that data rather than design variation should be used first. However, I don’t know that all of the completely unrelated “data ink” decorating it makes it any worse than the first example. Couldn’t a gaudy graphic also perpetuate the perception that an information architect is a mere data decorator? I feel that when we design a poster, for example, that we may decide to make certain information more important than the other, as with a concert advertisement, listing the date, time, title, etc. in most noticeable type. But what if the concert date is already well-known among the music community and by those who can afford tickets, but the most desired information is now the music and composer performing? One might tailor a new poster exaggerating featured titles of the musical score, the conductor’s name, etc.  So perhaps the word “lie” is too strong to describe the first example of the Fuel Economy chart. The creator may have only been exaggerating the main point – that fuel economy has been increasing. And though at the chapter’s end he claims this is only supporting “lies” I still feel there is room for artistic liberty, especially when the quantitative data is clearly printed for reference.

“Unlike the advertisements at least we don’t put naked women in out graphics,” said Louis Silverman. Quite a comical stab at commercialism, and I would agree that even the most exaggerated of data graphics are more truthful than the majority of promises made in ads.

Space and Multifunctional Graphics…

Tufte’s study of data density relates to our initial studies of space and composition as design students. First attempts usually illustrate, even with prior training in typography, our natural inclination to “fill” any given space with unnecessary ink. An example of poor execution of graphic density can often be seen in newspaper ads. These evenly distributed displays of stretched text and mismatched graphics lack fine detail and clear organization, all in an attempt to profit by using up the maximum amount of space. Again, Tufte’s message is to use the least amount of ink to guide the viewer straight to the most important information.
It is interesting though when he remarks “Perhaps some day statistical graphics will perform as successfully as maps  in carrying information.” I would think that a graphic’s success cannot be measured entirely by it’s density, that even allowing for some ample resting space on the borders, for example, might enhance the overall display.
In his similar proposal of maximizing graphics with multifunctional graphical elements, Tufte refers to Leonard Ayre’s representation of French army in Germany during WWI.  What slowed my immediate comprehension of this piece was that I could not see the exact number of divisions let alone people within them, differing from, for example, Minard’s Russian campaign graphic. I think this reminds us that much forethought is required before we organize the data, keeping in mind that which is most important and perhaps sacrificing or rather saving other thoughts for another representation.  Whereas Minard’s goal is perhaps to show the humanity of war, Ayre’s graphic seems purely quantitative in nature. This example also reminds me of the importance of titling. In Ayre’s example, information titling such as “The Duration of 92 French Divisions in Germany in WWI” could easily better orient the viewer.

Previous Post

Most of the examples that illustrate Tufte’s principles of a successful information graphic are quite plain, and might not draw a general audience with their overall lack of aesthetic beauty. I think that’s where our training begins- with a bare, concise, clear graphic to be our primary goal, and it ends with the addition of a new element that sets it apart from all other written attempts to reach others with this data. This final arrangement is what can make the prints available at historyshots.com foster new interest in the time period they represent. As they addressed near the end of the Emergence conference this past weekend, Service Design has the potential to become an art form, once they establish a common language. Though I feel, too, that service design is but a responsible way to apply the already existing design process and skillset towards a higher goal whether that be a more efficient hospital or a less wasteful car company.

The logistics and categorizations of the sociosemantic web in Chapter 6 were particularly challenging for me to grasp. The multivariate folksonomy seems to me to be the next logical step given the ubiquitous nature of the internet where connections can be made to information by any number of people who find it.

Morville illustrates an example of the sociosemantic web via a common tagged article through which one can ultimately access and research the profile of those who read it. I don’t know that I always want be tagged, located, observed and recorded as data to be cataloged. For instance, though I like the discount grocery stores offer when I scan my card, maybe I don’t want them keeping track of all my purchases. I guess there is a careful balance between anonymity and outright exposure in the name of being a more “target-able” consumer, a predictable web browser, and overall findable person.