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.