Posts Tagged: agree

opinion — 1 Comment
5
Aug 12

The secret of good presentations

In the course of other work I am repeatedly asked to help with creating better presentations.

I don’t claim any expertise in this area other than being someone – admittedly with a background in visual communication – who’s been both on the receiving end of presentations, and given many myself.

But in the course of these conversations I always come to the same conclusion. The problem is in the type of document people are trying to create. The solution is there should be two documents. Two different documents. One is the presentation, the other is the handout. The former is accompanied by a well-informed, engaging human. The latter isn’t.

And so I was delighted to see that Tim Harford has just published his observations on the same subject: Three PowerPoint tips you really need to know. I shall be forwarding these to every presenter I see going forward that doesn’t follow his really simple suggestions.

And one more tip: I get approached because the client generally believes ‘infographics’ are a solution. Infographics don’t have transformative powers to make a presentation amazing. Not until you’ve addressed the above anyway.

event — 1 Comment
31
Jan 12

The Unpacking of Complexity

Another great Design of Understanding just happened here in London on Friday. Max’s conference set out to explore mark making and meaning on the basis that, as designers, we should only communicate if we understand something.

Well, so what? That’s not new. We should only communicate if we understand something.

What is new is that there’s quite a lot more than there ever used to be out there waiting, and needing, to be understood. And Friday’s speakers went some way to exploring the what, how and why of going about that.

A handful of words kept on cropping up throughout the day: system, complexity, technology and unpack (occasionally unpick). ‘System’ in particular was a new one to me, used with such frequency, so I’ve been thinking it through. I see all those words as part and parcel of the same phenomenon.

Everyone, everywhere, everywhat is connected by systems, is part of a system. And many small systems make up bigger systems. They can be political, social, technological, organisational systems. They can be natural, accidental or manufactured. They overlap. And so when one thing changes, other things are affected. They are complex by their nature.

Technology has made our systems evermore complex, and introduced new systems. But technology has also enabled us to glimpse this complexity.

Unpacking is what you have to do to understand a complex thing. (And sometimes a system is created and used as the tool to unpack something – like a complex system – that needs understanding. Easy.)

The near future was mentioned a lot too. I think the future has got nearer because of the accelerating rate of change of everything (technology and systems and stuff). With that comes opportunity for anyone who can work with that rate of change, harness it, but remain flexible enough for the next bubble or burst. You’ve got to be clever. This year’s DoU speakers were exactly that, between them forecasting, building, planning, creating, advising and visualising the near future across a heap of different industries.

So what of design or designers? Well, take Max’s starting point that designers should only communicate if they understand something. It’s based on the premise that designers are quite good at understanding stuff. And with that inclination it’s not a big step to adopt new tools (technology) to help with the understanding (unpacking) of new stuff (complex systems). It’s more about the approach. The same approach that people who don’t have ‘designer’ in their job titles are using anyway to understand complexity. None of the speakers were designers. And in the near future that really doesn’t matter. I’m glad to report that there were still plenty of voices championing the craft, integrity and passion that underpin good design.

——

I haven’t listed the speakers, but you can find out about them here.
And exciting examples of all this cross-discipline creativity and material they referred to on Lanyrd here.

opinion — Comments Off
18
Oct 11

To map or not to map

Click image to see full graphic

A bugbear of mine is people who jump at using a map as a solution for a set of data that happens to include place names.

“But what’s the story?” I ask.

Matt Ericson explains so eloquently, with examples, why maps aren’t always the best solution even if at first glance they might seem the most obvious.

example / opinion — Comments Off
20
Jul 11

Wow v ah-ha

This title captures so perfectly a current theme in the ever more data driven infographic-land that I haven’t changed it. It’s lifted from a recent blog post from Juice Analytics that caught my eye a couple of weeks back.

Whether a data graphic is more ‘wow’ or more ‘ah-ha’ all depends on your audience and your aim. Like most things it’s a spectrum, and probably worth being honest whereabouts on it you’re aiming for when you set out creating any graphic.

In an editorial world more often than not it’s about achieving an ‘ah-ha’. And this is neatly illustrated by all the different ways I’ve heard this same thing expressed recently. I’ve pulled them together here.

‘What do you want to find out from the data?’ not ‘what can you do with the data?’
Simon Rogers, Guardian Datablog (related post)

Less noise, more story
My observation from this year’s Malofiej infograpic conference

Not ‘what does the data show’ but ‘how did the data get that way’
Joe Ward, sports graphics editor, New York Times (interview)

Start with a concept to pilot you through the data
David McCandless

And since it’s always good to have an example, here’s an interactive graphic from the OECD that conveniently illustrates both concepts. Click on the image to go and explore it.

Designed and created by Moritz Stefaner, Jonas Leist, Timm Kekeritz (for Raureif design consultancy)

Being both ‘wow’ and ‘ah-ha’ clearly isn’t something every graphic needs to do but happens to be something this one manages to do well. Which is impressive given it’s a fine line to tread stylistically too, with ‘wow’ being easier to make engaging and playful and ‘ah-ha’ which can err on the side of dry.

opinion — Comments Off
10
May 11

Factual visuals II

Following on from my previous blog post, the same “rush, speculation and invention” in evidence in the coverage of the Bin Laden story drove two industry heavy-weights – Alberto Cairo and Juan Antonio Giner – to issue a fine six-point infographic checklist:

1. An infographic is, by definition, a visual display of facts and data. Therefore, no infographic can be produced in the absence of reliable information.

2. No infographic should include elements that are not based on known facts and available evidence.

3. No infographic should be presented as being factual when it is fictional or based on unverified assumptions.

4. No infographic should be published without crediting its source(s) of information.

5. Information graphics professionals should refuse to produce any visual presentation that includes imaginary components designed to make it more “appealing” or “spectacular”. Editors must refrain from asking for graphics that don’t stick to available evidence.

6. Infographics are neither illustrations nor “art”. Infographics are visual journalism and must be governed by the same ethical standards that apply to other areas of the profession.

Let’s not ever forget, as Chiqui summarises so nicely, “visual journalism is, above any other thing, journalism”.

event / opinion — 1 Comment
1
Feb 11

The Design of Understanding


While last Friday’s ‘Design of Understanding’ managed to pose more questions than it answered, I have no doubt that the people who have the wherewithal to find the answers – multidisciplinary in their talents, interdisciplinary in their approach – were in the room. All credit to Max Gadney for luring them there with such a good theme.

Several speakers began with the statement “I’m not a designer”, or if they were “I haven’t done any design myself for X years”. But they have all been collaborating with designers, as well as many others. ‘Designing’ understanding is a complex matter, drawing on a range of skills wider than any one degree could ever teach you. And as a result of the diverse cross-section of people that the day threw together I think the connections forged in between the talks can only lead to good things.

In articulating that he could “sense we’re on the edge of something exciting and new” Dr Paul Rennie, Head of Context in Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins, summed up the spirit of the day. And I am bold enough to hope that even the traditional news infographic arena won’t be able to ignore the potential of this surge of fresh air for much longer.

Several people who I admire were speaking – Michael Blastland, Jon Hill, Rob Waller, BERG – and it was a bonus to find a few more to start admiring from here on in. Between them they covered a huge amount of ground which other people have reviewed better than I can, like here, here and here.

But two themes that I – as a data-confident infographic designer currently working in news – have been thinking about recently were picked up on by various speakers: handling data and what motivates people to create graphics. I’ll blog about them separately soon.

Notable by its absence was any mention or appearance of non-numbers visualisations. OK, maybe there was the odd map. And a cartoon. But the lion’s share of the day was given over to data. Which is a shame given how you can aid the understanding of so many things by design without any data to be seen. Here’s hoping the Winter/Spring 2012 collections will have moved on a little from data vis?

The event was hosted by the St Bride Library, and hopefully was the first of many.

Nice one Max.

opinion — Comments Off
24
Jan 11

Great moments in information design

I’ve mentioned before that while infographics are my thing I still have a healthy regard for and interest in information design.

(For anyone thinking ‘Huh? But aren’t they the same thing?’ I took a stab at explaining here).

But, to the point, get the latest issue of Eye – the beautiful and intelligent international review of graphic design – in which you’ll find many ‘great moments in information design’.

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