Information Visualization

Information design is the skill and practice of preparing information in a way people can easily use and understand. A solid visual representation of complex or raw data can express it’s meaning clearly to the viewer, and turn facts into lucid information.

In my opinion, great information design is clear, easy to navigate and interesting. It takes into account text, color, diagrams, and sequencing to restructure messages to effectively tell a story. The effectiveness of a message is important because you want the user to navigate the content correctly and find what they’re looking for.

Two of my favorite information designs do just that. They engage the user through interactive and flash animation, presenting lots of information clearly and efficiently. These designs made my bookmark tab because they’re visually stimulating, simple to navigate, and most importantly, fun to browse. Check ‘em out and enjoy!

1. This interactive schedule was for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Big fan as I was, this was not your average bracket. Clear organization and great flash animation made it a great game resource, and just plain fun to mess around with.

2. As far as maps go, this one is pretty sweet. Measure of America maps out issues like health, education, and income across America in as many combinations as you can imagine. Simple navigation, great content and perfect use of color turn a lot of data into a stimulating and educational design. 

The Font Makes All The Difference

It all starts with an idea, sure.

The biggest companies in the world started with an initial lightbulb popping into a single human being’s brain. That idea snowballed over many other helpers to become one of the large entities ever — such as Disney, Absolut, Flickr, Google, Facebook, etc.

But without an engaging font to center the entire brand around, you risk the chance of being lost in the shuffle.

My thinking on this is simple: You’ve got to give the people something to grab on to.

Check out Sonia Mansfield’s A Look Into: Fonts Used in Logos Of Popular Brands blog entry for HONGKIAT.com to see the font names and styles used for some of the most identifiable companies ever created.

We attach ourselves to these. And if a company is going to stick around for the long haul, they have to find a way to accomplish that.

What’s your identity?

Recreating the Digital World in the Physical World

As someone who loves crafts and paper and scissors and hands-on everything, I can't get enough of physical recreations of things that exist in the digital world.

Take the video game Little Big Planet. Ever play it? It's an adorable and addictive action-packed video game that appears handmade. I was pleasantly surprised when I came across this video from the folks at the Show about Games Show. They've essentially hand-made a hand-made digital experience. AHH, how post-modern, haha.

Another fun example of breathing life into the digital world would be the Google Chrome spot from BBH. The imagery has been so implanted in my brain that I sometimes consider my Chrome browser to be so flash-fast because there's a wild Rube Goldberg contraption propelling my Internet. 

Google Chrome Features from simpledog on Vimeo.

When it all comes down to it, my king of hand-made recreation is still Michel Gondry. His astonishing talent of making things work, click and spark really steal my heart. On that note, here is the trailer for Science of Sleep — a marvelous flick if you have yet to see it.

Now, go make something!