idiologie.com » information design

Steven Heller on Olympic Pictograms

helen — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:05:22 +0000

Briefly and to the point (& video): Olympic Pictograms Through the Ages.

GOOD infographics

helen — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:29:24 +0000

“Make it too complicated, people can’t — or won’t — read it. Too simple, and people won’t even come to over to see what you have to offer,” Porostocky said. “You inevitably piss off one side or the other, so in the end, I go with whatever direction makes me happy.” Behind the scenes of GOOD magazine infographics. [via: coudal]

A practical approach to content analysis

helen — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:18:46 +0000

“To know your content is to love it. (…) While choosing the right heuristics for your content analysis and synthesizing them properly takes practice and a bit of flair, the vision you gain makes your effort worthwhile.” Colleen Jones on Content Analysis.

The Road to Clarity

helen — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:20:22 +0000

NYT on typographical changes in American road signs: an article and slideshow. [via: notcot]

An exploration of human emotion, in six movements

helen — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:09:53 +0000

Information design one step further

I’ve always thought that information design could extend far beyond the sole purpose of displaying information effectively and attractively.
So when I first came across a self-organizing system of particles-emotions, it had immediately become one of my favourite sites.

Several new interactive information aggregators have been created since (msn Spectra being the latest), yet very few exceed simply visualizing same content in a different way.

Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar once again took another path: “I Want You To Want Me explores the search for love and self in the world of online dating. It chronicles the world’s long-term relationship with romance, across all ages, genders, and sexualities, using real data collected from Internet dating sites every few hours.”

The piece, presented on a 56″ high-resolution touch-screen, was installed at MoMA on February 14, 2008, Valentine’s Day. The less fortunate may see it on youtube, no touching though:).

From technical point of view, it’s just another data visualization engine. It’s the content that makes it remarkable. The mosaic exploring search for love turns otherwise narcissistic online dating sites into engaging storytelling.

There are not many interfaces that combine intuitive curiosity and pattern detection with insights into human behavior at such a personal level. The project might not fulfill standards of scientific research. Yet it’s one of very few examples in which information architecture does not conceal the essence of any statistical data — the single experience.