Last few weeks I was working on some user problem we wanted to solve in our software application. When I proposed something finally, it was like a revelation for stuff we thought is not that important all along. I got to the solution by noticing combined use of two fairly common parts of our application.
Anyway here is a great talk by Charles Anderson on TED. What he noticed and then did work to understand why so lead to fascinating discovery of dragonflies that cross oceans. I like the talk for:
Power of noticing something which gets ignored otherwise.
From noticing to understanding why so.
I really like Charles presentation skills, relaxed, good story, good visuals.
As always for more options to share/download visit TED site.
Well last few days were very busy for me at work and at home. Anyway trying to restore the balance now between work and my hobby (I wish they were one and same, some overlap exist but still…).
Malcolm Gladwell you either love him or hate him but certainly can not ignore him. So if you have an hour and would like to see Malcolm describing some of his books and answering some criticism watch Malcolm’s Q & A with Brian Lamb for C-SPAN.
John Nese enjoys what he does for living. His Soda Pop shop is unique due to what John thinks about why and how to run his Soda Shop. He sure figured out a niche market for what he loves. As John describes in below video, he plays not work in his shop. When you enjoy your work results are obvious.
I wrote about deceiving data visualizations in mobile commercials few days back on this blog. What a coincidence, AT&T sued Verizon on misleading data visualization in their ads just few days after my blog post. Verizon obviously responded to AT&T allegations and war is on now. How far this will go time will tell.
Back to basics data visualization is always about what you want to communicate and yes there is a right and wrong way of displaying the same. One can understand that design was poor but when things are designed to deceive/misrepresent facts then we sure need corrections. The way these companies are fighting I am not sure this is about being right. Tone in allegation is more like what suits me. I am happy that at least there is a realization that representing data in one way or other means something and there is a need to tell the truth.
XPLANE folks really knows what it means to think visually. In this project they worked with The Economist to create a compelling story about the need to drive more green initiatives. Narrative is simple you GET IT easily as story is unfolded. Check the video below.
