Hello from AIGA Conference GAIN > Design Means Business in New York City! I really shouldn't be here, but the person who was originally supposed to go accepted a job at Yahoo and I was the only one in the immediate vicinity that could go in her stead.
So today were the pre-conference events. Lucky for me, the events she signed up for were right up my alley. First was a session with Terri Ducay and Joanne Mendel from Cheskin on Knowledge Visualization and the second was a tour of Pentagram's NYC studio followed by a presentation by two of the partners.
So here are my notes from Knowledge Visualization....
The power of storytelling.
-This is not information design. Information design is just a method of knowledge visualization, which is bringing knowledge to the audience.
- Great leaders are great communicators. Kennedy told stories that people could relate to.
- George Lucas based his story structure on the writing of Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth)
-- Hero, conflict, climax, resolution
- FDR's Fireside Chat radio broadcasts - stories to keep citizens informed, bridged the gap between politicians and the electorate
-- Cheskin produces audio postcards for clients from the field during research in remote locations. They consist of a few pages of PowerPoint of just pictures, no text matched with audio from the researcher giving a short summary of the day or week's findings. They keep the client know how the research is going with little effort on the part of the client. A lot of information is conveyed with just watching and listening. No reading is required.
The Power of a Single Image (ex. Dorothea Lange)
- Capture essence of space and time
- Develop a framework to go through thousands of images (shower curtain as picture holder, software for image organization)
- Make executives SEE the problem
Tools as a process of thinking to communicate with clients....
- Ethnography - Building a common base of feelings and attitudes. A day in the life.
- Semiotics - Visual language audit
-- Bunny Rabbits: crafty bunny (Bugs), fuzzy bunny (Easter)
-- Different attributes of a bunny projected on a product
-- Determining prevailing perception of a bunny from a culture
Power of a Graph/Chart/Map (ex. Edward Tufte [Napoleon's March])
- Context to know where in the information they want to look
- Army size, location, environmental temperature, distance from France
- Mapping scenarios: a day in the life (visibility of day), context/narrative/documentation of trend in actual activities/relevance
- Showing complexity in simple ways, map making
Power of Multiple Views of Information (ex. Powers of Ten (video))
- Macro to micro: see connections in multiple levels
- Market landscape: in the home, consumer activities
- Information design to show strategy through the market landscape
- Showing information in a language they (audience) speak
Power of Models (ex. Richard Feynman (Challenger demonstration))
- Gasket, c-clamp, ice water
- Know audience: have sympathy/empathy for how they think
-- A decision maker wants to be updated (one page brief)
-- Designer/developer wants to be inspired (profiles, personas)
-- Synthesizer wants to be educated (models, data visuals, real stuff)
-- Assessor wants to be accurate (raw data, best analysis, verbatims)
-- They all just want you to help them look good
Charles Eames, "The most important part of what we do is how we connect the legs to the seat." (probable misquote on my part, can't confirm)
If you know where you're going, you're not pushing ideas.
The Power of Comparison (ex. Al Gore (An Inconvenient Truth))
- Accept my understanding of the problem. Make your case.
-Today's business decisions are complex, time to market is collapsing.
-- Create meaningful experiences
-- Bring customers to life with video. Complex stories made simple.
-- Be a diplomat/facilitator of information
-- Show the thinking behind the concept to drive consensus
-- Reverse engineer from the desired take-away/result, direct efforts toward a goal
-- You can't afford to not work in an interdisciplinary fashion
-- Never promise, always surprise
