The best software has a vision. The best software takes sides. When someone uses software, they’re not just looking for features, they’re looking for an approach. They’re looking for a vision.
Jason Fried, Getting Real
This quotes latest reincarnation appears in Mike Rundles excellent article Kill The Settings, Build Opinionated Software and is still very true.
In his excellent article on the rise of the Data Scientist, Nathan of Flowing Data writes:
Even if you’re not into visualization, you’re going to need at least a subset of the skills […] if you want to seriously mess with data. Statisticians should know APIs, databases, and how to scrape data; designers should learn to do things programmatically; and computer scientists should know how to analyze and find meaning in data.
There are many more nuggest of insight in his post, and I fully agree with him, that - what he terms - Data Scientists will become increasingly important.
I have lately been talking a lot about “IA for the Layman”, my idea that certain skills will have to become common teaching, so people will be able to cope with the increasing tides of data in their personal life.
But IA may be the wrong term, or rather an oversimplification in this context. As Nathan mentions, Ben Fry covers quite well what skills are actually involved and how they form different aspects. So maybe I shouldn’t call it “IA for the Layman”, but rather “Be Your Personal Data Scientist”.
Combines most of my late posts about future ux into a handy presentation. So, either this stuff is glaringly obvious, or I think like a Yahoo bigwig… :)
Especially the part about Cognizance is a nice visualization of how raw data turns into wisdom, aka From Noise To Pattern.
Tomorrow, @Luca, a friend of mine, will discuss the badly phrased question “Is the Internet Making Us Dumb” on one of the more prestigious Austrian talk shows Club 2.
This will be especially intriguing, as Luca and his main argumentative adversary Frank Schirrmacher, publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, will likely engage upon many questions deeply related to the broader meaning of the term user experience.
Schirrmacher seems to rather support theories that show people as victims of bad computer-human relationships and offers few ideas on how to handle these challenges in an integrating way.
Luca on the other hand believes that with proper understanding, education and self-responsibility all the concerns of Mr. Schirrmacher can be laid to rest.
I expect a discussion of conservatism vs. liberalism about how people should handle privacy, information overload and communication in modern times.
I hope for a discussion about how good or bad user experiences shapen our fears or visions of the future of how we will handle the ever increasing tides of information.
After crafting many, many reports in the last few months, a simple realization dawned on me today. Reports are just a collection of number, raw data if you will. What to make of it, is up to the beholder. But as with the difference between bad powerpoints and good keynotes, it doesn’t have to end there.
More sophisticated reports - I tend to call them summaries - are data put into perspective, with emphasis on the important bits an pieces. Kinda like a well edited layout isn’t just words, but words that convey meaning through their appearance.
The next level I call Infographics. Not only is data presented in a interesting and easily digestible way, it also adds something more to it. It enhances the basis and delivers insight beyond the obvious.
Nowadays, I keep thinking that with everything going on (HTML5 & Canvas, CSS3 & Transformations, JS & Animations) Infographics can be even more. Think interactive, imagine scales and perspectives that can be changed in real time. Not only revealing new insights at every change, but also creating insights out of the interaction.
Thus seemingly simple constructs, originating from raw data, can become vastly more and true time-savers to understanding stuff.
I’ve been thinking about a “Everyday Information Architecture” course for some time now, and I believe understanding how to come from raw data to insight creating information - as in e.g. expressed by infographics - will be an integral part of it.
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