Could information design be contributing to the demise of ideas?

Information design is supposed to help us get our ideas across and remove the barriers to good communication caused by poor design, but could it be contributing to the demise of ideas?

Neal Gabler in his recent article 'The Elusive Big Idea' proposes the idea that we're living in a "post-idea" world, where:

"rationality, science, evidence, logical argument and debate have lost the battle in many sectors... to superstition, faith, opinion and orthodoxy." 

He says "The real cause may be information itself" or in fact, the shear amount of it we now have access to.

I admit some unease at the way information design has become popularised by the otherwise excellent work of people like David McCandless and others, to the point where every man and his dog seems to be having a go at creative ways to visualise data. In many ways this is great and I love seeing the results, but does it make me think about them? Does it help me to understand and get an insight?

I believe information design is about more than visualisation, and yes, it's complicated to explain. After reading Gabler I wonder if perhaps we'll never achieve a 'digestable' way to explain it. Or will someone now come up with an 'information design' way to visualise information design?

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What's shakin?

If you've visited this blog lately and wondered, first, when are the guys gonna write some more articles, and second, why are some of the images broken – can't these people run a simple website? – then we apologise but offer some good excuses.

As regards the first, well the ground beneath us has been moving somewhat more than is usual in this part of the world, and we've both been unable to get into our offices due to the dreaded red-sticker of no-entry, plastered on the doors by civil defence and the local council.

As a result, things are hardly normal around town and we've had to focus on some of life's more basic requirements, including water and sewage, instead of blog writing. Shame, we hear you cry.

And the second I blame on Blogger. For some unknown reason (I did try to find some help in Google) images I'd previously uploaded to Blogger just simply disappeared. So I won't be trusting Blogger to store images for this blog any more, no way, no sir.

Bruce and I are still playing in the information sandpit, and hopefully soon things will be settled enough for us to get writing here again.

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Excellent article on applying behavioural psychology to web design

Much of what is taught to the information design students in the GDID at CPIT has a strong basis on the psychology of design and visual theory. Things like Gestalt theory, how humans see colour, and proportion in nature are covered as part of the course, and students are expected to be able to understand and apply the concepts to design projects and real-life situations.

A recent article by Alexander Dawson on the excellent Six Revisions website provides further insights and describes how elements of behavioural psychology can be applied to web design.

As Dawson points out, the article is no subsititute for a psychology degree, but he provides an excellent summary of the key concepts, connecting theories and concepts of perception and the way the brain works to good user design experiences. It's well worth a read.

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How to get value from using Twitter - UPDATE

If you still need a reason to use Twitter after reading my article from the beginning of the year, How to get value from using Twitter, then how about reading Stephen Fry's reasons for using it?

To celebrate the two millionth follower of his Twitter site, Mr Fry has written about Twitter and his relationship with it over three years. Well worth a read.

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What is user experience design?

Those amazing people at Smashing Magazine have done it again; they've written another article I wish I'd written, but better than I ever could.

This time it's a brilliant summary of what user experience design is all about, why it's important and what it involves, what the benefits and criticsms are, and the techniques and tools involved. There's also a fantastic list of other web sites and resources in the UX space.

I thoroughly recommend the article to anyone working in the web design and software industries.

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Are you ready for take-off?

Our very own Needles and Plastic contributor Bruce Russell has written a book. Well, actually it's not his first, so technically he's written another book. But this is his first on the subject of usability and how focusing on the user experience (UX) can make for a better website.

I've read it and although you might think because I now work for Wired and Bruce is a mate that I'm bound to say it's good. I can honestly say I think it's very good.

It's been a long time in the gestation too, as Bruce and Wired's owner Mike Baddeley worked hard to make it a good read as well as a worthwhile read. To quote from the Wired website:

It started as a little idea, then it grew. Before we knew what had happened we were making a whole book. 

Bruce has been blogging on this blog, and on the Wired blog, on the topic of usability and UX for a while now, but that doesn't mean the message is getting tired. Far from it. In fact, when I look hard at many of the websites I come across every day, it is a message that is taking a while to sink in, especially in the web and graphic design industries here in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

But before you think "ah, here's where Comfort puts the boot into other web design companies and gloats about the virtues of websites built by his employer's company" let me tell you, we aren't immune from the poor usability bug here either – virtually no-one is.

The pressures of work, the demands of the client, the requirement that the site be "active" and "attention-getting", can result in web applications that although visually appealling, often just get in the way of what the visitor wants to achieve on the site. The things I've added to sites in the past because a client wanted "movement" or "more happening on the home page" make me cringe and certainly push me off any moral high-ground I might try to take.

So, yes, we should always be thinking of the user's task in using the web sites we build. But it isn't easy to achieve and has a mis-conception of adding cost, so how do we sell this message to the client?

My advice: give 'em a copy of Preparing for Take-off. Bruce has a great way of explaining the user experience concept that is non-threatening, non-technical, and just down-right good to read. It's practical,  common-sense (whatever that might be) and brief. It's got to be good for you and your website.

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Prepare for change

Whaddya reckon? Has this writer got a point? The iPad, and the Staggering Work of Obviousness. About how we need to be slowly prepared to move on to the the next big-thing in computers?

I've seen similar arguments about the development of the mouse. Before the mouse, few could foresee another way of interacting with computers other than the keyboard (I notice Hollywood movies still think this is how hotshot programmers and hackers still interact with computers. Makes me laugh every time).

Yet now we all use a mouse no matter what personal computer system we use, we find it difficult to see how any other way could work. Tablets as a way of working with a computer have been around for ages (I know several graphic designers who wouldn't use anything else) and you'd think the idea of using a pen-like device to interact with a computer would be natural for many, but tablets are not sold with every computer.

Images for tablet

Touch screens could easily become the way of the future, but before the iPhone most thought the idea of using your thumb to interact with a computer device rather limited. It took a revolution in web interface design to help that one along (ie., the design trends surrounding what was called Web 2.0, essentially making fonts bigger onscreen and reducing interaction back to what the user really needed at any one time) and the influence of the iPhone on mobile device interfaces to make the idea of using your fingers on a screen  acceptable and, more importantly, practical.

There are a few videos around showing people using a touch-screen interface to operate a computer, and it seems to work well. Now we have the iPad, and although I'm sure someone will create a wireless or USB plug-in mouse for the iPad, it doesn't come with one, nor seems to need one.

I think Amy Hoy is right. There's plenty of stories about ideas and inventions that turned out to be before their time but the concept was later successful in different times or guises. The first time, the idea just doesn't catch on with everybody, but there seems to be a bunch of people who love the idea and see the potential in it. When it emerges later in a different guise, those people are often the early adopters who create the buzz around the product that eventually gets all of us using it, or variations inspired by  it. And once we all start using the product concept, we find it hard to imagine how we did things before it was invented.

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