Intent & Impact at Data In Sight

presented by Interactive Things

Hello San Francisco!Benjamin WiederkehrInteractive Things & Datavisualization.ch

1

Hi, I am Benjamin from Switzerland and I am here with my coworker Peter.


Interactive ThingsUser Experience & Data Visualization StudioZürich, Switzerland

2

We both work for a user experience and data visualization studio that I founded with four friends of mine, one and a half years ago.

„ “Wholeheartedly passionate about making things understandable, usable, enjoyable & actionable.„ “

3

The combination of these two fields comes from our believe, that applying principles from data visualization to UX design and vice versa is immensely beneficial to the end product.


Datavisualization.chResource for Data Visualization & InfographicsOur Blog

4

I also write about data related things from a Swiss perspective on Datavisualization.ch. We document a lot of new projects published by the community, share our thoughts about this field and give guidance to starting out practitioners.


Caption

5


Caption

6

presented by Interactive Things 7

Not yourmother‘sinteractiondesigncompany

Just likepugs and costumes

we combinethings that just belong

together


We apply data visualization principles to interface design.map show patterns, not dataoptimize maximize the information to cognitive effort ratiostabilize stabilize the informational and operational contextadapt make the interface coherent with the applicationdigitalize push the potential of the digital medium to handle complexity

9


Data In Sight

10

First I want to thank the ladies from swissnex for inviting me. Actually, when they first approached me about taking part in is, I was flattered and naive as I am, didn't grasp what that really meant. But, when they asked me to give a talk about data visualization in the Bay Area and I was terrified. Because, you know, you guys obviously know your shit!

presented by Interactive Things11

GoogleStanfordStamenBloom

Some of the best work in visualization comes from people that live here like Google, Stanford, Stamen and more recently Bloom.


A) I am not going for a portfolio talkB) I am not going for a "how to" talkC) You guys probably are a lot smarter than I am

12

When I was thinking about what I should talk about, I knew three things:A) I am not going for a portfolio talkB) I am not going for a "how to" talkC) You guys probably are a lot smarter than I am.

So, I decided to leverage this collective wisedom to include a few questions that keep me up at night. Actually, that's what I gonna do most of the time: raise questions! And what I hope to do, is letting YOU find your own answers over the course of the next 24 hours.


INTENT & IMPACTThoughts on Persuasion in Visualization

13

I dubbed it impact and intent and it will be more an collection of thoughts and questions for you to reflect on, discuss, seek answers than a complete theory.


Explore ! Ideate ! Create ! Publish

One thing that strikes me is the amount of talk around the visual and functional qualities of visualizations or the process of creating them, but I feel a lack of discussion around the underlying motivation and the resulting outcome.

I think that visualization should be seen as a means to an end and not an end in it's own right. Thus, this talk is focused on the things that happen before the exploration phase and after the publication.


Talk - Action = Shit

The underlying thought is…I am totally stealing this from Brendan Dawes.


INTENT & IMPACT

16

Have a clear understanding why you do what you do.


Informing people! "! Increase knowledgeConvincing people! "! Shape opinionsNudge people! ! "! Change behavior

01 Set your aim

17

First we need to be clear about our goal with the visualization.Do you wan‘t to inform people to increase their knowledge? Fine.Or do you want to convince people and shape their opinions? That‘s fine, too.Or do you want to nudge people to ultimately change their behavior ? That‘s great!

Inspired by Enrico Bertini, Fell in Love with Data


Increasing Knowledge

18

How do humans learn and increase their knowledge?

„ “

Sarah Slobin

Something new, relevant, di"erent, informative and even entertaining is a good place to start.

19

If you plan to inform and delight readers then something new, relevant, different, informative and even entertaining is a good place to start.

Sarah Slobin, Visual Journalist for the Wall Street Journal, previously at NYT, Fortune, CNN Money.


Decorative ! ! ! "Enlivening TextRepresentational! "Making information more concreteOrganisational! ! "Bringing coherence to dataInterpretative! ! "Enhancing understanding of dataTransformative!! "Recode information into more concrete and memorable form, organizing it through relations, and providing systemic means of retrieval

Scheiter, Wiebe, & Holsanova

Transformative visualization have the strongest positive learning effect. Thus, I highly recommend to move your efforts in this direction.

Make information concrete & memorable.Organize it for faster comprehension.Provide options for analysis.


Shaping Opinions

21

How do humans build up their opinions and beliefs?

„ “

Aristoteles

In an ideal society opinions are the end result of informed discussions, readings, & listenings.

22

That‘s quite a romantic view on us as humans, but we know it better, right?


Whenever we are confronted with external stimuli we first resort to what we feel or what we believe and later to what we think.

The cognitive process is a combination of emotion & reason.

23

limbic system neocortexstimuli reaction

Clara Kayser-Bril, Nicolas Kayser-Bril and Marion Kotlarski: 100 Years of World Cuisine

„100 Years of World Cuisine“ uses very strong visuals that immediately provoke an emotional reaction to convey their story.

http://twitter.com/nicolaskb

http://twitter.com/nicolaskb

http://www.marionkotlarski.com/

http://www.marionkotlarski.com/


Changing Behavior

25

What is necessary for humans to change their behavior?


Behavior ModelAccording to B. J. Fogg is people's behavior a result of the convergence of three elements:

Motivation, Ability, & Trigger

26

To do a certain task or even to change behavior someone must be motivated for that. Furthermore, the users ability or the tasks simplicity either should be as easy as possible or it should be perceived easy to do. Finally, the user must be triggered for action.As designers and developers we need to make it simple for them to use. Thus, the ability should be a problem.So how can we motivate people?And how can we include triggers for action at the right time?


GamificationUsing game mechanics in non-gaming contexts to improve user engangement or even change user behavior.

You know, stuff like rewards, leaderboards, competitions.

27

There are many services that are sucessfully using game mechanics to increase user engagement. So, it looks like a promising method that could be applied to visualization as well.

TidyStreet.org

Tidy Street is a project from Brighton, UK that happend earlier this year.Each day the participants' electricity usage over the previous 24 hours will be marked on the street compared to the average Brighton household‘s electricity usage.

TidyStreet.org


02 Tell a story

31

„ “

Donald Norman

Stories are important cognitive events, for they encapsulate, into one compact package, information, knowledge, context, & emotion.

32

Effectively designed transformational visualizations can assume this exact role, acting not just as simple data representations but rather as layered, multidimensional, optical allegories, perceptually aequivalent to stories.Inspired by Carla Casilli.


Narrative Visualization: Telling Stories with Data

Martini Glass Structure

Interactive Slideshow

Drill-Down Story

Edward Segel & Jeffrey Heer

Edward Segel and Jeffrey Heer published a wonderful paper in 2010 about this topic — I recommend everybody has a look at it. Narrative Visualization: Telling Stories with Data

Faces of the Dead by New York Times

Martini Glass Structure: Starts with one story and then let‘s the user explore further.

Budget Forecasts, Compared With reality by Amanda Cox for New York Times

Interactive Slideshow: Tells the story over multiple slides with every slide being interactive.

Murder: New York City by New York Times

Drill-Down Story: The user needs to start exploring the application to get more detailed information.


03 Make it personal

37

Jobless Rate for People Like You by New York Times

Start with the general public


Select your own demography…


And then start comparing it to related or opposite demographics.


The people trust you to act with fair spirit — please be aware of that.

04 Don‘t be evil

41

canopic on flickr.com

You can twist data just like a balloon animal.

But, keep in mind that these things usually pop before you get home.


INTENT & IMPACT

43

Have a clear vision for what you want to achieve with your work.

John Snow: Cholera Map

1813 - 1858 English physician


John Snow convinced Whitehead that the Broad Street pump was the source of the local infections. Whitehead then joined with Snow in tracking the contamination to a faulty cesspool and the outbreak’s index case

45

Henry Whitehead was a Church of England Cleric.

Florence Nightingale: Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East

1820 - 1910 English nurse writer and statistician.


Florence Nightingale convinced military authorities, Parliament and Queen Victoria to carry out her reforms. Her insistence on good sanitation, fresh air and public health saved thousands of lives, both for soldiers and civilians, on battlefields and in hospitals.

47

Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth


• Over 106,000 tons of carbon were offset in the year following the film's release, which is equivalent to 225 million car miles.

• 4200+ tons of carbon were offset just by people swtiching to compact fluorescent light bulbs.

• Over 15 climate change bills have been introduced in Congress, with the historic Markey-Waxman Bill passing the House in June, 2009.

• Over 2600 people have been trained to give The Climate Project presentation and 4 million people on all seven continents have heard the presentation.

49


Plan the actions that you want people to take after engaging with your work.

05 Plan

50

Like, Share, Digg, Save are not impacting people's lives!Include actionable items into your visualizations & interfaces and set up the infrstructure for people to take action.

Small Habits by GreenPeace & Daniel Fischer

Include actionable items into your visualizations & interfaces and set up the infrstructure for people to take action.

The Human's Development by Global Giving & Roland Loesslein

Include actionable items into your visualizations & interfaces and set up the infrstructure for people to take action.


Observe the impact that your work has after you published it.

06 Observe

53


Feedburner

Twitter Search Social Mention

Google Analytics

Try to measure as much as possible about the usage of your visualization.Google Analytics, Google Reader, Twitter, Social Mention.Don't stop there and rather set up your own analytics…

http://search.twitter.com

http://search.twitter.com

http://socialmention.com

http://socialmention.com

UNDP & Interactive Things: Human Development Report 2.0

The UNDP measures all submitted configurations to learn from the people. Ultimately this could influence how the different dimensions of the Human Development Index are wheighted.

OECD, Moritz Stefaner & Raureif: Better Life Index

Just like the UNDP, the OECD measures user interaction in their newest application called Better Life Index.


1. Set your aim2. Tell a story3. Make it personal4. Don‘t be evil5. Plan for actions6. Observe your impact

57

Recap


THANKS!If you have any answers, please get in touch.

Email [email protected] @wiederkehrPhone +41 76 533 33 72

58

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://twitter.com/wiederkehr

http://twitter.com/wiederkehr

Intent & Impact at Data In Sight

Design

Transcript of Intent & Impact at Data In Sight