The power of data visualization

Great examples of data visualization ( telling the story in images, folks) at io9.com... using science fiction and zombies as accessible pop-culture data points, these information graphics provide excellent examples for reuse in business. Science with a sense of humor. For a more serious take, see C-SPAN's visualization of participation in the presidential debates.

Why are we writing about this? Because in the age of infinite channels, visuals offer an immediacy that words cannot. Saying "the United States is polarized" does not have as visceral an effect as viewing a daily visualization of polling data.

Visualization takes on new power in the torrent of information available to much of the world's population today. Our recent usability testing has shown a predilection towards visualization among younger users; this may indicate a different yet sophisticated way of thinking. Government and military are developing greater visualization capabilities into computer support for emergencies and deployment. Complex sets of data challenge the best and brightest, who see the value of creating visual systems to contextualize the meaning of data.

Consider doing the same with business data, especially online.

Bad ad - it's all in the placement

In our view, good advertising doesn't turn off your users and drive away traffic. Don't bash them over the head! Attract users with smart ad choices that make it clear you value them as much as you value advertisers.

TAKEOVERS

"Who are you?"

Would you plaster a billboard over the signage at your company's headquarters? Keep your masthead visible so users know who you are.

POP UPS

"I didn't ask for this."
The ad shouldn't be the first thing seen on your site. Once users have enjoyed your unique content, they're more likely to respond to relevant ads.

POOR PLACEMENT

"Where can I go?"
Obscuring navigation implies that ads trump your original content. And it prevents users from reaching what they came for.

Do bad things happen when developers design user interface?

We work with some incredibly talented development teams around Web sites, Web applications, and software projects. Unfortunately, teams missing a user experience specialist often find that they cannot come to consensus on what the user interface should look like, or what it should do. This leads to a sub-optimal user experience, with the common result being that powerful software functions are invisible to the user. That wastes money - and obscures the excellent work of your team.

The cost to business of skipping the critical planning stages - which include user profiles, usability testing, information architecture, user interface design and task sequence design - is incalculable. Skipping these steps means endless hours of expensive meetings where everyone has an opinion, but few have real data.

Stop for a moment and consider the areas of expertise your employees own today. Is there someone on staff with formal training in user interface design? Information architecture? Task sequence design? If the answer is "no" or "sort of," it's time to start adding up the cost of all the hours spent in meetings with no consensus, so you can reallocate those funds to usability training or professional services that will bridge the gap.

Relationships, ethics, and collaboration

Are attitudes about ethics and relationship changing - or are they just more visible in the Net-enabled world? Take this quiz and see how you score. In my world, relationships must be based on the presumption of ethical behavior. You may say I'm a dreamer... but there is a business consequence to ethics or the lack thereof.

DARPA and the Internet, official version

Awesome 1969 drawing of the ARPA network, which became the Internet... Since we were on the topic of DARPA... of course the history of DARPA and the Internet is in a PDF... but you've got to love the simplicity of this sketch.

Jay-z a Masonic initiate? The power of symbols in paranoid times

I must confess I was surprised to hear NPR cover the "is Jay-Z a Mason?" story in conjunction with the current Dan Brown frenzy. I'm not a fan of Brown's, but he is to occult tradition what Carl Sagan was to astronomy - not the greatest scholar, but the most effective popularizer.

The Freemasonry allegation, which has surfaced before, is that the imagery used in the "Run This Town" video directly alludes to the influence of that secret society. Vigilant Citizen offers a visual discussion of the topic, and the comment that the lyrics imply "an imminent change that might terrify or enrage some people" is of interest in light of the recent Town Hall hysteria. What might that change be? A perusal of the blogs confirms that the terms "Freemason" and "Illuminati" are hopelessly confused in the public mind, which does not of course preclude wild speculation and ridiculous conclusions. What we can state with certainty is that when times are hard, people look for a reason; the notorious All-Seeing Eye and pyramid, passed daily on our very own dollar bills, remains a powerful symbol that can represent paramount understanding, or the ultimate in conspiracy. How we choose to use it at any given point in time is a clear mirror of our collective hopes and fears. The use of the eye and pyramid in the Total Information Awareness logo was disturbing enough to put the brakes on the Bush administration's then-unstoppable snooping efforts, as detailed in a memo from DARPA. There is something so potent about the symbol that it calls into question any who adopt it. So what does this mean? The idea of the ultimate conspiracy - the entrenched refusal of the powerful to collaborate with the powerless - could certainly be credible in light of current news. Yet this suspicion on the part of the less fortunate - that the deck is deliberately stacked against them - has survived many eras. The pity is for society, which loses when its citizens lose faith.

CDC test of social media: Complexity makes usable design a challenge

Check out the concise summary of "social media usability testing" conducted by the CDC. Covering MySpace, blogs, widgets, e-Cards, and podcasts, the study points to the unsurprising conclusion that complex products - such as widgets - must meet a higher standard of usability and credible user experience.

I'll bracket that statement with two statistics from the study. First the e-Cards: "100% participants worry about viruses/spam." Which, of course, influences the decision to open the e-Card. This is what our Usable Times 5 methodology would describe as a Permission issue - as in, "I did not give you permission to send viruses or spam to my computer." Of course the Web site does not explicitly say it will send viruses or spam. But it doesn't reassure users that they won't have to worry about them, either.

Second, the widget, which only 45% if respondents were able to share and download, caused users to "struggle." Again, a reduction in usage, for different reasons. The loss here is in the development time for that widget, which is then under-utilized due to poor task sequence design. The presentation of user interactivity required for interaction with the widget is not straightforward enough for this user base. Interactivity is another Usable Times 5 factor.

The usability test report also discusses problems with adjacency of controls (instructions for use of podcasts too far from the action button, counter-intuitive "save this file" labeling). This is a common problem easily revealed in usability testing, and solved in user interface design.

The best news: "Visitors who use our new media products are more satisfied
with their visit to CDC’s Web site." That encourages all of us to continue the development of the many diverse expressions that currently fall under the rubric of social media. But these findings also point out the significant gap between the products we create and the user's ability to understand them without us there to explain them.

The need for information design on all digital products remains unmet.

The study, created by Sarah Greer, Catherine Jamal, Mike Peltz
and Cari Wolfson of the CDC's Division of eHealth Marketing, gets kudos for its frank look at CDC's current usage of media tools. No surprise to find FDA's Sanjay Koyani thanked at the end - he was among the first to create Web user experience standards in 2003 with the Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines.