Our minds are quick to convert new optical experiences into familiar stories, favored viewpoints, comforting metaphors. No wonder, for how else can we manage optical data flows of 10 MB per second without familiar categories for filing, without the rage for wanting to conclude? An excerpt called "See Now… Words Later," from the Edward Tufte’s [...]
This is the kind of design I wish more newspapers would embrace. The text-graphic combination is a useful format when you need to present complex information. Additionally, you can load this format up with a lot of information without it feeling overwhelming. Unfortunately most newspapers usually opt for the brain numbing USA Today-style “factoids” when [...]
Fifty thumbnails of front pages on January 4, 2008. To me, the front pages that really stand out are those that led (visually, at least) with human interest, sports, or otherwise non-political stories. When presented in the context of their competition these front pages seem even sillier for not covering the obvious top story. A [...]
It’s a rainy Monday morning after a long holiday weekend, so I’m crabby. It’s a small thing, but it bugs me that the colors on the Google Analytics Traffic Sources pie chart aren’t consistent across my different websites. For example, orange refers to direct traffic here: …but when I look at the statistics for a [...]
An interesting set of design ideas: http://www.portfolio.com/infographics/2007/06/terminals I don’t have nearly enough domain knowledge to be able to make an intelligent—or even sarcastic!—remark about these three designs, but IDEO’s appeals the most to me for some reason. It’s probably the typography. Anyway, all three are interesting approaches to redesigning an old, complicated, and very important [...]
Interesting tidbit from Beautiful Evidence Author Edward Tufte and the Triumph of Good Design: PowerPoint may be a step backward, but the backlash is under way (Google “PowerPoint is evil” if you disagree) and there is abundant evidence that Tufte’s work is rising out of the Flatland of academia. His first book called out the [...]
ED:Robert is a guest writer for SCS I love big charts and graphs, and thebudgetgraph.com’s representation of where Congress allocates your tax dollars. The flash/preview of this poster is a little clunky but the only critique I’d levy at the poster is the way it handles micro versus macro comprisons. There’s a stat in the [...]
Did anyone else see Is It Better to Buy or Rent? on nytimes.com a few days ago? I thought it was quite impressive. I’m not purchasing real estate anytime soon, but I pay more attention than I’d care to admit to rent and real estate. I found this graph helpful for thinking about real estate [...]
From my Google Reader trends page: See those little trash can icons? When combined with an interesting stat about the clutter level of my subscriptions, the result is a convenient little user experience. So long, Chowhound Outer Boroughs! I’ve had enough of your pizza-debating feed.
I promise not every post here will be about the subway. The building outlines are cool, though I’m struggling at first glance to come up with a reason why I’d need that information. The UI designers who integrated the building data did a good job of keeping the building outlines subtle but noticeable. They don’t [...]
Sans Comic Sans is written by Matt Raw in Brooklyn, NY.