What’s Great About A Book Full of Info-graphics?

So you may be thinking, how can this book help me as an interface creator or UI designer? The truth is quite a bit. If you have ever dealt with long boring data tables meant to convey “important data” you can start to see the true power of representing data in a much more dynamic and thought provoking way. This is where inspiration can strike you in new and fun ways.

At first glance flipping through the pages of this book was much akin to being at a carnival and having all the vendors shouting at you for attention. The visual imagery can be overwhelming and not all the representations are outstanding. Some pictures are extremely confusing, but in many cases it is the exploration of imagery that provides meaning and stimulation to all the senses.

Some of the more powerful representations of data include: a chart representing different musical genres, things that will give you cancer, Virtual Massively multi-player online worlds as represented by a land map, the cloud of the top 100 web sites, just to name a few.

Summing It All Up

Like most books in this category you are very likely to get some type of inspiration and be able to interpret your data in new and exciting ways. By mastering unique ways to represent complicated and number laden data you can become much better at getting your point across.  After flipping through the pages of this book you will hopefully be able to render data like never before.

The Good:

• 100′s of excellent info-graphic examples at your fingertips
• New and interesting ways to visually depict data
• Extremely fast to browse through and become inspired
• The book is priced just right at $26.99 (odd number)
• High end graphics and vibrant colors make it a joy to peruse

The Bad:

• I wish there was more explanation behind the steps used to arrive at a chosen info-graphic
• The title of the book may be misleading and as such some may miss out on this book.
• I would have liked the charts to be organized more by topic (but it is miscellaneum, so it makes sense.)

Related articles:

1. UI Design Book Review: “Designing for the Greater Good”
2. UI Design Patterns: Exploration of Data and Visual Imagery in Application Design
3. Book Reviews: “Web Form Design Filling in the Blanks”

The book takes a look at web design from a psychological point of view . Inside Susan covers topics ranging from how the brain functions, to what primary instincts are triggered by certain events we experience in our life.

If you have ever taken college psychology a lot of the material about brain composition, comprehension and the like will seem very familiar. What is great about this book is how Susan manages to apply these basic human survival functions to the usage of web sites.

Inside you will find a lot of research and case studies, each concept building upon the last and ultimately bringing home the abstract ideas to concrete web activities. 

One particularly interesting scenario revolves around product reviews and how we can structure these to appeal to a web users:

“Imagine you’re at a chain store looking for a HD flat screen television, a random bystander comes by and you ask him what he thinks of the TV.”

Perhaps you do this with thirty other people in the store, asking each of them what they think of the TV. It sounds kind of foolish, but how many of us repeat this scenario multiple times a day online?  We are easily swayed and influenced by the ratings and reviews of strangers online.  We just don’t know who or what the experience level is of people rating a product online. Yet, when we see the 130 people gave this 4 stars. It directly influences our purchasing decisions. Now that is power!

The book continues to take a look at this method and refines the concept because of the ever changing skeptical nature of web users. Now we may find the review rating backed up by technological, or subject matter expertise.

Overall this book  is a great read and should cause some re-reading if you really want to get the most out of it. The first 1-7 chapters really tap into your “old brain” and you may want to stop reading a bit and just sit and think about how you can apply them to your web site. I know  I did this.   Chapters 8- to the end really rein-force a lot of the concepts. What I found however is that my brain was so busy thinking of ideas, and ways to change content, etc I had already come up with a lot of the material that was covered in these subsequent chapters.

Bottom Line: Get the book, read it, and practice what you learn.

Related articles:

1. SXSW 2008 – Day 2 Summary -
2. SXSW Interactive 2008 – Day 1 March 7, 2008
3. Book Reviews: “Web Form Design Filling in the Blanks”

An interesting thing happened the other day that made me think of this book. Cue flashback!

The other day I was looking at a registration form built for a development group and it was quite possibly the worst form in the world. It was one continous line of form elements strung together.  It was way too obvious that the forms creator only cared about function. It was  at that moment I was thinking just how much I would like to undo this crime against web design humanity and mail this Dr Frankenstein a copy of this book. Hell even one page of the book would have provided this “coder” with a semblance of design knowledge.

In the book Luke explores real world application implementations and illustrates how a simple design change in a form can mean the difference between success or failure. The part I liked best about this book is it’s numerous examples. Inside it covers in some shape or fashion all of the following:  form errors, required fields, layout, form element grouping, and accessibility issues.

A Word About The Book

 After hearing Luke speak at a few events I was immediately excited to read this book. I know what you are thinking it’s a book on forms. How could it get any more boring? Well, this is quite to the contrary. The book has a very light tone and tosses in lots of interesting case studies. For example one study focuses on the different variants of button elements. Should they be colored? Perhaps they should be different shapes? Should the primary function standout from the secondary? 

Believe it or not there are a ton of things to think about when designing a form. I recommend you grab a copy of this book. Even if you choose not to read it all the way through having it around for a reference is a smart thing to do.

Related articles:

1. Book Reviews: Neuro Web Design What Makes Them Click.
2. Book Review: “The Visual Miscellaneum” – Explore The Design World of Infographics In Only A Few Moments
3. UI Design Book Review: “Designing for the Greater Good”