- humans are really good at pattern recognition -> eg. person by just their gait
- with practice, moves gradually to eyes / subconscious
- xkcd kerning comic (http://xkcd.com/1015/)
- work to change the way people see
- bumblebee recognition guide as exemplar pattern rec (need to find)
- find a clear thought
- sketching == visual solving
- sketching != commitment
- make sketches you can discard
- always put ideas down
- sketches can be ugly (maybe should be?)
- always ask "what are you trying to do?"
- applies in many arenas
- wry observation is a skill
- map of US including tiny piece of land jutting into canada w/ 119 people same size as texas w/ 26 million people
- once you establish a pattern, repetition becomes an option
- repetition without pattern is noise
- iterate when sketching in the browser
- 265 variations for obama / romney graphic (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/02/us/politics/paths-to-the-white-house.html?_r=0)
- cassini orbit mechanics graphic (http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/04/20/science/space/20cassini_graphic.html?ref=space)
- find something your brain recognizes
- then remember it
- visualization != explanation
- seeing and thinking are necessary prerequisites for designing
- "design is clear thinking made visible" - ET
- design and dataviz as translation
- dataviz must involve communication
- don't be your own audience
- talking to yourself is not communicating
- remember what it's like to not understand (beginner's mind) and present to that platform
- things like oblivion ui as facade of communication
- show change
- static infographic is not dataviz
- don't collect trivia
- don't just count things, counting things != dataviz
- collections should add up to something
- don't introduce false patterns
- always ask!
- be skeptical of vanity data
- curiosity via / imaging interaction (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/science/space/mars-curiosity-rover-tracker.html)
- embrace limitations and constraints
- eg annotated / overlayed frames instead of video because of lack of video rights
- point and annotate
- eg carved rock as oldest map (mountainscape) (find)
- still working to combine art and label
- annotation is this effort
- anticipate confusion
- what questions will the reader ask
- interate: keep honing / refining
- check kepler data
- dealing with multiple scales / dimensions can be challenging
- understand your steps as well as your tools!
- time == brute force, but worth it
- ruthlessly apply common sense to your work
- understand what you can control
- accuracy
- clarity
- legibility
- empathy
- simplicity
- vs
- understanding
- elegance
- (beauty)
- careful with beauty
- "what if I am tricked? What if I believe in this just because it is beautiful?" - Andrei Linde, discovered inflation theory
- what might emerge from what you can control?
- see + think = understand
- design + produce = explain
- understand + explain = dataviz
- there are many ways to explain
- "please, respect the reader"
- "I'm interested in communication, not design"