the design of nothing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Landmesser

The defiance of August Landmesser

https://twitter.com/AleemMaqbool/status/447306090087452672/photo/1 https://twitter.com/QasimNauman/status/447277789121495040/photo/1

International New York Times, weekend of 22nd/23rd March 2014

Measurements of Car Speeds in the Netherlands, by Erik Boertjes

Zero cars

Zero speed

No sensor data

Measurements of Car Speeds in the Netherlands, by Erik Boertjes

NULL ZERO BLANK INVISIBLE

NULL When ‘nothing’ becomes something

http://dojo4.com/clients/gnip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2014/03/20/Foreign/Images/2014-03-20T072610Z_01_DBG270_RTRIDSP_3_MALAYSIA-AIRLINES-AUSTRALIA-10694.jpg

“We are not used to no information” BBC News, 16th March 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/latest

Billionaires, by Bloomberg

http://printsandprintmaking.gov.au/explore/decade-summary/

Metadata of Australian prints and printmaking, interactive by Mitchell Whitelaw

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/2013/05/22/rainfall.jpg

Holiday chill?, by South China Morning Post Graphics

“No data was recorded between 1940 and 1946”

http://pbsg.npolar.no/en/dynamic/app/

State of the Polar Bear, by Periscopic

“[The greying out] was a political statement to Russia to release the data they have about polar bears”

http://headwaterseconomics.org/interactive/west-wide-atlas

West-Wide Economic Atlas, by Headwaters Economics

“Data are sometimes withheld by the federal government to avoid the disclosure of potentially confidential information.”

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/20070524_REFINERY_GRAPHIC.html

Rising Prices at the Pump, by New York Times Graphics

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-25927595

Where is it Illegal to be Gay?, by BBC News Graphics

This is one of the first questions we should ask about any dataset: What is missing? What can we learn from the gaps?

Jer Thorp

https://twitter.com/chris_swift/status/430688880484831232

http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2014/03/banksy-vancouver-nobody-likes-me/

ZERO Something to represent ‘nothing’

http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer

Mapping America, by New York Times Graphics

https://twitter.com/rsimmon/status/406433840807165952/photo/1

NASA space station view of Mount Etna, via Rob Simmon

http://johnsnow.matrix.msu.edu/book_images12.php

Cholera Outbreak Map, by John Snow

John Snow’s cholera map Florence Nightingale Napoleon’s march William Playfair invented the bar chart What would Tufte say? 3D Pie charts are not very good Tall infographics are everywhere… Red-green colour blindness Funny xkcd comic Outrageous maze creation algorithm Random musical interruption Heart-stopping live demo

✔

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/450008187738450975/

From Pyramid to Kite, by The Economist

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3020923/how-the-red-cross-used-tweets-to-save-lives-during-hurricane-sandy

“Even a lack of postings can tell the Red Cross something. If there is a social media black hole that probably means the area needs help.”

‘Hurricane Sandy’ tweet map, by Floating Sheep

Encoding zero?

POSITION VS. AXIS

http://darkhorseanalytics.com/blog/the-uniform-distribution/

The Uniform Distribution, by Dark Horse Analytics LENGTH

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2013/03/04/sk-drinking-age-1303.html

Drinking Age Across Canada, by CBC News BASELINE ZERO FOR LENGTH

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/242407/EGYPT-INTERNET-BLACKOUT.jpg

The Uniform Distribution, by Dark Horse Analytics POSITION/AREA VS. AXIS

Parallel Coordinates, USDA Nutrient Database

http://exposedata.com/parallel/

POSITION/SLOPE VS. AXIS

COLOUR SHADING Hewlett Foundation Grants Tool, by Periscopic

http://www.hewlett.org/grants-tool/index

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/03/us/20090303_LEONHARDT.html

Geography of a Recession, by New York Times Graphics COLOUR SHADING

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/may/08/gay-rights-united-states

TEXTURE Gay Rights by Type, by Guardian US Graphics

http://fukushima.nzz.ch/#die-schulleiterin

DENSITY Fukushima, by NZZ/Interactive Things

http://hint.fm/wind/

Wind Map, by Hint FM DENSITY

http://mapsbynik.tumblr.com/post/82791188950/nobody-lives-here-the-nearly-5-million-census

Nobody Lives Here, by Mapsbynik DOTS/POSITION

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=rfid-tags-track-possible-outbreak-pathways-in-hospital

NODE/LINK RFID Tags Track Possible Outbreak Pathways in the Hospital, by Jan Willem Tulp

TITLE

Male Presidents

Female Presidents

ANGLE

http://kelsocartography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/carbonatlas.pdf

The Carbon Atlas, by The Guardian Graphics AREA

http://www.smartmoney.com/map-of-the-market/

Map of the Market, by The Wall Street Journal AREA

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/your-own-words/scotus-gay-marriage/

ANNOTATION SCOTUS Gay Marriage, by The Washington Post Graphics

https://twitter.com/arnicas/status/435473001258442752

BLANK ‘Nothing’ to represent something

The single most overlooked element in visual design is emptiness… [but] space

must look deliberately used.

Alex White

‘The Elements of Graphic Design’ by Alex White, pg 65

http://www.this-page-intentionally-left-blank.org/whythat.html

This Page Intentionally Left Blank

The primary reason is to offer internet wanderers a place of quietness and simplicity

on the overcrowded World Wide Web

http://13pt.com/projects/nyt071211/

Lunge Feeding, by Jonathan Corum

http://graphics-info.blogspot.hk/2012/09/malofiej-20-look-at-our-participation.html

Iraq’s Bloody Toll, by Simon Scarr

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/the-depth-of-the-problem/931/

TITLE The Depth of the Problem, by The Washington Post Graphics

http://kottke.org/06/07/independent-infographic

Middle East: Who Backs Immediate Ceasefire?, by The Independent

http://www.voanews.com/content/nigeria-polio-cases-drop-50-percent/1776099.html

Nigeria Polio Cases Drop 50 Percent in 2013, by Voice of America

http://blogs.reuters.com/data-dive/2013/12/10/gms-new-ceo-is-another-small-crack-in-the-glass-ceiling/ http://www.chezvoila.com/blog/glass-ceiling

The Glass Ceiling Persists, by Reuters Graphics | Reworking by Francis Gagnon

http://visual.ly/spotlight-movie-profitability

Spotlight on Profitability, by Krisztina Szücs

http://www.accurat.it/

Nobels No Degrees, by Accurat Studio for Corriere della Sera

http://yusylvia.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/gestalt_illustration-01.jpg?w=604&h=251&h=251 http://www.creativebloq.com/art/art-negative-space-8133765

http://www.theispot.com/whatsnew/2014/3/brian-stauffer-out-of-control.htm

New York Time Op-Ed, Out of Control, by Brian Stauffer

http://www.businessinsider.com/gun-deaths-in-florida-increased-with-stand-your-ground-2014-2

Gun Deaths in Florida, by Reuters Graphics

http://cementeclipses.com/

INVISIBLE A bit more thinking about ‘nothingness’

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/see-everything-thats-beautiful-about-advertising-two-simple-print-ads-bookstore-154627

Advert for Corre Cutia Bookstore, by Lápisraro Comunicação

The best design is invisible; the viewer should not see your design. They should only see

your content.

Edward Tufte

http://woodchanges.com/

Wood Changes, by Luis Carli and Rafael Passarelli

You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

http://www.scmp.com/infographics/article/1193675/remembering-kowloon-walled-city http://lasombra.blogs.com/la_sombra_del_asno/2013/05/sichuans-earthquake.html

Infographic portfolio of Adolfo Arranz, SCMP

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/19/sexy.data/index.html?_s=PM:OPINION

The clearest, most precise graphic in the world communicates nothing if nobody looks at it

Fernanda Viegas, Martin Wattenberg

Changing Face of America, by NBC Nightly News

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3029318/design-crime/the-worst-infographic-of-2014-so-far

Guidance to the user is needed most at the moment the statistics are first made public. The

news media look to the statistical release to provide an objective account of the statistics. They may regard the absence of such text as

indicative of partisan influence.

Saying nothing is not necessarily politically neutral.

Richard Alldritt, UK Statistics Authority

http://www.statsusernet.org.uk/blogs/richard-alldritt/2012/05/17/a-word-about-numbers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/04/07/the-less-americans-know-about-ukraines-location-the-more-they-want-u-s-to-intervene/

Where’s Ukraine?, via Washington Post ‘Monkey Cage’

Pay attention to ‘nothing’ because it really is worth something

Thank you… Contributors: Lynn Cherny, Santiago Ortiz, Kim Rees, Francis Gagnon, Tony Hurst, Jane Pong, Erik Boertjes, Carl Manaster, Nigel Hawtin, Deb Grebenc, Alan Smith The Vine army: @brunodagnino, @mapitup, @hyperion_hq, @lorgmedia, @jcukier, @andrea_paolini, @maralllo, @justadddesign, @stefpos, @giorgialupi, @alignedleft, @stinabacker, @infotrafford, @wiederkehr, @danielsouza, @chezvoila, @albertocairo, @arnicas, @ireneros And, of course, the very wise OpenVisConf committee!