How to present lots of information on a screen

cacaphony of pictures here

Nuclear launch detected

Like this?

Simplicity

It takes work to simplify

Plan time to simplify your designs

"Looks good, how can we make it simpler?"

Reduce

The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. - John Maeda

What features can we hide?

What can we remove?

What would Tufte do?

"There are a lot of terrible graphs out there!"- things Tufte probably said

Professor Tufte studies how to present various kinds of information.

1975

Data to Ink Ratio

Which means Fewer Lines

In action at Google

"A lot of use of white space, not a lot of artificial, surface-like divisions. We’re really counting on bold typography, white space, and big images to give emphasis, give character and give hierarchy to the cards that we give you."

-Matias Duarte, senior director, Android user experience

No Crazy Effects

Fun for a slideshow but bad for comparing data. Imagine a few of these on a screen.

A good 3D chart

Thanks

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Enso.jpghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Highway_Chart_Data.pdfhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gantt_it.pnghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BTW05_VAE_CDU_CSU_Stapel.jpghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Switches_domain.svg

Wheelbarrow photo - By U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dustin Kelling [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons