More on design of graphics
Since it’s clearly Night of the Living Data here, another link on data visualisation (via @zentree), a long essay from Bret Victor “Magic Ink: information software and the graphical interface”
A person experiences modern software almost exclusively through two channels:
- She reads and interprets pictures on a screen.
- She points and pushes at things represented on the screen, using a mouse as a proxy finger.
Thus, software design involves the design of two types of artifact:
- Pictures.
- Things to push.
These are not brave new realms of human endeavor. We share the blood of cavemen who pushed spears into mammoths and drew pictures of them in the living room. By now, these two activities have evolved into well-established design disciplines: graphic design and industrial design.
…
The software designer can thus approach her art as a fusion of graphic design and industrial design. Now, let’s consider how a user approaches software, and more importantly, why.
(and even if you aren’t a dataviz enthusiast, someone whose hypothetical example books are called ‘Waiting for Good Dough”, “The Bun Also Rises”, and “Yeast of Eden”, is definitely worth reading)
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »