Guidelines for creating good infographics are not hard to find. The guidelines generally cover some configuration of the following: Determine the goal of the infographic — what you want to communicate Analyze relevant data and determine which data sets are most important Design thoughtfully And the graphical representation of data is often wonderful. It can … Read more The Persistence of Bad Infographics
Happy Hour as the Path to a New Job
Play a game, get a job. Knack, a start-up, has released Happy Hour, a game designed to test the cognitive skills employers might want, including emotional intelligence, comfort with risk, and flexibility. Playing the short game can give employers as much info about you as extensive interviewing. (Just try convincing the HR people, though.) Turns … Read more Happy Hour as the Path to a New Job
Gogglemania
Google Goggles. Making fun of Google Goggles. Fashionware for enjoying The Avengers 3D (even if the only superhero you had previous knowledge of was The Hulk). And now, Truth Goggles. PolitiFact’s Truth Googles (check out this demo), allow users to fact check claims made by politicians and the media. Interesting in itself, it also is … Read more Gogglemania
Comically Engaging
Graphic novels emerged as a sophisticated art and storytelling form with books such as Maus and Fun Home, and are now making their foray into the classroom. This is exciting news for those of us committed to reaching the disengaged and disenchanted learner. Graphic novels have been shown to engage students that are otherwise daunted … Read more Comically Engaging
Too Timely
Media Post recently had an interesting analysis of the once-golden The Street’s fall. For publishers, there is one especially thought-provoking point: Finance is TOO timely. Finance is one of the most valuable verticals in both an absolute and relative sense: total advertising across the banking and financial services sector is amongst the largest, and … Read more Too Timely
Hacktivism: Vandalism, Terrorism, Awesome?
I admit it. I’m fascinated by hacking and hacktivism. (For the record, I’m not interested in hacking, just in watching the hackfest play out. That said, I do wish I’d figured out how to make my computer available to facilitate communication during the Arab Spring.) Not to date myself, but I read the Cuckoo’s Egg … Read more Hacktivism: Vandalism, Terrorism, Awesome?
Gaming to End Poverty
The Institute for the Future is running a 2-day game starting April 3 to “cultivate back-of-the-envelope ideas for new technologies, social enterprises, skillsets, educational approaches, and other strategies or methods to help and empower poor and vulnerable populations around the globe.” Anyone can play. Interesting example of a “serious game.” Serious games are a expected … Read more Gaming to End Poverty
Content Curation Controversy
A big brouhaha on capitalizing on other’s hard work by aggregating (often sans credit) or adding very little value has led to the announcement of a new Council on Ethical Blogging and Aggregation at SXSW. Another group announced a Curator’s Code, with (proposed) standard symbols to indicate a direct attribution (“I found this here”) or … Read more Content Curation Controversy
Not Just Pretty
Francesco Franchi gets it right. He has a strong vision for infographics — for data journalism — and he knows that at the foundation is good data and good storytelling. Francesco Franchi: On Visual Storytelling and New Languages in Journalism from Gestalten on Vimeo Recently, I’ve been following a discussion on LinkedIn about whether … Read more Not Just Pretty
Emotional Content
In this month’s Contents magazine, Daniel Eizans makes a thoughtful (and entertaining) plea for content strategists to consider the emotional aspects of content. Looking at the brain’s functions and how users comprehend information, Eizans advocates focusing not only on the “what” of information, but also on the “how” and “why.” Certainly a good technical foundation … Read more Emotional Content