VERITAS Confidential Making Sense of Information Shashank Deshpande VERITAS Software December, th STC Conference, Pune

VERITAS Confidential Agenda Information Design (ID) basics Types of ID and Data presentation Principles of ID Examples Q & A Exercises Presentations

VERITAS Confidential Information Overload Information in our day-to-day lives: Bills – Electricity, Telephone, Tax, … Financial – Salary & Bank statements, Stocks, … Work – Meetings, Telephone calls, mails, … Homes – TV, Appliances, Newspaper, Magazines, Books, … Streets – Billboards, signage, public information, …

VERITAS Confidential Information design

VERITAS Confidential Information Design basics The process of organizing information and presenting it to the user in the most meaningful format.

VERITAS Confidential Information design basics It deals with Users, Context and Data content Showing meaning through comparison, similarity, contrast, aggregation, differentiation, and other forms of data relation

VERITAS Confidential Information design basics What does these notations mean to you?

VERITAS Confidential Information design basics Visual thinking It is a Science as well as an Art Use graphic elements like grid, proportions, color, typography and illustrations to convey meaning

VERITAS Confidential Information design basics How human mind ‘understands’ information? Use user’s mental model –Tariff card –Bus Ticket –Interactive Time Zone Viewer

VERITAS Confidential Information components Data –Unstructured facts based on data collection Information –Structured data – ordered, categorized or grouped Knowledge –Information that is usable Wisdom/Intelligence –Capacity to apply knowledge

VERITAS Confidential Data Presentation types Formal –Maps and Plans –Tables –Charts/graphs –Pictures, Illustrations and Drawings –Text –Combinations of the above Verbal, Gestures and Body language

VERITAS Confidential Data Presentation types Maps and Plans

VERITAS Confidential Data Presentation types Pictures, Illustrations and Drawings

VERITAS Confidential Data Presentation types Charts and Graphs Fat Proteins Carbohydrates

VERITAS Confidential Principles of Information Design #1 Enforce visual comparisons

VERITAS Confidential Principles of Information Design #2 Show causality – method, logic or reason

VERITAS Confidential Principles of Information Design #3 Show multi-dimensional data –show additional information to help user understand information –use multiple stimuli to reinforce the message

VERITAS Confidential Principles of Information Design #4 Integrate words, numbers and images

VERITAS Confidential Principles of Information Design #5 Work with great content –Analyze the data to show what is most important –Why does the user need this information – assist his/her thinking –Quality, relevance and integrity of content drives information design

VERITAS Confidential Information Design Process

VERITAS Confidential ID Process Discovery –target audience, messages, needs, desires and constraints Analysis –comprehending, relating, and categorizing information discovered Prototyping –Design decisions and modeling Review –Test with target audience

VERITAS Confidential Knowledge in the Head vs. in the World

VERITAS Confidential Exercises Design display system for railway platforms Re-design of railway ticket

VERITAS Confidential Reference Books Books by Edward Tufte –The Visual Display of Quantitative Information –Envisioning Information –Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative Information Architects by Richard Saul Wurman Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud Visual Thinking by Rudolf Arnheim Information Design: The Knowledge Architect’s Toolkit by Graziella Tonfoni

VERITAS Confidential Thanks! Shashank Deshpande