1. VERITAS Confidential Making Sense of Information Shashank Deshpande VERITAS Software December, 2003 5 th STC Conference, Pune

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

3. 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, …

4. VERITAS Confidential Information design

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

6. 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

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

8. 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

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. VERITAS Confidential Data Presentation types Maps and Plans

13. VERITAS Confidential Data Presentation types Pictures, Illustrations and Drawings

14. VERITAS Confidential Data Presentation types Charts and Graphs Fat Proteins Carbohydrates

15. VERITAS Confidential Principles of Information Design #1 Enforce visual comparisons

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

17. 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

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

19. 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

20. VERITAS Confidential Information Design Process

21. 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

22. VERITAS Confidential Knowledge in the Head vs. in the World

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

24. 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

25. VERITAS Confidential Thanks! Shashank Deshpande shashank@veritas.com