IBM Smart Planet

Check IBM's Smart planet website. Not only see beautiful icons and posters, but also motion graphic.
Joe Makower from The Energy Collective wrote an insightful story about this IBM ad campaign that explains its goals and strategy and includes interviews with Rich Lechner, IBM’s VP of Energy and Environment and John Kennedy, VP of Integrated Marketing Communications.
also check it from DataVisualization.ch website

Visual Flow

I was talking about music being a great metaphor to describe the flow with graphics and design, Noah Kareus sent me the perfect sample after class. Thanks, Noah.

Gary Flake: is Pivot a turning point for web exploration?

From TED: "Gary Flake demos Pivot, a new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. Built on breakthrough Seadragon technology, it enables spectacular zooms in and out of web databases, and the discovery of patterns and links invisible in standard web browsing."

Pivot is still an experiment, not a finished product. It isn't available for Mac or Linux yet, and not even to Windows xp users.

visit http://memo.hardrock.com to view a Pivot collection inside of Silverlight. The interface is different than Pivot's, but there's nothing stopping anyone from porting the controls over to a Silverlight app.

This demo also shows how important that is to make your data computer readable , i.e. semantically tagged.

More resource for infographic

visual-literacy.org
A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

You’ll find many more amazing infographics on the following websites:

• Info Graphics Flickr Group
  Charts, graphs, facts, anything that is about information or visualizing information.
• InfoVis Flickr Group
  Information Visualization: The creation of something visual from something abstract. Graphs, maps, charts, numbers. The compression of data and the expansion of meaning. Scientific, creative, useful, worthless.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Showcase of Data Visualization and Infographics
• Data Visualization: Modern Approaches
• Award-Winning Newspaper Designs
• Creative Calendar Designs

Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography, Statistical Graphics, and Data Visualization

{Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography, Statistical Graphics, and Data Visualization}
An illustrated chronology of innovations by Michael Friendly and Daniel J. Denis
A good web reference for graphic designers who want to study info-graphic. It is interesting to check both their old web site and the current one to see how the idea was developed and visualized.

UI Patterns

UI Patterns: User interface design pattern Library. A great problem solving tool.

"It has long been common practice to use recurring solutions to solve common problems. Such solutions are called design patterns; standard reference points for the experienced user interface designer. This website seeks to better the situation for the UI designer, who struggles with the same problems as many other UI designers have struggled with before him. "
This site will help you in two ways: You can read insightful design pattern articles or browse through the screenshot collection.

Designing Interfaces

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw Jenifer Tidwell's comment on the cover design for her book: Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design.
"Why a duck? I have no idea. O'Reilly's people picked it, not me, but I think it has something to do with the fact that Mandarin ducks are colorful, and the book was printed in full color. Also, some of their other Web books have birds on their covers. (But he's cute, isn't he?)"

This is the case you can't judge a book by its cover. A fantastic intermediate-level book about interface and interaction design, structured as a pattern language. Check it's web site for more information.

The world is moving to HTML5?

Will HTML 5 be the the death knell for rich Internet application (RIA) technologies like Adobe's Flash?

After a big public announcement of iPad CEO Steve Jobs spoke to his employee about his frustration with buggy Flash, lazy Adobe and Google’s fakery in the “don’t be evil” department.

Here’s a couple of Steve’s quotes from the meeting: “Adobe is lazy. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.”

Although these words have not been (and will never be) officially confirmed, multiple anonymous people from the audience confirmed their authenticity to Wired.

Yesterday The NewYork Times also had an article about this by NICK BILTON: Ipad can't play video, but it may not matter. –––"Flash is one of the world’s most ubiquitous applications, appearing on 98 percent of all computers. YouTube videos run on it. It is what animates millions of graphics and advertisements on Web sites around the world. Adobe says the technology supports nearly 75 percent of video on the Web and 70 percent of online gaming sites. But Apple’s support for Flash has been flagging. While Flash is present on nearly every Apple desktop and laptop computer, the company decided that Flash would not be used on the iPhone. Apple has argued that the Flash technology is too slow and unduly taxes laptops and netbooks. The company also has concerns over Flash’s vulnerability to viruses and other malware, as well as the way Flash-based content can voraciously consume battery life."

Also read Adobe's respond here: Adobe on "html5" –––"I think the challenge for HTML 5 will continue to be how do you get a consistent display of HTML 5 across browsers. And when you think about when the rollout plans that are currently being talked about, they feel like it might be a decade before HTML 5 sees standardization across the number of browsers that are going to be out there," Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said during a quarterly financial call.

10 Great Interaction Designs – in Cut & Folded Paper

Experience designers who work in digital media such as RIAs, video games, and DVD menus are already well conditioned to thinking beyond the page as a metaphor for organizing information structures. But paper itself is not the villain. In fact, paper can be transformed into all sorts of interesting interactive possibilities – including graceful and surprising transitions, progressive disclosure of information, impactful visuals, and above all, a compelling and satisfying simplicity.
Read the post from Solid State UX