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Tag: data

  • What a waste

    What a waste

    Yesterday I saw Gavin Freeguard post/skeet on Bluesky about Ishmael Burdeau comparing data to plastic: “Too often, our data collection is single-use and disposable, with no regard to the environmental consequences” There is too much plastic around, so we try and recycle it, so it’s not a waste. This is a good idea But it…

  • A predictable random thought

    A predictable random thought

    Can human beings be random? Machine learning is influencing more and more public and corporate services and products with its ability to review and test a seemingly infinite number of scenarious and behaviours.

  • Great design doesn’t need to “wow”

    Great design doesn’t need to “wow”

    Another post about good design. It doesn’t need to “wow” its audience, good design works. And it may look boring or dull, but if it allows people to accomplish what’s needed quickly and efficiently, and people want to use that design again and again, then that is good design. Matthew Ström at Medium.com writes about this in…

  • Everybody thinks they need an infographic

    A quick definition of an infographic (which I’ve just made up) “To present a selection of data sets in a way which adds context and value in a visually appealing way” The key here is adding context and value. Not just big numbers in a big font next a picture. There are sites devoted to…

  • If you are the product social media sells, how can you cut out the middle man?

    For years people have been trying to educate users of social media sites such as Facebook and twitter with articles such as “Facebook: You’re Not the Customer, You’re the Product” (Time.com, Oct 2010), “You are Facebook’s product, not customer” (Wired.com. Sept 2011) and “If You’re Not Paying For It, You Become The Product” (Forbes, May…

  • Present the story of data, not just data

    Present the story of data, not just data

    Managing Partner and Vice President of Services at The Henderson Group, Terry Gault has posted a list of the 10 most common rookie presentation mistakes on the Prezi blog. Number five is “Data centric presentations: If your talk is focused on data rather than the vivid human story the data tells, you are in trouble.” When working…

  • Live data visuals – fashion and cities

    I’ve seen two examples of impressive live data visuals today, from two very different systems for very different projects from The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) and French fashion retailer Pimkie. Color Forecast By analysing live webcam footage from Paris, Milan and Antwerp, this site collects colour information and presents it as trends for days, weeks and…