Monday, June 01, 2009

Data Visualization - How To Really Make The Web Work

An excellent blog about web design, “Webdesignerdepot.com” delivers a killer primer on siites that excel at data visualization.

Why do we care? Because if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a picture that describes 1,000 data points must be worth 1,000,000 words.

OK, not buying that? How about this: data is all about ferreting out relationships, and relationships are most efficiently grasped visually.

As we move into a more “semantic web” users will come to expect faster, more accurate expression of ideas; cheesy nachos are different than a cheesy pick-up line, but Google doesn’t really know the difference yet. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself!