Design is a part of big data analytics.
Value of visual interactive language.
Being involved into the projects of transportation and telematics analytics startup BaseRide Technologies, I’ve spent a lot of time to find good examples of data visualisation in different areas of people activities.
Nowadays, data analytics tools are growing rapidly as people want to know more details about their businesses, every-day life, health, sports and even personal relationships.
Sensors, mobile phones, wearable devices, social networks are generating terabytes of data.
We may obtain numbers from data, but do they actually work when we speak in context of people attention?
ONE PICTURE MAY WORTH MORE THAN THOUSANDS WORDS
We are human, opposite to machines. We prefer visual information rather than digitized. That’s why visualisation of Big Data really matters a lot.
Same data presented in different ways attract attention differently
According to the above, we come to a new not evident conclusion.
Design is a part of big data analytics.
We live in the connected interactive world. Smartphones, multitouch displays have brought interactivity to our daily life.
Digital interactivity is now not a daily people activity.
People use interactive interfaces each minute. This is something that has never happened before in previous human history.
Interactivity is turning the design of the interfaces and analytics dashboards from static to dynamic thinking.
We like to change parameters, we like to interact with the digital environment. Not just because we find it attractive. Interactions give us more value from the digital product.
Today, designer of interfaces should think not like painter, but more like cartoon animation compositor.
Details can change the broader picture. Our eye can catch differences in only 250ms time range. See video below:
Video by Column Five. Value of Visualization
Our eye catch differences
when they are visual
Figure from visage.co Business Guide to Visual Communication
Figure above is easy to understand. Information is not just some parameter. Information actually is a difference of some parameter and it’s previous value. We see difference and eye analyze it visually.
Interaction, or dynamic visual information give even more value
Video from Thomson Reuters, Mathrioshka and MegaFon research made for Moscow Urban Forum 2013
Interactive charts of real-time cloud public transportation analytics dashboards from www.baseride.com
We live in an interesting time when people can understand a lot of data in an easy form. Let’s see what comes next
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