VizThink

New Web 2.0 Map: Locating the “Points of Control”

VizThink — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:10:18 +0000

Interesting to see the Web 2.0 Summit continue to use powerful metaphor to drive interest in technology. This “interactive” map is interesting both for what it does and doesn’t do.

The conference promises: : “More than any time in the history of the Web, incumbents in the network economy are consolidating their power and staking new claims to key points of control. Meanwhile, insurgents both large and small are hoping to gain footholds or take ground in new territories. Welcome to the first iteration of the Web 2.0 Summit’s theme, Points of Control!”

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VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for August 25th

VizThink — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:00:00 +0000

A collection of visual thinking links found on the web in the past few days by our editors & vizthink community contributers. Have a link suggestion? Tweet it or add it to delicious and be sure to tag it with vizthink.

These are the links for August 25th:

Visual Thinking, Mind Mapping, Design and more: Video : How to use the iPad for visual recording –

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Sunni Brown’s Ignite Talk at FOO Camp: The Doodle Revolution

VizThink — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:50:42 +0000

Here, VizThinker Sunni Brown gives a concise and hilarious presentation on the power of the doodle.

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[Event] Storm the Games: Bringing on the Doodle Revolution with Sunni Brown

VizThink — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:57:11 +0000

“Place a pencil and pad near the telephone of any human of more than primeval intelligence and the bet is ten to one that he’ll doodle during his next telephone call.” So said Steven Arundel, author of Everybody’s Pixillated, in 1937 and not much has changed since then. Virtually all humans doodle once they have the physical tools, but what most of us don’t realize is that doodling is neither dilly-dallying nor pointless motion. The act of doodling engages all three of the major cognitive learning modes in our brains. Doodling, therefore, is a skill that should be strategically honed and intentionally capitalized upon. In this session, Sunni will present some of the latest research on doodling and the brain and then we’ll all work together to apply “the Doodle” using games from the book Gamestorming, coming out in July of this year.

This event is presented by VizThink NYC.

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The beauty of data visualization: David McCandless at TED

VizThink — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:21:41 +0000

David McCandless show that information can be beautiful and even funny.

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DemocraSEE: The Emergence of Visual Politics and the Power of Graphic Journalism

VizThink — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:55:47 +0000

The use of information graphics in the context of political life is not new. Journalistic infographics have historical roots in both the art of political satire (James Gillray) and allegorical painting (Hieronymus Bosch). What is most interesting is the way in which visualization and rich data are coming together in journalism as an almost seamlessly integrated part of the political process.

The New York Times has dedicated itself to this development in its design of the coverage of the upcoming mid-term election cycle in the United States. Their Politics page features a powerful set of visual tools which demonstrate the features of informational density and clarity and simplicity that Edward Tufte has always championed as the great contribution of the design of statistical information.

Do you know of other interesting examples of the application of visual thinking tools to the enrichment and/or accessibility of the political process that you’d like to share with the VizThink community?

How do you think graphic journalism is changing the political landscape? Please comment or Tweet your thoughts with the vizthink hashtag.

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[Books] Visual Meetings by David Sibbet

VizThink — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:30:51 +0000

David Sibbet is one of the leading minds in the visual thinking & facilitation industry, and when David has a new book or product, it’s worth stopping to take notice. His organization, The Grove, is not only a great consultancy but they also produce a lot of fantastic products and resources for visual thinkers and I expect their usual quality will transfer to this latest release.

His latest book, Visual Meetings: How Graphics, Sticky Notes and Idea Mapping Can Transform Group Productivity drops and if you ever have to run meetings, or are just sick of sitting through painful, unproductive meetings you’ll probably want to grab yourself a copy.

The Grove’s Description of the book:

When people work visually they have better ideas, make better decisions, and are more committed to producing results. A twenty-first century guide to using the latest visual thinking techniques with your groups and teams, Visual Meetings gives you a bounty of tools and tricks to unlock creativity, collaboration, and breakthrough thinking.

David Sibbet, a world leader in the area of graphic facilitation and visual thinking, unveils the alchemy of designing and conducting memorable meetings that get results. With more than 40 years of experience successfully incorporating visuals in meetings of all kinds, Sibbet reveals the practices, tips, and tricks that can turn business meetings into creative and productive events.

The book covers a variety of topics including:

Graphic recording, visual planning, story boarding, graphic templates, idea mapping, etc.
Creative ways to energize team building, sales presentations, staff meetings, strategy sessions, brainstorming, and more
Getting beyond paper and whiteboards to engage new media platforms
Understanding emerging visual language for leading groups

As always with visual thinking, much of the value of these techniques are in the process, not the visual output – so don’t be swayed by that little voice in the back of your head that says “I can’t draw”. In fact, The Grove offers a series of templates that do all the visual heavy lifting for you.

Be sure to check out Visual Meetings (sample chapter – PDF | get it on Amazon) and then swing back here to let us know your thoughts.

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The New York Times & Infographics: How they do it.

VizThink — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:53:59 +0000

Gestalten, creators of some fantastic visual oriented content including books, video & other media recently posted an episode of their Gestalten.tv podcast where they sat down wia couple of members of the New York Times infographics team to talk about their process.

Only a few minutes long, it’s a quick watch and has some interesting insights into how one of the few newspapers to really get Interactive infographics does it.

Check it out below:

Photo: Robert Scoble (Flickr)

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VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for August 4th

VizThink — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:00:00 +0000

These are the links for August 4th:

Red Eye – Abstract City Blog – NYTimes.com –

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[Webinar] Design & Politics: A Conversation With Scott Thomas

VizThink — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:30:31 +0000

Last week, Scott Thomas (aka @SimpleScott), Design Director for the 2008 Obama campaign joined us here at VizThink for a conversation about his experiences during the campaign and how design played a key role in helping their candidate deliver a win.

Over 100 VizThinkers joined us for the conversation and we’re pleased to be able to share it here now online for those of you who couldn’t make it.

Introducing DemocraSEE
This event also represented the unofficial kickoff to our DemocraSEE project. Over the course of the summer we’ll be presenting content that looks at how design plays a role in politics and how visual thinking could be used to help to better educate voters about complex issues and improve voter engagement.

We hope you’ll join us in this project and invite you to contribute any content, thoughts or comments you may have. In addition to the usual methods (comments, twitter etc.) we invite you to share your thoughts with us on our new video response system and help get the conversation started.

A Conversation with Scott Thomas