3 posts tagged with "interaction"

Visual Explanations Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. by Edward R. Tufte.

Tufte says that relevant to nearly every display of data, the smallest effective difference is the Occama's razor ("what can be done with fewer is done in vain with more") or information design... data displays must be clearm assured, reliable, sturdy. In designing information, then, the idea is to use just notable differences, visual elements that make a clear difference byt no more - contrasts that are definite, effective, and minimal.

My example of using pointers/lines to show important information on the screenshot.

Today was listening People I (Mostly) Admire with Sendhil Mullainathan.

Steve and Sendhil laugh their way through a conversation about the importance of play, the benefits of change, and why we remember so little about the books we’ve read — and how Sendhil’s new app solves this problem.

The app called Pique and how excited I was to find there this description:

Change doesn’t happen by reading. When you use Pique, you’ll get to try out the concepts from the book in your own life.​

The idea is instead of just reading a book - doing it. Doing > Reading. Okay, time to implement tests into the book before starting my writing journey. Here are examples with tests so far, if you have any idea what other format might be useful with tests, please let me know.

multiple choice questions. image from pandasecurity.

multiple choice questions with screenshots.

Very important part is to keep updating these questions and randomize it to make sure a reader will not just automatically bypass it.

I like the format in which Nicky Case delivers information. It's "alive" and a fun way to acquire information. He is "coding" his knowledge, using visual images with javascript. Art and technology. How to remember anything forever-ish is a good example of that.

A reader can "play" with information to see what it means and how it changes in different settings.

And I want to implement this into the book. Need to limit my imagination with javascript abilities (almost anything is possible with a web book), but I definitely want to improve the delivery of information from a screen to a reader.

Here is an example from Nicky's page. To me, personally, each picture provides a lot of stimulus and I need to switch between the author's comments to what is actually happening in the picture. Controlling what the reader has in sight seems a good design strategy.

tiny bit of How to remember anything forever-ish.

But what if here is not a scrollable web page with documents, but rather a book with its specific use cases (security in mine). Author works with a book as with an integral object, directing the reader's attention to a specific place with information - a unit of meaning. Just a quick remix of information gives amazing results (I used same pictures and information copy/paste, but differently representing it):

@ncasenmare's same content with my visual presentation.

Or even this example makes a big difference (maybe I am biased 🤷‍♂️)

added ability to write descriptions under images 🙌

The book is intended for continuous reading and requires full attention of the reader. Therefore, the spreads of the book entirely occupy the window and the field of vision of the reader. Text on the spread can be scrolled, when necessary, and the illustrations will retain their position on the screen, or vice versa.

Definitely I should learn more about ways to deliver any kind of information. This blog post is chaotic and full of blinking gifs, hopefully will provide more sensible examples where readers can “touch” and experience it themselves.