:: The 4th Era ::

My classmates and I are in the Design for Social Innovation program because we identified problems in our communities, companies, or cultures and are keen to figure them out. But before talking about any solution or outcome, one must first frame the problem—by thoughtfully examining the system it’s part of to understand where and how to get involved.

 Learning to use systems thinking, a holistic approach to problem solving that emphasizes contextual understanding, has helped me with team management, project planning, creative work, and even relationships. And for wicked problems like healthcare that confront business, nature, and society, it’s proving to be imperative.So, where to even begin? “We have to invent boundaries for clarity and sanity,” advises systems thinking pioneer Donella Meadows. Sometimes a simple infographic works to tell the story. Designing visual maps and models helps us immediately find connections and describe relationships. Creating models helps in seeing the big picture and one's place within it.
Via Lauren Moss

2012 might be the year which we reached 'peak infographic'.

You can’t have an issue or a piece of data without putting it into a picture so it’s easier for people to understand. While this has mostly resulted in a glut of ugly graphics that don’t actually do anything with data (and you’ll see some of these below), it’s still an incredibly simple way to get information to you fast. And this year, some of our most compelling content has appeared in the format.

These are some of our favorites.

Via Lauren Moss

Data is everywhere and well-designed data graphics can be both beautiful and meaningful. As visualizations take center stage in a data-centric world, researchers and developers spend much time understanding and creating better visualizations. But they spend just as much time understanding how tools can help programmers and designers create visualizations faster, more effectively, and more enjoyably.

 

As any visualization practitioner will tell you, turning a dataset from raw stuff in a file to a final result in a picture is far from a single-track, linear path. Rather, there is a constant iteration of competing designs, tweaking and evaluating at once their pros and cons. The visualization research community has recognized the importance of keeping track of this process.

 

Read the complete article to learn more about the future of the practice and the tools that enable designers to create thoughtful infographics and visualizations...

Via Lauren Moss

A visual history of human sensemaking, from cave paintings to the world wide web.

Since the dawn of recorded history, we’ve been using visual depictions to map the earth, order the heavens, make sense of time, dissect the human body, organize the natural world, perform music, and even decorate abstract concepts like consciousness and love.

100 Diagrams That Changed the World by investigative journalist and documentarian Scott Christianson chronicles the history of our evolving understanding of the world through humanity’s most groundbreaking sketches, illustrations, and drawings, ranging from cave paintings to The Rosetta Stone to Moses Harris’s color wheel to Tim Berners-Lee’s flowchart for a “mesh” information management system, the original blueprint for the world wide web.

But most noteworthy of all is the way in which these diagrams bespeak an essential part of culture — the awareness that everything builds on what came before, that creativity is combinational, and that the most radical innovations harness the cross-pollination of disciplines.

Via Lauren Moss