The Information is the Interface

As a grad student, I had always heard about Edward Tufte, an authority on information visualization (‘infovis’) whose teachings had became foundational in the field.  The New York Times calls him the “Leonardo da Vinci of data.” You can imagine my excitement (as an information architect here at Acsys) when I heard about- and attended- his one-day course in Boston last week.

The Information IS the Interface
Great design is about the relationship between the user and content. It is not about visual embellishments or ‘over produced styling’, but about helping users process and experience content. Think of the Apple iPhone UI and all the elements that went away: the scrollbar, the cursor, the start button and more. Removing these elements created a closer interaction between user and content by eliminating middle steps (moving a mouse, tracing the cursor to the target, etc).

To achieve this goal, the designer must be endlessly self-effacing. Superfluous elements should be reduced to the point where the information is the interface. A good metaphor is a map: in maps, there are no boxes around city names. The only elements included are those that denote geographical locations and spatial relationships.

But does that mean the less content, the better?  No.

Think of every element of a visual display as either signal or noise: it’s signal if it is meaningful, it’s noise if does not carry meaning.  The goal is to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio by reducing noise.Compare the two graphs below (figures 3 and 4) showing the exact same information. Which is better?

(That’s right folks, go for the brew.)

The only difference between the graphs is that one is in 2D while the other is in 3D.  Notice that in both graphs the colors correspond to a size of a drink; therefore, color is a signal. But if the colors were only there for aesthetic purposes (and did not correspond to a drink size) Tufte would consider that noise. The 3D layer is thus an excellent example of noise, because it introduces additional visual elements which do not convey meaning: shading, height variations, slanted positioning, etc.  In addition to introducing noise, the 3D layer makes the bars harder to compare with one another, and to map onto specific calorie numbers on the Y axis.

Conclusion: the 2D graph is better, because it maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio. Thus, you determine if an element is signal or noise by virtue of its relationship with the content. You cannot determine it from its presence or absence alone; a 3D layer could introduce signal if it helps to convey content. Notice how the 3D graph on figure 3 helps to convey spatial orientation.

The “information is the interface” ideal speaks to the user-centered design methodology, since the reason people visit a website or app is ultimately to experience the content. I see great value in keeping it in mind when creating visual displays, since it helps the designer be self-effacing and put the needs of the user first. Yet I also wonder if the line between noise and signal isn’t much fuzzier than one might expect, when it comes to interface design. Improved aesthetics cause people to perceive an interface as not just more beautiful, but easier to use as well, even if it is not.

So, ‘noise’ sometimes can improve people’s cognitive processing of content. When it does, shouldn’t it be considered signal rather than noise? For all we care, isn’t users’ perception what counts?

Something to think about….

LBS and You- Making The Real World Easier to Use

(note- this is blog post #3 in a 5-part series of blog posts focusing on key learnings from SXSW)

The pre-SXSW buzz was all about the new ambient Location-Based applications like Highlight, Glancee and Ban.jo. Did the buzz live up to the hype? Is Foursquare still relevant? What’s next for LBS?  No, Yes, and Read on. Here’s our take:

What makes Ambient Location Based Services (LBS) Apps so compelling?
The value of these LBS apps provides contextual and social relevance while you’re checking in to locations. They are helping to orchestrate serendidipitous meetings with the people around you. We’ll let their descriptions tell the story.

Glancee: a mobile app that helps you discover and connect with new interesting people around you
Highlight: a fun way to learn more about people nearby
Ban.jo: a social discovery app that lets you view people’s social network profiles based on their location

At SXSW, plenty of people were using these apps, but at a conference full of 30,000 techies, is it really helpful to be notified that 370 people are nearby and 47 of them like tacos? Let’s be nicer, and back that out to a smaller case study, say at your local coffee shop. There is indeed value if you discover a fellow pottery enthusiast there,  but is that value worth it Given the privacy/creepiness factor surrounding these apps? Our argument is no. Learning, discovering and connecting with new, like-minded people with similar personal interests in real-time is best left to us humans.

Is Foursquare still relevant?
Absolutely. We had the opportunity to listen to Dennis Crowley during his “Making The Real World Easier to Use” keynote.  Here are some take-aways from the Q&A sesssion with TechCrunch’s MG Siegler.

Q: Why aren’t you engaging with “auto-discovery” and the likes of Glancee, Highlight and Ban.jo, and other “push” technologies based around location?
A:  The batteries simply aren’t there. They exhaust a phone’s suitable life. We’re waiting for the hardware to catch up.

Q: Are you still going with games as an entry point to Foursquare? Aren’t people getting tired of mayorships and badges?
A: There is a big difference between making games and making a utility (like Foursquare) that is playful.  Badges are still the “gateway drug” for new foursquare users and gets people excited. Points may be neat, but the data behind it is really cool. – data will become more powerful as insights are extracted.

Q: Tell us about the value of your data
In time, with more users and lots more data, we’ll be able to serve up relevant, location-based data that can improve the way you experience everyday life.  In three years, looking at a map without any social data will seem silly. When I call up Google maps, I’d like to see what restaurants are recommended to me, what vendors are worthwhile, and much, much more.

What’s Next for LBS?
Picking up on the heels of Reid Hoffman’s talk at last year’s SXSW, big data still rings true. Data gleaned from social platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter will still provide insightful customer data like never before. In the case of LBS applications, here are two examples of how they’re putting LBS too good use.

Partnerships: One of Foursquare’s best relationships is the one they have with American Express. At nearly every restaurant/bar in Austin that week, there was a “spend five-get five” promotion with American Express. If you spent $5, and used your American Express card, you’d automatically receive a $5 credit on your American Express statement. No paperwork to fill out, no survey, just a check-in and a swipe of a card. Now, imagine what American Express and Foursquare can do with that data. Add “location” to American Express’ deep library of cardmember data, and you’ve struck gold- especially with millions more mobile-phone toting consumers.

Sonar: Absent from the Ambient LBS discussion above was connecting people with similar professional (LinkedIn) interests. Sonar is one of the few ambient LBS apps that allow for Linkedin integration. If you’re at a small conference of 100 people, and you’ve checked in via Sonar, you’ll be notified of shared professional connections. Sonar is the “icebreaker for introverts”. Keep an eye out for Sonar in the coming months as they quietly go about their business

What should I do?
-Never underestimate the value of data. As a marketer you know this, but experiment with this using an LBS tool like foursquare. Use foursquare as a reward, recognition AND customer service tool.
-Embrace human nature. No amount of technology replaces the value you get from human interaction. Use a technology to be an ice-breaker and a tool, nothing else.
-Experiment. At the next event you go to, check in using foursquare or sonar and follow whatever path it leads you down.

Brands as Patterns- Why you should think like Beethoven….

(note, this is blog post #2) in a 5-part series of reflections and reactions from SXSW 2012)

You’ve all heard of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. Its the iconic, memorable classical piece that reverberates with the familiar “da-da-da-dum”.  Beethoven’s familiar musical score is the perfect metaphor for how brands should be in 2012. Familiar and distinctive in Pattern, yet fluid and creative.

This was one of the key takeaways at perhaps one of our favorite SXSW Panels this year- “Brands as Patterns” hosted by Marc Shillum (Method), Greg Johnson (HP)  Robin Lanahan (Microsoft) and composer Walter Werzowa.

The panelists provided deep insight into the power of patterns for brands today, especially within a cluttered digital space and ADD-consumers bombarded with messages from thousands of brands across multiple platforms. They provided the marketers among us with soundbytes that we can take back to our team and serve up to our clients. I’ve taken the liberty of curating the “best of the best” below.

“Brand guidelines were once specific, definitive and repeated often. This approach, given consumer immersion in a fast moving space, is out of date”

“Like water, our experiences are liquid and brands must be too. Brand guidelines must be designed to flex with the world we live in”

Being a digital first brand means being distinctive, relevant and active.

• Distinctive:  Your signature expression- remember Beethoven’s 5th?
• Relevant: Think about dating. What matters most to your date? Tell them. Kiss them first to let them know.
• Active: Keep moving with the times

Composing a musical score is like creating a brand. It has the familiar “da da da dum” of Beethoven. In Beethoven’s score, that familiar theme is only repeated four times, BUT there are 27 different variances of that sound throughout the symphony. “Successful music comes from the right combination of the expected and the new”

And finally, we’ll leave you with an image emblamatic of the message of this panel. Brands need to create, in the words of Greg Johnson, “temporal iconography”. Here’s an image shared by Marc Shillum in his white paper on “Creating Patterns”.

(and after you’re done reading this, take some time to listen to Beethoven and start composing the score for your brand…)

SXSW Day 1: Google Plus and Google Hangout- via Storify

Guy Kawasaki talks to Vic Gundotra from Google Plus

This year’s ongoing SXSW recap is brought to you primarily through the notes I took on my iPad throughout the conference. And how exactly do you try and blog using an iPad? Well, you don’t. You use a terrific new Ipad App called Storify. It allows you to pull content from many social sources (instagram, twitter, flickr, youtube, facebook) and use that content, well, to Storify your story.

I’ll start off with an initial recap here, then point you over to the storify link so you can see what it looks like…

Day 1’s most compelling session was Guy Kawasaki’s keynote interview with Vic Gundotra, lead engineer for Google Plus.  For the early part of the conversation, he talked about the success of Google Hangout, and how they designed the product around 3 core elements.

1. Make it easy to use. Unlike Skype, Google Plus/Hangout doesn’t involve complicated software to download
2. Make it passive. You can start a hangout when and where you want to- if people want to join in, they can, if they don’t they won’t.

Google Plus allows you to publicly share with your network that you’ve started a hangout. It’s akin to sitting on the porch, reading the paper and having a cup of coffee. You’re giving your neighbors a visual, yet passive cue that you are (probably) available to talk and have a conversation.  It’s behaviorally different than knocking on your neighbor’s door telling him you want to talk (Skype?)

3. Make it public. For those hangouts that are public, everyone is invited to join. And, Vic pointed out, it’s human nature to want to join a conversation-we don’t want to feel left out.

So what does this mean for brands?
For some of the lifestyle brands, a Google Hangout is an easy, fun and creative way to tell your story. Just take a look at The Muppets.

For more traditional and B2B brands however, they aren’t particularly excited about starting a Google Hangout. It scares them. It’s an uncontrolled environment. Step away from the storytelling, and consider using a Google Hangout as a customer service tool, a place to highlight your subject matter experts. or introduce a new product or service. Take a look at what Richard Binhammer from Dell has done.

So, think more about what Google Plus can do for you, and head on over to our Storify page.