FRIDAY JANUARY 15, 2010

Your Data Wants a Makeover

Simplicity does not necessarily mean skimping out on the meat of your presentation. When handled correctly, complex scenarios and data can still be included while being transformed into something that is easily comprehensible to the average audience member.

No, this does not mean packing seemingly endless charts, tables, and graphs onto every slide. What it does mean is that with the right finessing, even incredibly complex data can be picked apart and rearranged in a simple and engaging way.

“The Power Gap” (a new animated infographic by Airside) is a great example of making a complex story look effortless…

“Demos came to us with an intensely detailed statistical study, which rated every single constituency in Britain according to a number of different social and economic aspects. Each of these aspects has an effect on the power held by the individuals in each area, and by the constituencies as a whole. For Demos, this survey explained theoretical concepts about power as well as showing its practical implementation in 21st century Britain. For us, it was a lot of multi-layered information to squeeze into a short animation.

Over the course of several meetings with Demos, Airside wrote a script that communicated the main concepts behind Demos’ survey, as well as showing the practical significance of the survey results. We set the problem in a historical context in order to create a narrative that would help ordinary members of the public understand these concepts.”

–Airside

This “epic spreadsheet of numbers” is the data that Airside received. Ouch!

Airslide’s Nat Hunter speaking at Design Event 09 in Newcastle

Airside’s Nat Hunter speaking at Design Event 09 in Newcastle

Check out the project’s process at Airslides’s Blog: http://www.airside.co.uk/blog/?p=420

But wait! There’s more! If you have not seen Jonathan Jarvis’s “The Crisis of Credit Visualized”, you really are missing out! Seriously– is there anything more complicated to explain than the credit crisis?

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

“The Crisis of Credit Visualized distills the economic crisis into a short and simple story by giving it form. It is also argues that designers have the ability to see a complex situation, then turn around and communicate it to others. By giving graphic form to the credit crisis, it becomes comprehensible. Not only do economic activities take shape, but new relationships can emerge between these shapes.”

–Jonathan Jarvis

Everything great starts with a sketch!

Jarvis’s storyboards–look like something?

Print spreads made from the same assets as the video

Check out the project’s process at Jarvis’s site: http://jonathanjarvis.com/crisis-of-credit

How would you explain your story to a friend who knows nothing about it? How would you get your grandmother to understand and be moved by your message? Before jumping into your next presentation, take a deep breath and remember that for an audience to comprehend your message, you’d have better luck by making it comprehensible.

Topic: Delivery, Design, Strategy, Video
Tags: airside, crisis of credit, data, jonathan jarvis, power gap, simple, simplify

COMMENTS (5)

Dinesh Rudra

^{January 15th, 2010

6:16 pm}

Fantastic! My main goal in my (work)life is to be able to simplify complex concepts and transform them in a way such that most people will understand them.

Really nice work!
Just wanted to let you know that the link to Airside’s blog (just below the photo of Nat Hunter) links to Jonathan Jarvis’s site instead.

Thanks for this!
Dinesh

Cathy Miller

^{January 16th, 2010

9:03 am}

This is fabulous! The them of my writing is to keep it simple, clear and uniquely yours. This scores maximum stars for all 3–great job!!

Cathy Miller

^{January 16th, 2010

9:04 am}

uhh…make that “theme” – I promise I proofread on actual work. LOL!!

Joby Blume

^{January 17th, 2010

4:15 am}

Airslide would be a great name for a slide design agency. But these people are called Airside – check their website at http://www.airside.co.uk.

Thanks for the examples though. To me, the Airside/Demos example showed (a) the value of using images that weren’t self-explanatory, which engaged me and made me listen to the narrative (b) the limits of a ‘full screen great photo’ approach for explaining complex concepts.

Ken Hilburn

^{January 21st, 2010

3:52 am}

Nichole, nice job at boiling this down. We see time and time again that data-based presentations are most frequently done by folks who are comfortable working in the data. The funny thing about folks like me… Er, um them is that “they” think the data can speak for itself and that everyone wants to see all that detail. But we know that it’s normally just exactly the opposite: people want you to tell them what conclusions you’re wanting them
to draw. After all, if you’re going to do a presentation like this, aren’t you trying to achieve a specific goal? If so, use data to achieve that.

Thanks again for pointing us to this and for pulling it all together!

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