The New York Times is highlighting an interactive graphic… however, it’s actually thin and gratuitous. The journalistic value can be called into question.

However, this interactive graphic (the above is just a static screen grab–please click through), in the same section, could be very powerful. I’m qualifying it because the variables that are tied to the timeline are rather consistent in relationship. This, of course, says something. It isn’t a limitiation of the design of the graphic however. I think it is a powerful sensemaking tool — it just may be better applied to a different set of data.

Part of me resists using an interactive graphic with this subject matter as a critique of information design — but another part of me says there are very few things more important to make sense of than life and death. So I’ll critique as objectively as possible based on power of the interactive to help make sense of the situation, rather than to editorialize or evangelize beliefs about the war.

Some thoughts on how to make it better:
1. Allow filtering the data through variables. I’m not sure there are enough meaningful variables to do so. Race and age, while important, don’t really help make sense of the what is happening. They are driven by the composition of the force rather than anything else. It is an all-volunteer military… which doesn’t experience the same demographic skews caused by a draft (where conventional wisdom says lower socio-economic groups are disproportionately represented). There is an interesting Army/Marine Corps composition split (which teeters from Army towards Marine Corps and then back) which may hint at deployment timings — but also, when taken in context of the size of force, the Marine Corps probably over-indexed heavily at those peaks. However, on the whole, even with the filtering option I recommend, if no new variables are added, the explanatory power of the graphic doesn’t go up much.

2. Allow for density views rather than just scale. As above, just looking at raw numbers doesn’t tell the whole story. Information density must be considered when mapping populations/geographic distributions. The Anbar province has the largest magnitude of deaths over time, shifting moreso in the recent past. However, what would the circles look like if they represented deaths per population (of the province) or deaths per size (of the province)? What is the relative risk of the area?

3. Provide the complementary data. What is missing from this graphic are the insurgent and civilian data. I’m pretty sure the Times could get their hands on estimates of that data as well. Those variables add more information, more signal, and actually less noise. The data now, since there are so few “views” and “slices”, over emphasize confounders… persuading the casual viewer to form an innaccurate assessment of the situation.

Just a few quick thoughts. I have enjoyed some of the Times interactive news items in the past. The burden for them now, and in the future, however, is to resist USA Todaying into entertaino-graphics or editorializing graphics. The best they can do is objectively help make sense of the information — and this is the hardest type of design — eliminating your self from everything and shaping sense, but not dictating it.

(more…)

Prior to reading any more, go here, and click on the Fresh Experiences link and watch the entire video.

If Nintendo doesn’t find massive success with the Wii console then we are a sad lot. Revolutionizing the console through the interface–it’s brilliant–and it’s both behind and ahead of its time.

I remember when the first VR games came out–big stand up machines in big city arcades and theme parks… I thought that was going to be the future… but they were too clunky, too expensive, and all together didn’t have very compelling applications. Now there is the Wii and a new form of virtual reality has arrived–and it isn’t virtual.

Personal technology and applications are moving from the bi-polar online-offline schism–to a world of analog–a world of gradients rather solid fields… a world of dials rather than switches… an organic rather than simulated world. Technology isn’t so scary anymore… and it’s becoming more integrated into our daily lives. When I was in junior high, very few people in my age group could type faster than 15-20 wpm… I wonder what the 14 year-old average wpm is now?

The Wii is emblematic of what is happening with our culture–and it’s the healthy part of integrating technology. It’s a matter of more healthily bridging human behavior and technology. Yes–even in gaming. I think, after watching the video, if the Wii really delivers that experience, the concept of gaming will radically shift. Learning button presses and thumb jockeying won’t suffice.

I think the most interesting aspect of Wii is the possibility. Imagine the social games that can be enabled through the interface–not just combative, but cooperative. Gaming becomes a social rather than anti-social pastime.

Enter the Wii zardy. You can have your Xbox 360 and Playstation 3… I’m waiting for the true breakthrough gaming.

I looked into Jotspot’s pricing yesterday:

and wondered if I was actually buying Basecamp: