http://flowingdata.com/2012/05/15/how-to-visualize-and-compare-distributions/
How to Visualize and Compare Distributions
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Tag Archives: Data Viz
Rhetological Fallacies
One Year of Infographics – by Manuel Lima – Visual Complexity.com
Place-Based Networks: A New Kind of Social Network » Alchemy of Change by Gideon Rosenblatt
VC blog » Blog Archive » Information Visualization Framework
Map of the Market – SmartMoney.com
It was a good day!
Wired News: Peoplemovin charts global migration patterns
Peoplemovin charts global migration patterns
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-07/12/peoplemovin
A world of tweets from frog
Real-time visualization of geolocated tweets around the world
Interface Design Patterns
This was produced by the Interface Design Team of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.
What happened @SXSW . . .
A pack of us travelled to the SXSW conference in Austin Texas. First thing out, Austin’s weather in March is our equivalent to high summer in the Pacific Northwest. I loved wearing shorts in March and knew I wouldn’t be wearing them again for 3 months when I got home.
The big take-away for me is that the way we find out about stuff on the internet is quickly changing from inside-looking-out (websites are like billboards) to outside-looking-in (web apps as tools for sharing and learning). The web experience has moved from directed search (Google) to serendipitous search (Social).
The other thing that struck me is that the best web experiences, applications, tools, games, whatever, are built by people that are really good at listening with really big ears. They make sure it’s easy, intuitive, fun and rewarding. Lastly, trust is huge and social media provides a platform for us dogs to sift through all the noise on the web and make our own conclusions and choices.
What follows are my photos, notes on sessions I attended, and links to great resources.
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The scene outside: Warm and sunny, streets full of people, cars, cabs, trolleys, bikes, bike cabs, free chevy’s to drive, noise, music, vendors, food, drink, press, clowns, controlled chaos.
The scene inside: Air conditioned, halls full of people, Buddhist chanters chanting, furbies, noise, music, vendors, food, drink, press, clowns, controlled chaos.
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Games User Research: Oh no you’re doing it wrong. (Panel)
Bill Fulton, Founder Ronin User Experience
Marina Kobayashi, Games User Researcher Electronic Art
Ray Kowalewski, Sr. Mgr, Central User-testing Activision Publishing Inc
Rich Ridlen, Sr. Games User Researcher Electronic Arts
Research done right
· Data driven
· Early research
· User insights
· Informing design
Research done wrong
· Not enough resources
· Involvement too late in development cycle
· User research not included
Behavior is far more relevant than demographics (grandpa and a 12yr old girl can have same skill levels).
Are you making a market for something now or for tomorrow’s market?
Bad data is worse than no data.
Focus groups aren’t a good method for user research because the loudest/first speaker controls the topic and others follow instead of contribute.
Rewards
37 User Experience Slide Decks
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Brave New World: Debating Brand’s Roles as Publishers (Panel)
Gary Kim, Editor Carrier Evolution
Pawan Deshpande, CEO/Founder HiveFire Inc
Tom Ashbrook, Host NPR
Skilled artist drew the panel’s discussion on the fly.
Internet past: Democratization of information.
Internet now: Corporatization of information.
25% of marketing budgets going to content marketing – moving from traditional advertising budgets.
Benefits consumers, brands telling compelling stories for consensus via social media.
What are the problems keeping customers up at night – answer them and publish.
Curate interesting 3rd party resources – point to 3rd party resources. http://www.mediawatch.com/
· Always site your resources – find out source and publish them.
· Make About Us on website clear.
· Litmus test – someone posts a bad story, respond truthfully and quickly.
· Build a content marketing strategy.
Rewards
Help your customer succeed: John Deer’s Furrow, Russell’s Helping Advisors.
Content Marketing is a free service that connects projects to vendors (RFP): http://www.junta42.com/
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What Comic Books Can Teach Mobil Application Designers (Solo)
Anjuan Simmons, Director Adverlyze
Blog: http://www.transmyth.com/blog/?p=697
Comic books are sequential art.
Mobil apps are like comics – you hold them in your hands and thumb through pages (screens).
Comic stores are like App stores – displayed on shelves (comics) and grids (apps).
Will Eisner wrote the book on comic design: Comics and Sequential Art.
· Use a 3×3 grid.
· Users choose moment, frame, image, word flow.
· Understand art without text = clear icons.
· Understand words without art = clear text
Rewards
Give your customers a reward: I won a comic book from sitting in the front row, and those that stayed on for questions won a comic book series.
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Tables of legos for building random structures with friends.
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Ordering Disorder: Grid Design for the New World (Solo)
Khoi Vinh, Design Director The New York Times
Web Site: Subtraction.com
Core Principles
· Problem solve before aesthetics.
· Serve the user experience.
· The simpler, the better.
Steps
· Research: technical, business, content/editorial constraints.
· Wireframes: build the architecture to see the big picture.
· Prep Design: pencil sketches generate a lot of ideas at a very low cost.
· Visual Design: collaborate with designers.
· Code: collaborate with coders.
Fun facts
· Available space in 1024×768 is 960×650
· 80-60 characters per line are best for human eye/brain comprehension.
Rewards
Users want consistent behavior of objects.
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Metrics Driven Design (Solo)
Joshua Porter, VP UX Performable
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/andrew_null/metrics-driven-design-by-joshua-porter
Blog entry when Google’s first designer resigned: Goodbye, Google – Doug Bowman
Too much data analysis became a crutch and eventually paralyzes the company and prevents it from making daring design decisions. Google tested 41 shades of blue.
Intuitive Design
· Instinctive
· Subjective
· Daring
Data-driven Design
· Deliberate
· Objective
· Safe
Metrics
· Reduce arguments based on opinions.
· Give you answers about what really works.
· Shows you where you are strong/weak as a designer.
· Allow you to test anything you want.
· Clients love metrics.
· Will be as unique as your business.
· Have to be actionable.
Levels of Customer Interaction
· Interested
· Trial/beta user
· Customer
· Passionate Customer
Optimize in small steps, innovate with daily leaps.
· No design survives in tact.
· Small improvements taken together produce amazing results.
· Testing is empowering, revising is cleansing.
Metrics are not creative, humans are.
CPA= Cost Per Acquisition
LTV= Long Term Value
Rewards
The two-sided referral: Dropbox referral program: you get more storage when a recommended friend signs up, they also get extra storage (2-sided referral).
Mint.com: Free service from Intuit that organizes finances on line, categorizes transactions, and builds budgets.
Performable is marketing software that measures activity across all social media channels and optimizes responses.
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Later that night.
The crew @ frog party. Thanx for getting us on “the list” Erica! Ne’er would’a got in otherwise.
Tweet heat map of the party scene. Moved to the hot spot.
Speaking of hot spot.
Mmm Hmmm . . .
Yeah. Noisy parade the next morning.
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Socially Regulated: Social Media in Regulated Industries (Panel)
Shannon Paul, Social Media Mgr Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Shwen Gwee Lead, Digital Strategy Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc
Tool for Social Media and Compliance: Hearsay Social
Methods for getting it approved through compliance
· Find compliance team member that is open to social media.
· Manage compliance/legal’s perception use the term “internet” instead of FB, Twitter, LinkedIn.
· Be completely specific: what you want to do, why you want to do it.
Rewards
Blog entry: Get FINRA Compliance on LinkedIn with Hearsay Social
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UX Research & Web Analytics: X-Ray Insights (Panel)
Austin Govella, The “Hank Aaron of UX” Grafofini
Fred Beecher, Lead User Experience Consultant Evantage Consulting
Louis Rosenfeld, Publisher Rosenfeld Media
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/lrosenfeld/site-search-analytics-for-a-better-user-experience
Top 3 methods
· Communicate progress and vision in a way everyone can understand.
· Be agile, automatically adjust to change.
· Place design decisions in a single place.
Google Screenshots
There are screenshots used throughout the book showing Eric’s latest work with Google Analytics and how he’s measured KPI’s using the free system offered by Google.
In depth KPI descriptions
A total of 70 KPI’s explained in depth, covering how to use them in retail website environments, content sites, marketing sites and support sites.
Who should use them
Describes what the KPI’s are used for and how each department might use KPI’s. This is an important distinction as the CEO needs different figures than the marketer.
How to use KPI’s
Eric discusses how to integrate KPI’s into your organization, how to get people to care about the metrics, how to make the data simple to understand and offers general advice on how to show that you’re talking about people, not numbers or data.
From: Steve Jackson, Editor – Conversion Chronicles
Rewards
The Big Book of KPI’s – by Eric Peterson
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@ Screen Burn arcade. Games are SO easy to learn and give you REWARDS.
Electronic interaction.
Non-electronic interaction.
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People Like You and I: Driving People-powered Web Discovery (Solo)
Seth Sternberg, Co-Founder & CEO Meebo Inc
The web experience has moved from directed search (Google) to serendipitous search (Social).
Social Media
· Cures peoples FOMO= Fear Of Missing Out. What are the cool kids doing?
· Finds people with similar interests to gain common vocabulary.
· Helps newbie’s lack of trust. Ask your friends.
· Finds experts. 53% of users seek advice from someone they don’t know but seems knowledgeable about the topic.
Rewards
Who to watch: Pandora, Amazon, Netflix
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Diving Deep: Best Practices for Interviewing Users (Solo)
Steve Portigal, Principal Portigal Consulting
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/steveportigal/sxsw-diving-deep-best-practices-for-interviewing-users
User interview methods
· Use natural language: talk like your user talks.
· Ask questions w/o answers: Don’t give away the answers you are looking for.
· What did you have for breakfast? vs Did you have cereal for breakfast?
· Use silence: after you ask, be quiet, let them answer.
· Let go of your perspective – embrace their perspective.
· Go to users instead of them coming to you, benefit is they are in their world.
· Don’t wear logo clothing.
· Concentrate and stay connected to user.
· Build rapport with user: it’s your responsibility
· Too little small talk is rude to users, too much small talk is confusing to users.
· Be selective about sharing personal information.
· Reveal personal information to give them permission to share conversation.
· Find empathy with users: think “OMG, ME TOO!” without saying it.
· Don’t interrupt.
· Be silent at the right times.
· Maintain eye contact.
· Use head nods, “mmm, hmmm”, “I see” “earlier you told us that . . .”
· Keep questionnaires short.
· Immediately after interview, have a team brain dump.
· Share/write notes, save in shared place.
· Use transcription service ($1.50 minute for video)
Rewards
Blog entry w/audio: http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/user-interviews/blog/diving_deep_best_practices_for/
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@ Tradeshow
The floor.
More ideas than you could shake a stick at.
Geo location with Social Media big with Japanese. Where are my friends?
Non-electric Social Media.
Curata
Helps marketers curate online content to establish thought leadership, educate the market and drive qualified web traffic. Curata is a powerful web-based tool that empowers marketers with a streamlined process for identifying, organizing and sharing online content via topical news portals, social media channels and email newsletters.
Keepsy
Keepsy lets you and your friends quickly and easily capture all the memories, photos and messages that are important to you in an amazing group photo album.
Quotegine
Quotegine is an Internet-based application that allows organizations to create and deliver web-based sales proposals in minutes. The powerful analytics utility allows users to be notified instantly when proposals are viewed and know exactly what recipients are looking at.
MutualMind
MutualMind is a social media listening, analytics and engagement platform for businesses and agencies. MutualMind allows you to monitor, measure and promote brands on social networks and increases social media ROI.
HashtagArt
You tweet to them and become part of a branded poster. I’m in there!
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Conserve Code: Storyboard experiences with Customers First (Dual)
Joseph O’Sullivan, Lead, Design Innovation Intuit
Rachel Evans, Principle Research Scientist, Chief Innovation Catalyst Intuit
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/IntuitInc/conserve-code-storyboard-experiences-with-customers-first
Find out how to tell the customer’s story
· Possess deep user empathy.
· Go broad to go narrow.
· Low fidelity works great: people will give feedback on hand drawn story boards.
· Use rapid experiments involving customers.
· Comics are like story boards.
Intuit’s Snap Tax mobile app.
· Took 1 year of experimenting with features and design flows.
· Design team thought most important customer need was the refund
· Testing proved customer wanted to be sure the app was working as expected.
Ideas have to be tested with customers
· What is the customer’s problem?
· What is the solution that solves the customer’s problem?
· Does the solution solve the customer’s problem?
· Will it delight them?
Rewards
Use the term “customer” vs. “user”.
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5 Steps to Bulletproof UX Strategy (Solo)
Robert Hoekman Jr., Miskeeto LLC
@rhjr, Robert@rhjr.net, rhjr.net
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/miskeeto/5-steps-to-bulletproof-user-experience-strategy
Working backwards
5. Measure
· Get metrics and statistics.
· Drive conversion, engagement (how you keep customers), satisfaction (how you know they like it).
4. Implement
· Work with coders, no UX w/o code.
· Book: How to Sell Design and Influence People
3. Plan
· Identify the problem to solve, figure out the constraints (business, technology, resources)
· Design with the end goal in mind.
· What should it look like in 1 week, 3 months, 1 year.
Ask
Why do you do what you do?
Why does it matter?
What do you want to achieve?
Where is it now?
Where do you see it going?
2. Define UX Vision
· Start with why?
· The UX expression of purpose, clarify reasons of being, why it matters, how it affects users.
· You have to have a strong UX vision communicated well
· Having a higher purpose keeps team focused (That’s why we’re here).
· Synthesize the story: User Experience Strategy Onesheet.
1. Audit
· What tasks need to be done?
· What sucks about the current state?
· What is the competition doing?
· What is the ONE thing you want people to do?
Rewards
Article: Worlds Easiest Way to Critic a Design
Online Course: User Experience Tools, Tricks & Techniques
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Recharging the hand-helds, after 3:00pm it was hard to get a spot.
Business opportunity: better battery life!
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Critical Thinking for UX Designers (Dual)
Christina Wodtke Zynga
Russ Unger, User Experience Director, Happy Cog
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/runger/critical-thinking-for-ux-designers-or-anyone-really
Clarify: Do I understand what you are saying?
Understand: Do I understand your thinking?
Context: Do I understand the world we are acting in?
Evidence: What tells me this is right?
Reality Check #1:
Size matters
· Total Available Market (TAM)
How many want/need the product? How much $ if they all bought? How many units would that be?
How do I find out? Industry analysts (Gartner, Forrester), Wall Street Analysts (Goldman, Morgan).
· Served Available Market (SAM)
How many need or can use the product? How many people have the money to buy? How much $ would the market be if they all bought? Can you reach them?
How do I find out? Talk/listen to potential customers.
Reality Check #2:
Different markets have different needs.
· 3 types of markets: Existing, Resegmented, New.
· Sales, marketing and business development differ radically by market type.
Reality Check #3:
Markets are people
· Customer Development: Customer discovery > Customer validation > Customer creation > Company building
· Research: Ethnography, user diaries, social media, etc.
· Testing: paper prototyping, field-testing, etc.
Idea > Execution > Timing > Dumb luck
Rewards
Creativity That Goes Deep – Embracing design-shop approaches to problem solving means having to shed some key characteristics of how traditional companies work
By Roger L. Martin, Dean of Rotman School of Management
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Time out from the controlled chaos.
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How to Make Money with Social Media (Solo)
Jamie Turner, CCO BKV’s 60 Second Marketer “Harmonic conversion in Austin“
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/JamieTurner1313/social-media-roi-cycle-by-jamie-turner
3 Stages of the Social Media ROI cycle
Stage 1: Launch
100% of the efforts are typically focused on launching the Big 4: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. (Some companies include blogs, Slideshare, e-newsletters, Flick, etc.
· Approach: Executional.
· Focus: Short-term.
· Objective: To have a Social Media presence.
· Results: Negligible.
Stage 2: Management
60% of a company’s focus is on the Big 4 (or plus 4).
10% focus on creative and offer development.20% on quantitative metrics (traffic, inbound links, likes, etc.).
10% on qualitative metrics (brand sentiment, surveys, polls, etc.).
· Approach: Tactical.
· Focus: Mid-term.
· Objective: Customer engagement.
· Results: Increased traffic.
Stage 3: Optimization
25% of a company’s focus is on the Big 4 (or plus 4).
10% focus on creative and offer development.
25% on improving conversion and optimizing the campaign.
20% on tracking profits and ROI.
· Approach: Strategic.
· Focus: Long-term.
· Objective: Social media ROI.
· Results: Revenue Growth.
Reward.
Mashable article on ROI: HOW TO: Calculate the ROI of Your Social Media Campaign
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Hacking RSS: Filtering & Processing Obscene Amounts of Information (Solo)
Dawn Foster, MeeGo Community Manager Intel
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/geekygirldawn/sxsw-hacking-rss-filtering-processing-obscene-amounts-of-information
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Beyond Wordclouds: Analyzing Trends with Social Media APIs (Solo)
Chris Busse, Partner Fahrenheit Technology
Video of Busse interview:
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Can you trust me? (Solo)
Guess not. Speaker no show.
Rewards
While waiting had a good conversation w/Sherry Heyl, Community director for erollover.
She trains FPs on social media guidelines and suggested looking at LinkedIn Answers: Financial Markets Questions
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Later that day.
On Congress Street.
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Later that night.
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Lots happened @SXSW
and we learned lots.
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-thanx for the help you silly little bberry!
Tom Fisher: Note to self 