tecznotes

We went on a ride through Golden Gate Park today.

I returned from DC last night, where I spoke at Adaptive Path's excellent UX Week event. I gave a 45 minute talk (my first solo thing) on Information Visualization, delivering a show and tell of projects that I've worked on, been inspired by, or just found really worth sharing over the years.

My slides are up at uxweek06.stamen.com, and Sam Felder blogged some notes that include helpful links to all of the projects I described.

I'm at Adaptive Path's UX Week in Washington DC right now. I'm noticing that Apple's Keynote software is leading to some excellent presentation visuals - it encourages big, simple slides with dark backgrounds. A lot of people are also using "one big image" slides, with full-bleed photographs or graphics. I like this. It's a great visual style for conference spaces, and really cuts down on the infoglut of your typical Powerpoint deck. So far, every session I've attended today uses this method.

On a tangent, DC's Metro subway is bizarro-world BART. The informational signs use Helvetica in exactly the same way, the ticket machines work almost identically, and the trains are similar as well. The two systems seem to be of the same vintage. Metro is predominantly "yellow-orange", BART is primarily "blue-silver". Both are great examples of Brady Bunch Futurism, a look that seemed outrageously advanced c. 1975, and now has a comfy, carpeted, conversation-pit vibe. I like this too.

(A brief record of products and services recently consumed)

1. Good bike: IRO Mark-V

   

   I picked this up from Montano Velo yesterday, and I'm thrilled. It's been a long time coming since I first chose it, but I'm still really happy with the decision. It looks different from what I expected, in that the rims are much deeper and the wheels are completely black. It looks like a spider. So far, the ride is quite comfortable. The brake placement and toe clips are taking some time to get used to, but the gear feels right and the size of the frame (which is 3cm taller than what I initially wanted) is also good.

2. Good art: Listening Post

   

   Worth the $8 price of admission to SJMA. This is confident, striking, immersive, funny, expansive work. Absolutely wipes the floor with We Feel Fine.

3. Good movie: Miami Vice

   

   Pretty much the perfect Michael Mann flick. I loved Heat, Collateral, and The Insider, and this one fit right in. He's really getting the hang of digital filmmaking, and is definitely the first director I'm aware of to use digital to create a new epic look. Don't miss the scenes of private jets streaking between clouds, various go-fast boats, Freaky Chakra's Blacklight Fantasy on the soundtrack, and amazing nighttime shots of Miami.

4. Good show: Survival Research Labs

   

   Part of the ZeroOne festival in San Jose. The big gold man sculpture (foily balls!) was a dud, and the show was without focus or point, but shit was loud, robots ate each other, 2x4's shattered, and everyone had a great time.

5. Good movie: Little Miss Sunshine

   As funny as 40 Year Old Virgin. This is the kind of movie that I want to see do well, so I will check on weekend box office numbers from time to time.

From GalaxyGoo:

I'm doing a Pyschology course and they had one of those charts that shows the number of sexual partners of average men and women. It never made sense to me that men could have more partners than women. I mean, who are they "partnering" with??? So I did a little data visualization, which makes things pretty clear. Don't worry, it's clean! 100 boys on the left. 100 girls on the right. Each gets assigned a number of partners based on a Kinsey survey. Then they...hook up.

Oooh, lower-right-hand corner, you skank!

(via Doug)