Information Design talks

Information design is the craft of presenting information so people can understand it quickly and accurately. It includes charts and data visualisations, dashboards, diagrams, tables and the layout of complex content, and draws on typography, visual hierarchy and an understanding of how people read.

As products collect more data, information design becomes a central UX skill. A well-designed dashboard or chart helps people spot what matters and act on it, while a poor one hides the important parts or misleads. Clear principles help designers decide what to show, what to leave out and how to make comparisons easy.

The three talks here date from 2010 to 2012. David McCandless talks about the beauty of data visualization at TED in 2010. Des Traynor covers creating dashboards and data visualisations that resonate at beyond tellerrand in 2012, and Whitney Hess presents design principles as the philosophy of UX.