I was watching a conference by Amanda Cox, graphic editor at the NYT, when it suddenly made me think of interaction design (at least when it comes to newspapers) in completely different terms.
Making something, data in this case, more or less interactive is another way for a newspaper of making a point, taking a stance. Interactivity is suddenly seen as an editorial tool (selecting which data to show, how to show it, what amount of detail it should go into). Interaction design has suddenly immense journalistic value: it all comes down to “how can newspapers (their curatorial expertise) help you, reader/citizen, understand this”. In that sense, it’s just as valuable as say, an Op-Ed piece. The purpose, of course, is entirely different.
What do I mean by this: good interaction design (and good narrative story telling at that) turns raw data into enlightening one and so, for a newspaper to put a big effort into making that information not only available but interactive, speaks volumes of the editorial value behind it. It’s not surprising that the NYT has a team of 25 people working on a deadline to accompany important stories.
Would I be stretching it if I said that somehow, interactivity (in data visualization) resembles accountability?
Last friday all the interaction design students and I attended the “Design, Greatest Hits” exhibit at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. I found the curation to be weak. It was a fun evening though.
Pretty interesting if you are (or consider being) a Spain-based good interaction designer looking for a new challenge:
We are looking for an outstanding UI-UX Designer to help us transform an industry, shaping and driving the overall user experience and visual appearance of our online products & services.
We are an amazing small group of talented people (having fun everyday) in an award winning online start-up out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a fast-paced, creative, high energy, informal atmosphere. We are backed by international investors (a $1,000M Venture Capital fund who is also behind twitter), featured in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and have offices in Boston, USA and Valencia, Spain.
Food tianguis, cecina with salsa verde, corn tortillas, and Victoria beer. Yum, yum! If you’re ever in Yautepec, Morelos give me a shout and I’ll tell you where to get these goodies.
We’re big fans of Scott Schuman’s The Sartorialist, it’s great to see that the NYT Lens blog has recently given him some love. I wish we could embed the video/interview here but NYT image archive has no embedding options (FAIL). You can see it here.
I don’t want to find out that much more. I want to shoot them the way I see them. As opposed to really creating an essence of who they truly are; it’s my idea of who they are.
Do you agree with Austria’s reunification with the German Reich promulgated on March the 13th of 1938, and do you vote for the Party of our Leader Adolf Hitler? (yes/no)
