Here are three maps I created for Bootstrap Austin representing the Ideation Phase, Valley of Death Phase, and Growth Phase all bootstrapped businesses go through.

Visual Learning on Steriods

Wired Magazine has a wonderful new video demonstrating a multi-touch display in use by its creator Jeff Han. This video has been wildly popular in the blogosphere and has been downloaded many times from YouTube. On the surface, the Wired article is about a revolutionary new user interface scheme, but I couldn't help but notice how little of the information is pure text and now much is graphical in nature. Not only with the tools we use change the nature of work, but the format and construct of our knowledge sharing will change also. Highly recommend you look at Han's demonstration.

[link: fastcompany.com|via asourceofinspiration.com]

Information Design Examples

I have had several discussions lately with colleagues about the importance of information design. As a point of illustration I have remarked I had several calendars on my desk. They all contained the same information, but depending on how I will be using the information, I will likely pick one calendar over the other. For example, if I just want to know what the date is of the third Thursday in July, I will probably pick up the little 12-sided calendar.






Or, if I want to make a note of my next dentist appointment I might jot it down on one of these two calendars, depending on whether I want the information at my desk or in my purse:

This little calendar, on David Seah's website as part of his Printable CEO tools, is great for project planning by week:













And just for fun (because I'm not exactly sure how one would use these circular calendars), here are a couple more:

They must be useful to someone!

So what does this have to do with graphic recording or graphic facilitation?

In addition to thinking about what information to record and how to capture it visually, the artist must also consider how the information is likely to be used by viewers. For example, the placement position on the page, the arrangement of images in relationship to other images and words, and the sizes selected for images and words are all important considerations. Certainly for pre-planned recording, the artist must give some thought to the process, although this is a much more challenging proposition for those recordings drawn on the fly.

links: Creative Calendar Design