The Parable of the
Underpant Stealing Gnomes
Phase 1      Phase 2    Phase 3
Collect data             Insights!
                          Results!
                           Profit!
The ability to take data - to
be able to understand it, to
process it, to extract value
from it, to visualize it, to
communicate it is going to
be a hugely important skill in
the next decades.

- Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist
visualizing
    the
sentiment
of the Bible


  A project of
 openbible.info
visualizing
the words
used in the
2011-2012
Republican
  primary
  debates


  A project of
 periscopic.com
visualizing
138 years
of Popular
  Science
 Magazine


   A project by Jer
Thorp, Data Artist in
Residence at the New
     York Times
visualizing
    realtime
 checkins at
     polling
locations for
   the 2010
    election


  A collaboration
  between JESS3,
  foursquare, VIP
(Google + Pew) and
      Engage
But why isn’t there a
“Landscape of Big
Data Visualization
Companies” slide?
The craft of design is hard to scale.

Each data set has its nuances.

A few key folks leading the way...
Google Creative Labs /
Google Data Arts Labs
Jonathan Harris
Stamen
JESS3
Data can inform your
content.

Your content can be made
from data.

Measuring your content’s
effectiveness requires
collecting data.
Visual
Reporting

Makes it
universal

Makes it
snackable
Creating content as /
for a brand feels a lot
like you are running a
daily news program.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsroom
We’ve gone from
producing content on
timelines in months,
to timelines in hours.
*my humble estimation
Must. Quench. Thirst.
Of. All. Social. Media.
Channels. And.
Communities.
strategize                            iterate

know your audience       optimize everything

take photos              know the landscape

write copy                know the zeitgeist

design assets                     exclusivity

get approvals            can’t just syndicate

post content                   be an insider

measure impact       coordinate across teams
We've gone from being
exposed to about 500
brand messages a day
back in the 1970s to as
many as 5,000 a day
today.
Jay Walker-Smith
Yankelovich Consumer Research
See: 5,000

Engage: 76

Recall: 12

Act on: 5
             Yankelovich Consumer Research
See: 5,000   you
Engage: 76   have to
Recall: 12
             be the

Act on: 5    0.1%
              Yankelovich Consumer Research
You have to create
breakthrough work
to be noticed.
edgy

star power

humor
by: 72 and sunny

for: K-Swiss

view: http://jes3.com/KennyPowers_MFCEO
You have to create
work that provides
value to be shared.
informative

star power

timely
by: JESS3

for: Wikipedia’s 10th Anniversary

view http://jess3.com/state-of-wikipedia
informative

heavy lift

beautiful
by: JESS3

for: The Economist’s World in 2011 Summit

view: http://jess3.com/womens-economic-opportunity-index/
There are always at
least two stories
to tell.
The one you set out
to tell and the one
about making the
one you set out to
tell.
Tell them both.
how TV ratings work




                 told through
                 puppets and
                  papercraft

          told through a
        behind the scenes

http://jess3.com/espn-tv-ratings-101/
Gmail’s fidelity from
                                                        web to mobile




                   told through
                papercraft and stop
                 motion animation

                    told through a
                  behind the scenes


http://jess3.com/gmail-stop-motion-animation-video/
Creating content for
brands is a delicate
balance between
business objectives,
creativity & user goals.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/4639590640/sizes/l/in/photostream/
95% of senior executives say
that they doubt their
companies have the right
operating model (of which
structure is a key component)
for today’s world.

- Accenture Study (2011)
Hi JESS3,

I need an infographic
done by next week.

Is that possible?
Hi JESS3,

I need a video done in 2
weeks.

Is that possible?
Hi JESS3,

I need a interactive data
visualization done in 4
weeks.

Is that possible?
Education about
the process is key.
So how is it all
coordinated? Here’s
what’s in our tool belt...
Brands are media
companies.
Hire people who
excel at math.
Math majors, rejoice.
Businesses are going to
need tens of thousands of
you in the coming years as
companies grapple with a
growing mountain of data.


- Steve Lohr, New York Times
I keep saying the sexy job in
the next ten years will be
statisticians. People think I'm
joking, but who would've
guessed that computer
engineers would've been the
sexy job of the 1990s?

- Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist
If it’s worth doing, it’s
worth doing well.
(my Grandpa Baskett used to say this all the time)
Build dynamic
and realtime
data systems.
visualizing
the size of
 geosocial
 platforms
through a
 universe
metaphor

 A project JESS3 did
   to put things in
   perspective for
journalists covering
Skype’s acquisition,
   LinkedIn’s IPO,
MySpace’s sale and
 the “foursquare vs.
   Gowalla” debate
Don’t be bound
by geography,
keep talent
central.
The “hot fire”
comes from
your talent
and their
craft.

Not from
your physical
location.
DESIGN TAXI: What is the
word you think will continue
to reside in and reverberate
through the creative
industries over the next 10
years?

Aaron Koblin: Data-driven.
Aaron Koblin, Data Arts Team Lead - Google Creative Lab
The only important
thing about design is
how it relates to
people.
Victor Papanek
Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change (1971)
The only important
thing about data is
how it empowers
people.
Leslie Bradshaw
Applying Victor Papanek’s sentiments from 1971 to today’s data challenge
Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition and Productivity
http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/big_data/pdfs/MGI_big_data_full_report.pdf

New Ways to Exploit Raw Data May Bring Surge of Innovation, a Study Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/technology/13data.html?_r=2

For Today’s Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/technology/06stats.html

Creative Internet by Google Creative Labs
http://bit.ly/creativeinternet

Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Hal_Varian_on_how_the_Web_challenges_managers_2286

http://hbr.org/2011/10/have-you-restructured-for-global-success/ar/1

http://mashable.com/2011/06/28/data-infographic/

http://designtaxi.com/article/100795/Aaron-Koblin-Tech-Lead-of-Google-Creative-Labs/

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/04/schmidt-data/
http://www.slideshare.net/BenSiscovick/creating-competitive-advantage-through-data-ia-
ventures

http://www.yankelovich.com/

http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/02/04/business-objectives-vs-user-experience/

http://jess3.com/social-media-brandsphere/

http://www.briansolis.com/2011/08/new-inforgraphic-the-brandsphere-by-brian-solis-and-
jess3/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsroom

http://jess3.com/geosocial-universe-2/ | http://jess3.com/geosocial-universe/

http://jess3.com/samsung-home-page-redesign-infographic/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/opensourceway/4639590640/sizes/l/in/photostream/
http://datavisualization.ch/showcases/visualizing-138-years-of-popular-science-magazine/

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665220/infographic-of-the-day-what-are-the-darkest-parts-
of-the-bible

http://www.openbible.info/blog/2011/10/applying-sentiment-analysis-to-the-bible/

http://jess3.com/foursquare-i-voted/

http://fastcache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/05/journalism.jpg

http://gizmodo.com/5846087/stop-already-with-the-fcking-infographics

http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/newsgathering-storytelling/visual-voice/149636/people-are-
tired-of-bad-infographics-so-make-good-ones/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/14/the-dos-and-donts-of-infographic-design/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/21/the-do%E2%80%99s-and-don%E2%80%99ts-
of-infographic-design-revisited/

http://jess3.com/sxswi-social-media-installation/ | http://jess3.com/sxswi-social-media-hub/
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/

http://infosthetics.com/

http://dailyinfographic.com/

http://visual.ly/

http://www.behance.net/

http://dribbble.com/

http://forrst.com/

http://ffffound.com/

http://www.good.is/infographics

http://www.fastcodesign.com/

http://jess3.com/the-state-of-wikipedia/

http://jess3.com/eloqua-content-grid-v2/

http://flowingdata.com/

http://datavisualization.ch/

http://visualizing.org/

Visualizing the Agency of the Future