Category : Visualization

I'll admit it – I'm a recovering design process deliverables junkie. Historically, the generation of process maps, usability audits, wireframes, site diagrams, application flows, mental models, task-level scenarios, user stories, standards documentation, conceptual frameworks, content audits, navigation maps, and countless other examples of design ephemera, were so central to the work that we created for clients that we began to view them as the work we were creating for our clients. In reality, as important as many of those deliverables may be, they are just means to an end. The end – is a finished product that customers want to purchase and use and a solution that meets or exceeds…

Over the past few years Indianapolis has quietly been growing into a bonafide  startup hub – boasting an impressive array of tech startups, service providers, funding sources, and industry events and organizations. It's gotten so robust in fact, that it's becoming difficult to keep track of everything thats going on. As many of you all know, the gang at KA+A has been working on a really cool project for the past couple of weeks that we're calling the "Indy Startup Genome Project". In short, we're attempting to map the entire Indianapolis startup ecosystem.

We've started by pulling together a list of all the tech-oriented startup in Indy. Currently it's an incomplete list. If you are a founder of an Indianapolis-based startup or you are aware of one that is not our list…

In the last few months here at Kristian Andersen + Associates, we have become increasingly more involved in iPhone application user experience/user interface design. Our existing experience with UX/UI design for the web was a great jumping-off point, plus we're all day-one iPhone users and are virtually tethered to them right throughout the day.

Our most recent app engagement began in the usual way, collaborating with the client on multiple rounds of wireframes and process maps, dialing in the inner workings and structure of the app itself. When we started to move forward into the initial visual prototypes the ideas for the navigation and overall aesthetic came fast, but we quickly realized something just didn't 'feel' right. It didn't take long before we realized why and just…

The last several weeks here at Kristian Andersen + Associates have been a very busy time indeed. Last week, as we wrapped up our work for ExactTarget’s Connections User Conference, we decided to treat ourselves to a new office toy – a Nintendo Wii and a copy of Rock Band 2. Perfect for unwinding after a hard day’s work, or simply to make complete fools of ourselves when the mood takes us.

I’d already been playing Rock Band for a couple of months, the guitar being my instrument of choice. I’ve managed to work my way up to playing on Hard level, and even on Expert on a few of the more simple songs. Late Saturday night I had the…

The visual display of data and information is about to explode — or maybe it already has. It's been an area of design expertise for many years, but we're now faced with more mountains of data than ever before, and they're staggeringly high.

The image above, a visualization of 50 years of space exploration, is one example how data visualizations have risen in popularity. They've gained an aura of coolness, kind of like rock posters (in some circles anyway). Firms such as Visual Complexity focus exclusively on this design niche. And we've seen more and more data visualization websites like We Feel Fine and DAYTUM pop up over the last couple of years and…

I'm just now getting around to synthesizing the notes I took at Edward Tufte's course in Indianapolis back in August. If you ever have the chance to attend a Tufte course or seminar, don't hesitate (I was really surprised I didn't see more people from the Indy design community there). Not a moment went by in which he wasn't poignant, concise,and engaging. To top it off, every attendee received a copy of each of his four books.

There were more quotables in that eight hour course then you could shake a stick at. Here are a handful the choicest thoughts I took away:

• Don't waste time visualizing information than doesn't need it. People aren't stupid.
• Never dumb things down.
• Overproducing information is dishonest and manipulative, and reveals a lack of performance.
• Don't get original, get