Thursday 26 February 2009

Mapping Websites: Digital Media Design (Paperback)


Buy the book: http://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Websites-Digital-Media-Design/dp/2880464641

i have had this book for a year now, and its got some amazing examples of web mapping (which is a type of info design). Im going to scan some examples from this book and post them up, but i shall be using this in my research.

Charts, Diagrams etc.



Charts and diagrams are also information graphics, they represent data as a visual form.
Here are some good examples of some charts: Infragistics

Charts @ Wikipedia

Web Icons


We see web icons all over the web. they are those little pictures you click. For example the Letter icon which means Email. These are information graphics because they are visuals which represent words (or information..).

Wednesday 25 February 2009

Another tasty piece of Info Design by Felix Heinen




http://www.felixheinen.de/020.html
Designer: Felix Heinen
Quote from his website about the project:
"»Data visualisation of a social network«
March 2007

My final year project in information design. Two big (200cm x 90cm, 80 x 36 inch) posters show the variety and attitudes of members from an internet community like MySpace.

On the first poster you can see the functions used, as well as additional information such as age, educational background, family status, gender and how often they are logged in. So, all demographic data which are available from every member's profile.

The second poster gives you an overview of the geographic position, based on a map. You can see where the members are distributed. The aim was to give the management the opportunity to know much more about the members than would have been possible with a simple scan of their database only.

I also transferred my design into a Flash-based computer program to navigate through all data, and wrote a fifty-page manual about my research.

This project was published on several well known websites like »Computerlove«, »Fontblog«, »Design Observer« and »Basic Thinking«. Furthermore there was a article in the German graphic design magazine »Page« and also distinguished with the »Tweenwork-Award 2007«. Furthermore I'm semifinalist at the »2007 Adobe Design Achievement Awards« and the project was published in a few international design books.

Check out my homepage for further updates!"


I really like this piece. Im really into digital abstract design/art and as you can see by the screen grabs it looks really nice and abstract. Obviously its not abstract, its all based on statistical info, but i think as a piece of graphic design, it looks really nice, Well done Felix, check out his website, his works amazing.

A few more nice examples of info graphics!


I like how he has made the map 3d. And i like how he has used a few different types of info graphics: Maps and charts.
Designer: Mike Wirth
Originally created for: http://lyke2drink.blogspot.com/2008/10/gabf-medals-few-states-and-breweries.html
Thanks to http://coolinfographics.blogspot.com/ for providing me with some cool info graphics, check the blog out!

http://www.gridplane.com/html/projects/data-vis is a great website which has come cool info graphics on!



I love these ones, the colour and layout is brilliant.
Title: Nobrium: Towards True Precision in the Control of Excessive Anxiety
Designer: Mervyn Kurlansky: co-founder of Pentagram
Year: 1971
Publisher: Roche
The co-founder of Pentagram designed these.. I think these are really easy to understand due to the colour coding.
I got these images from this blog: Things To Look At check it out, its got some really nice images on!

Website maps



Quote from Wikipedia on sitemaps: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitemaps
The Sitemaps protocol allows a webmaster to inform search engines about URLs on a website that are available for crawling. A Sitemap is an XML file that lists the URLs for a site. It allows webmasters to include additional information about each URL: when it was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is in relation to other URLs in the site. This allows search engines to crawl the site more intelligently. Sitemaps are a URL inclusion protocol and complement robots.txt, a URL exclusion protocol.
Sitemaps are particularly beneficial on websites
where some areas of the website are not available through the browsable interface, or
where webmasters use rich Ajax or Flash content that is not normally processed by search engines.
The webmaster can generate a Sitemap containing all accessible URLs on the site and submit it to search engines. Since Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask use the same protocol now, having a Sitemap would let the biggest search engines have the updated pages information.
Sitemaps supplement and do not replace the existing crawl-based mechanisms that search engines already use to discover URLs. By submitting Sitemaps to a search engine, a webmaster is only helping that engine's crawlers to do a better job of crawling their site(s). Using this protocol does not guarantee that web pages will be included in search indexes, nor does it influence the way that pages are ranked in search results.

Now, Website maps are Info graphics because they provide a visual to help us navigate around a website. You can do some interesting things with sitemaps. I designed a portfolio website for myself for my final project at college, and to present the artwork i decided to lay it out like a sitemap. I am trying to find a picture of this, BUT I CANT BECAUSE MY HARD DRIVE BROKE with all my work on. so i have lost EVERYTHING >_<

A great Info Design Blog!



I stumbled upon this place whilst research Info Design. Http://www.coolinfographics.blogspot.com
A lot of the work published on there will make its way into my research/sketchbook!

A nice example of Info Design

This piece of info design is amazing! first of all the concept is really great. He's done a piece of information graphics on how much spam mail he recieved in a month. Hes presented the info in various charts. What i really like is that he has gone very in-depth into the idea, hes even gone into the most common names that the spammers use. I feel sorry for him, he gets so much spam! he needs to get his email addy out there in the public more often, only kidding. Ow and last of all he's set out the piece really well.

Designer: Timgraham.net 

What is Information Graphics?


Info Graphics are visual representations of information, data and knowledge. Info graphics are a great way to portray info quickly and clearly. You may have heard people say things are easier to understand when you have pictures to look at? info graphics is based on this concept. For example say if you are building a lego model, if you have illustrated instructions you are going to find it easier to build. Plus reading illustrations is more appealing than reading a load of writing. Another good example is maps. Its easier to know where your going if you read a map (maps are visuals) than some worded directions. 
A few types of info graphics:
- website maps
- "How To" Instructions
- Charts e.g. bar charts, pie charts, line charts
- Maps
- Signage
- Web icons
- Exploded view diagrams

A few examples of info graphics:
- Airplane safety cards
- Google earth maps
- Illustrated instruction manuals
- Mens/Womens toilet symbol
- Geographical seismograph 
- Radars
- Tutorials


My Previous Information Graphics Experience

This is a piece of information graphics that I made about a year and a half ago. I based the piece on how to put a capo on a guitar. For this piece of information graphics I had to think about the ergonomics of the process. This is a 'how to' piece of graphics similar to that of an instruction manual. Please ignore the bag typography, it's awful, I don't know what I was thinking.

gfxskool.com


Hey folks, First blog post!
right first off i want to post a link to an online graphics community i am part of. I helped set it up back in 2005 with some online friends. Its been a big influence on me, for one i get to see loads of different pieces of work daily, which means i keep on top of current graphic trends, and two its given me a chance to flourish in the graphics world. I have learned so much from here, and i want to get the word out so it can do the same for you.
What is gfxskool.com all about?
its about teaching people the basics of many programs, like photoshop, flash, illustrator and some 3d software like cinema 4d. There are hundreds of free tutorials, some of which are made by the staff, and me. There are hundreds of free digital resources like photoshop brushes, abstract render packs, wallpaper packs and loads more. There are also weekly, monthly graphic competitions. There are places to showcase your work and get constructive criticism.
So come over, sign up, its free! introduce yourself, and start posting up some of your work!

I use a lot of work from gfxskool in research projects. I see so many pieces everyday, that there is always relevent work i can use as research in my projects.