Month: October 2021
Scientist Are Always Changing Their Minds / October 19, 2021
Nobody reads my posts: until this week / May 19, 2021
Nobody reads my posts with the exception of my small circle of indulgent friends and colleagues. My life’s work has been figuring out how to present #healthinformation so that people can understand it. Not all that exciting but it’s where I like to live.
So, what was I thinking when, earlier this week I came across a complicated graph in a newspaper I read and respect. Beautifully colored bubble graphs – incomprehensible to the average reader. What I call the start of a productive working day!
I posted the graphs on FB and asked for ideas about how the #data could be re-designed.
DAAAAAA I now see the error of my ways.
Unfortunately the graphic was about #Covidvaccine.
Now recall, very few people ever read my FB or blog ( again how not sexy is #informationarchitecture?)
But this week’s post was off the charts.
Overnight – I’m popular!!!!
Hundreds of viewers, tons of comments…..
All pretty mean spirited, #nastytirades , dismissive #memes #fakenews #vaccineconspiracies and even warnings about violating the #NurembergCode,
Not one comment about the graphs or my question.
You know how sometimes, among all the billions of bits of memories you store, a moment remains quite real and present. Well one of my tiny moments was a professor saying to the class (and I think quoting a psychologist (Miller) –
“When you’re arguing with someone, STOP. Say to yourself, “What that person is true.” And then ask yoursel, “what could this be true of?”
My Question:
Will spending lots of time thinking about this get me anywhere or is it more productive for me to just get on with the work I know I do well and makes a a few folks’ lives just a little better?
Covid is Like the Suez Canal / March 29, 2021
This morning CNN posted a link to an ingenious interactive tool where you try to steer a ship through the Suez Canal.
You control the rudder and the power – and keep trying not to crash into the banks and create a monstrous traffic jam!
Needless to say, despite my NYC street parking prowess I crashed numerous times.!
IMAGINE...
One morning you wake up and public health experts have put aside their directives, pleas and shaming – and, for one brief moment, set out to create something a new way of talking to the public – something that grabs us and leads us to discover ( in the safety of our online worlds) what it might take to control a pandemic. Maybe they even think of the ship stuck in the Suez canal.
In the CNN article, the captain of the lodged ship Yasha Gupta explains the importance of the wind in particular because these container ships are stacked so high.
“Wind is a particularly important consideration for container ships because the stacked containers lends them a dizzying height. “So you can imagine it’s just like a solid wall, which is faced against the wind,” He says the wind effect is uncontrollable because the ship is in water. It’s not possible to hit the brakes in the same way you’d stop a moving car.
I’m sure, if someone asked nicely CNN ( and designer Mankarious) could reimagine communicating mask wearing, or social distancing or getting vaccines in just such a great, useable way.
Their disclaimer works for me and could be emphasized to the user of the health info.
\Note: This is a non-scientific simplified interactive experience intended for illustrative purposes only. There are many factors that have not been accounted for, including (but not restricted to): the depth of water; proximity to the banks; interaction with passing ships; the turning circle; availability of tug boats and other weather conditions like visibility. We have also sped up the time it takes to maneuver a ship of this size. Master Mariner Andy Winbow and Captain Yash Gupta have been advisers.