Protecting rights from fear - The evolution of flash mobs from pranks to crime and revolution SFExaminer http://ow.ly/6eUo5
279 days ago
New PT blog post: Using Transmedia Storytelling to Raise Awareness of OCD http://t.co/peYWxVO
285 days ago
New PT blog post: Us versus Them: It's Time for We're All In This Together http://t.co/Emhrlpg
289 days ago
Friend Keely Kolmes on SXSW 2012 panel proposal--give it a thumbs up!- WARNING: Are online reviews bad for your health? http://ow.ly/669Q1
290 days ago
VOTE! SXSW 2012 - Multidisciplinary user experience design of social tools SxDesign Concepts and Insights http://ow.ly/63Sdf!#sxsw
292 days ago
Cognitive Broadband: When Visual Information Enhances Cognition
Posted Mar 24 2010 4:42pm
It would be no surprise to the Max Wertheimer and the other Gestalt psychologists that visual displays can deliver complex information so effectively. I think of it as “cognitive broadband.” Journalist LaToya Egwuekwe created a progressive data display of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment numbers that delivers a powerful message. (See “ The Decline: The Geography of a Recession ,”) So powerful, in fact that it went viral from YouTube to CNN. (The orginal site has more impact than the YouTube version embedded below.)
Beyond the implications of the unemployment numbers, however staggering and moving, there is an underlying and very important message about education in the 21st Century. I’m on board with all the STEM initiatives (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) but the missing ingredient in this push is synthesis. As people either celebrate or lament, we have no shortage of data. Finding out stuff is no longer a scarce resource. Making sense of it all is. The ability to think visually and spatially–not just linearly–is essential to understanding a world where facts are more plentiful than problems and where innovation is necessary for solutions and creating growth. We are conditioned to accepting the process of education as the successful accumulation of facts. Facts by themselves have no meaning until they are synthesized into a narrative. When was the last time a BLS numbers release made it to YouTube?
It would be no surprise to the Max Wertheimer and the other Gestalt psychologists that visual displays can deliver complex information so effectively. I think of it as “cognitive broadband.” Journalist LaToya Egwuekwe created a progressive data display of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) unemployment numbers that delivers a powerful message. (See “ The Decline: The Geography of a Recession ,”) So powerful, in fact that it went viral from YouTube to CNN. (The orginal site has more impact than the YouTube version embedded below.)
Beyond the implications of the unemployment numbers, however staggering and moving, there is an underlying and very important message about education in the 21st Century. I’m on board with all the STEM initiatives (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) but the missing ingredient in this push is synthesis. As people either celebrate or lament, we have no shortage of data. Finding out stuff is no longer a scarce resource. Making sense of it all is. The ability to think visually and spatially–not just linearly–is essential to understanding a world where facts are more plentiful than problems and where innovation is necessary for solutions and creating growth. We are conditioned to accepting the process of education as the successful accumulation of facts. Facts by themselves have no meaning until they are synthesized into a narrative. When was the last time a BLS numbers release made it to YouTube?