A friend who is a visitor research consultant recently shared a video of a session from the TED conference with me. She fashions reports that tell museum staff what visitors think and want. So this session was great food for her thinking about how to present the information so that it will hit home.
Yes, I agree. I'm excited about this video too, although not as much as I would have been when I was a young marketing communicator. It confirms what I've known for a long time about making information grab you. I come from that marketing place where we were continually coming up with pictures and memes that helped people understand the information without having to really spend a lot of time reading. GOT MILK? What's in your wallet? It's the real thing. Did you visualize a milk mustache, a barbarian, a bottle of Coke? As a marketing writer I learned to be spare and evocative. Every word had to count.
David McCandless is coming at the same message from his point of view as a journalist. H he cuts to the chase by presenting amazing data as design that will have impact. Like him, I absorbed a feeling for good design from exposure to good design. Unfortunately, it was often hard to convince the academics at Colonial Williamsburg and the National Center for State Counts to trim the fat. Paint word pictures ... because people are not going to get it by reading the words. Even the most intellectually curious are underwater when it comes to the abundance of information that we must deal daily. Readers appreciate knowing right away what it is they need to get from any presentation. If the consultant or marketer or journalist can design information that grabs the attention of the audience, the audience can take the next steps to reach, change, remember, care.
Enjoy!
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