Data visualization is a fancy way to say pictures with words and numbers. It is a graphic approach that makes relationships easier to see at a glance and makes the stories behind the data more memorable. The Colorado BTOP poster at right is an example of this “picture superiority effect” (more fancy terminology). It conveys attention-grabbing statistics with a graphical layout that is readily digestible in its simplicity and color. You easily “get the picture.”

But really, “the purpose of visualization is insight, not pictures.” (quotation from Ben Shneiderman) Which brings in the advocacy piece. Emerson takes the idea a step further, saying that the purpose is insight that leads to change, with change in the world being the ultimate goal of advocacy. Based on the premise that “you get 5 minutes with a legislator” to convey your message, he emphasized the critical importance of planning your visualization carefully, being clear about your goals, and knowing what your audience cares about—“what keeps them up at night.” With some thoughtful mapping, you’re better equipped to make decisions about how to design to your audience and what to emphasize.

Emerson offered plenty of practical design tips. We all have an internalized visual literacy with which we respond intuitively to graphic metaphors: big things are more important, happy is up, lines are paths. These abstractions, which we  grasp without thinking, are the essential building blocks of effective data visualization. Trim to the essence and avoid excess detail.

Don’t just take it from me. Watch the archived recording and get the full picture from Emerson. The archive page also has many links to tools (like 10 Awesome Free Tools To Make Infographics), sources of inspiration, books, data sources, and some resources added by webinar attendees.

With a lot of ground to cover in an hour, we kept things on a fairly high level. Overall though, I think we provided a nice overview and were able to dig into few areas during audience questions— we even had a live blogger who did a heck of job annotating our slides!

Some drive-by key points from the session:

• We are a learning community. It’s the combination of our LMS, CMS, and strong member / partner community that makes WJ special.
• We must design to maximize these strengths.
• Launch is dead. Iterative development of features and components is the way to go.
• A software organizations greatest skill is ading features. The most important strength? The ability to stay true to goals and leave some of those features on the drawing table.
• Our community trusts us. They’ll give us an opportunity to “get it right” as long as we are focused on delivering the tools and experience that make WJ special.

More detail is available in the slides at WebJunction. Please check them out and let us know if you have any questions.

-Tim

I also wanted to take a second to personally thank every single one of you that have tried the site out during its first week. We have seen huge amounts of activity this week and are so happy to see folks diving in. We are also very pleased to get your feedback as well. Most things are working well on the site, but please know that we are working very hard to respond to and address any question, concerns and bugs that have come up. And we thank you very much for your patience in those instances. This is truly a library community resource and you telling us what you think, how to make it better and what you would like to see in the future will be what helps make that future happen. So please keep contacting us, keep kicking the tires and continue to dive in. See you on Your, Mine and OUR “My WebJunction”!

A prime example of a thriving library.

First, did you see that we have a customized WebJunction toolbar now? WebJunction-Illinois and WebJunction-Connecticut got all cutting edge on us with their toolbars, and I followed their lead. This handy tool, which is very easy to download and install from Conduit, will help you find content on WebJunction, thanks to the technical brilliance of Google search. I also added quick links to those areas of WebJunction that I know are popular with y’all (and yet not always easy to find): the Events Calendar, TechAtlas, the Discussion Boards–plus all of our Community Partner sites. You can directly access your RSS feed from this toolbar as well. So once you’ve installed it and given it a try, let me know what you think. I have been using it for the past month or so and, I have to say, I love it. (Unfortunately, it is not compatible with Safari browsers, so hopefully Mac users have Firefox installed.)

Second, we often hear from our members, “I know there is so much information on WebJunction, the amount keeps growing, and I just can’t keep up with it!” Hopefully, “What’s New on WebJunction” will help you stay up to date. This monthly email digest is simply a list of links to new articles and courses that have been added to the site in the previous month. Subscribe today, and I will send out the first issue on January 16. Definitely send me your comments about that publication–I will plan to tweak it based on your thoughtful feedback.

Finally, I did a little revamp of the Discussion Boards page. I hope you will find it easier to scan the forum lists and find the subject area most relevant to your needs. Again, if you have any feedback about that work–or additional suggestions–either comment here or in the Discussion Board Support forum (formerly called “Help & Feedback”).

Oh, did I mention that I like getting your feedback, comments, and suggestions?