Threaded Bookmarks 29-January-2009

In this post I’m experimenting with a variation on bookmark posts by including only items connected in some fashion by a common thread.

Today’s theme is one of design. Is there a way to use data analysis and visualization to engage people enough that they follow their curiosity into exploration of complex issues?

I very much like the problem orientation of the auto technician interviewed in the New York Times article. Don’t treat symptoms; look for the root causes; and start with the money. His question “why does it cost so much?” is equally valid for higher education.

In the second post, a designer provides a five-stage model of how to create participatory experiences within museums. The model uses a me-to-we flow that starts with “individual consumes content” and progresses to “individuals engage with each other socially.” Step two (“individuals interact with content”) seems particularly important.

Data analysis and visualization may provide an entry point. But interaction with the content is essential to provoke curiosity and the urge for more exploration. Beyond curiosity a transition must occur and stories may provide help. I’m a big fan of storytelling for precisely the reasons that John Hagel mentions in the third post.

Do you see where I’m headed? Suppose we take an issue like the high cost of higher education. There is absolutely tons of data available on this topic and no end to the research done on it. But is there a way to design visual analysis as an entry point for individual interaction with the topic and then provide a way for people to explore the complexities with stories?

If any of you are aware of web sites designed in a similar manner (around any topic), I’d very much appreciate it if you would provide links in the comments. Or email me with links. Many thanks!

In Colorado, Craving Reform of Health Care and Congress
Robert Pear. New York Times. 10-January-2010

“I am an automotive diagnostician,” Mr. Seyfer said. “We look for the root cause of problems. If we treat the symptoms, the problem always comes back. With health care, we are not treating the root cause: Why does it cost so much?”

A Revised Theory of Social Participation via a “Me-to-We” Design
Nina Simon. Museum 2.0. 25-Janurary-2010.

[I]f you want to support social engagement among people, especially in an unfacilitated setting (i.e. no tour guides or game masters), you need to start by designing personal services for users, then linking up users through shared interests or objects to promote interpersonal connections. You don’t start by designing “for the crowd.” Instead, you design ways for each person to feel acknowledged and valued as an individual. You make them comfortable interacting on their own, and then start providing opportunities to connect with others.

From Research Monographs to Story-Telling: New Forms of Communication in the Big Shift
John Hagel. Edge Perspectives. 22-January-2010.

Stories provide powerful filters that help us to orient ourselves in complex and rapidly changing worlds. On a daily basis, we are bombarded by an ever expanding array of stimuli that spread our attention ever more thinly and risk disorienting us in terms of a sense of what matters and what is simply noise. Stories help to focus our attention. The task of the story teller is to reduce a complex situation to its essence, making difficult decisions about what matters and what is simply extraneous while still preserving the relationships and textures that drive forward movement. The result can be very helpful to listeners in terms of communicating what is really important in a world that distracts and diminishes our ability to focus. At the same time, stories also encourage listeners to use their own imagination to enrich the context of the story – they pull listeners in and invite them to co-create the world at hand.