As the Floridian ‘butterfly ballots’ used in the 2000 U.S. presidential election showed, poor design can have far-reaching consequences. With new ballot design guidelines now in place, The New York Times identifies common design problems found on ballots and ways to improve clarity and vote accuracy.
It’s good to know people are thinking about issues such as this and striving to improve the problems.
On Nov. 4, most ballots will repeat design mistakes made in previous elections. Many of these errors are avoidable. This year, the United States Election Assistance Commission released ballot design guidelines. Using these guidelines, we at AIGA developed this feature to identify common design problems and offer improvements.
A recent article from the University of Pittsburgh’s Centre for Biosecurity, Reducing the Risk of Human Extinction.
Abstract: In this century a number of events could extinguish humanity. The probability of these events may be very low, but the expected value of preventing them could be high, as it represents the value of all future human lives. We review the challenges to studying human extinction risks and, by way of example, estimate the cost effectiveness of preventing extinction-level asteroid impacts.
via Schneier
Mashable’s list of over 130 web design tools looks like it may come in handy.
Tools mentioned include CSS optimisers, colour scheme generators, attractive background design generators, and many more.
I’ve been playing with The New York Times’ Visualization Lab lately and am enjoying it quite a lot, even though the current data sets you can play with are quite limited. However, the system uses IBM’s ‘Many Eyes’ tool, a project of their Visual Communication Lab, and if you head there you can register and upload your own data sets.
On the topic of data visualisation, I’ve also been going through the archives of Pictures of Numbers (via Kottke); a site providing “practical tips and techniques for busy researchers on improving their data presentation”. It reminds me somewhat of Junk Charts.
(A good resource for ‘info viz’ links is the ‘Bookmarks’ section of Eager Eyes… far right sidebar, under the login box.)
Revolutionary Minds is a new(ish) video series from Seed Magazine well worth your time. Each instalment profiles a number of scientists with one thing in common: their ideas are revolutionising how science advances. So far:
The Game Changers
Competition, legal difficulties, information overload, a lack of money, and public relations problems can impede the progress of science. [These 'revolutionary minds'] are prizing openness over secrecy, access over scarcity, and they are creating a future that will help science fulfill its potential to make all our lives better.
The Re-envisionaries
The more science advances, the less, it seems, that any one discipline holds all the answers—even to the problems that a discipline was originally conceived to answer. So it’s not surprising that some of today’s most innovative scientific thinkers are making breakthroughs by hybridizing multiple fields.
Design and Architecture
The drawings, structures, renderings, and sculptures of these designers and architects expand and clarify our knowledge of the world around us, demonstrating that design is an integral step in the scientific method.