Thursday, September 12, 2013



Ideas Seminar: Drew Skau
Date: September 13, 2013

Dr. Drew Skau focuses on real-time visualizations and digital media. And also he interested in new digital fabrication methods. I think, his research is primarily concerned with my research. I’m studying with Prof. Mary Lou Maher recently on Envision Charlotte. The uptown community can see data about collective real-time data on energy usage via digital displays throughout the center city. This allows businesses and individuals to keep track of their energy usage and to conveniently see how much power they are consuming or saving via social media alerts. They expected that with broader energy consumption awareness, all will be empowered to make better personal energy saving decision which will collectively add up towards the 20% reduction goal for the community. Unfortunately, it did not going well, no one used this digital display. In this sense, we focus on creating interactive display models about sustainable issues to communicate with people and to change or evaluate human sustainability behavior for energy savings. In order to encourage people’s participation, we’ve been looking for useful example of infographic and visualization.  

I think, Infographic and visualizations are more powerful and effective way to literally catch people’s way. With the constant hustle and bussle of modern life, people have short attention spans. And it is no wonder people experience information overload. With smartphones, tablets and the ubiquity of the internet, people are constantly receiving, analyzing, sharing and creating new information. Due to this overload we need to stick out to get people’s attention. Creating a compelling visualization of data or information can make it really stick out from all of the other noise of day-to-day life. Moreover, by creating something that is visually compelling, people are more likely to be engaged and creating visualizations can make complex information easier to understand. In this sense, I thought the examples and website he provides make me more convincing and interesting.

 

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