Information Objects

My work in making information more meaningful to people revolves around two key ideas: that information should be presented in a way better tuned to human perceptual abilities (for example, I typically make “information objects” rather than tables). And the best way to make information more easily understood is to design the representation around the way that the user thinks.

This image contrasts a standard table, which must be read to be interpreted, with a table of information objects. The shapes and colors are tuned to the specific job: blue=buy, red=sell; left=buy, right-pointing=sell; dark=new, light=seen; no color=completed. In this way we get the perceptual system instantly to do things that perviously had to be extracted by reading. The most important function demands the most visual attention, assuring attention where it’s needed.
Brad Paley