Michael Babwahsingh

So my online presence has been pretty quiet for the past 6 or so years.

On this date ten years ago, I reflected on the first decade of my career as a designer, a professional milestone not unlike reaching a scenic overlook on a steep mountain climb or a mile marker on a rocky long-distance trek.

I’ve spent most of my career looking for a community — a collection of like-minded folks who care about information design the same way I do.

In the worlds of information design and data visualization, there’s plenty of attention paid to the Data and Information side of the DIKW continuum and how to transform one into the other.

Design is in a continuous state of flux.

In April of 1999, after about a year and a half of research, writing, and designing, I defended my undergraduate Honors thesis on information design.

What do you want to do with your life?

Well, 2017 has gotten off to quite a start!

For me, 2016 will go down as the year of the gut, when reason and restraint took a holiday.

Time to open Pandora’s Box!

Data visualization is no longer news.

I am a slow thinker, so I need to draw to make sure I am keeping track of everything.

Information design has had more than a few missing pieces in its story for some time, as described in Part 1, so rather than curse the fact that the problem exists, it makes more sense to start filling in the gaps, one by one.

This post arrives coincidentally at the same time as the Information+ conference at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“What the hell am I doing?”

As someone who’s slowly inching toward 40, I feel distinctly out of place with the present.

As tax season feverishly comes to a close, it seems a fitting moment to consider a realm of design work that hardly gets any attention.

Here’s a fun experiment: think up the wildest possible thing you can.

“Community” is a term that gets tossed around so much these days, but how often do we stop to consider its fundamental meaning?

Some years ago, a friend of mine asked me what the information design scene was like in New York City.

We all struggle with the tension between the way we aspire to be and the way we are.

About four years ago, I railed against the state of design at the time.

Like many other service professions, information design is typically defined by what the practitioner makes, how they make it, and what benefit comes from it.

The future is so now.

If you ask me what the hardest part of being an information designer is, only one thing comes to mind.

Have you ever felt like the only person in the room who didn’t get something?

Information design, by nature, is concerned with making sense of the known: data, facts, observations, ideas.

Over the years, I’ve come to understand that information design work is as much a process of reasoning and investigation as it is an activity of pure design decision-making and production.

I’ve never been much of a talker.

We’re in the midst of an information design information overload.

We often think of visualization in the most tangible sense of the word: an image or representation of thoughts, data, observed phenomena — something you can look at.

The concept of the journey spans cultures and traditions around the world.

A recent conversation with some fellow visualization folk led me to question my own notion of what the visualization space should look like and how it should get there.

The Oxford English Dictionary, recognized as the “definitive record of the English language,” contains about 600,000 words, but only about 35,000 to 75,000 words make it into the average person’s vocabulary.

While doing research on the links between information architecture and information design, I came across a video clip of Richard Wurman talking about the origin of the term he has been credited with inventing.

Not long ago, most everyday problems were solved with little more than one’s wits, a dose of common sense, and one’s own two hands.

I have a love-hate relationship with content.

Our lives are defined by boundaries — where we stand firm, where we yield, where we can tread, and where we are forbidden.

I’m officially calling for an end to the Information Age.

It is seventeen days after Hurricane Sandy.

Much like other crossover sensations from the creative world such as design thinking and information design, the visual thinking phenomenon has sustained interest for some time now.

I talk a lot about information design and the confusion surrounding it, but I realize I’ve done very little to demystify what exactly it is that I do.

Note: I’ve used “visualization” throughout to remain consistent with the language of both articles, but I feel the term is still ambiguous and tends to refer to data-driven works only.

For ages, humans have relied on artifacts to convey emotions, experiences, beliefs, and histories.

If the word “infographic” is starting to cause heart palpitations and uncontrollable urges to click associated links, then the term “data visualization” or anything plus “viz” is guaranteed to pack the house at events covering the subject.

Back in 2008, Michael Bierut wrote an excellent post on Design Observer about his collection of notebooks — how he started, what kind he uses, what purpose they serve.

When I first set foot on my path as an information designer, I never thought the field would explode in popularity as it has today.

Solving global challenges is on many people’s minds these days.

This is unofficially the age of information design.

Humanity’s search for knowledge, in its many forms, has always fascinated me.