Having been at a Big Data analytics startup for over 3 months now, I’ve been deep diving into a whole range of tools that enable the clear, swift, vivid articulation of complex datasets in a meaningful manner, with craft and integrity. It’s an astoundingly broad, diverse field of opportunity, from pre-fab templates to custom data-driven graphics programming toolkits. While I still rely upon pen sketching and pixel editors to “flare out†diverse ideas for high fidelity interpretations, the new models of computational graphics and web prototyping tools lend an inspirational factor worth indulging quite a bit.Â
Following are some relevant links worth perusing to augment one’s understanding of this area. Enjoy!
** Data-driven graphics: Involution Studios product designer Ben Salinas gave this fantastic talk about designing with real data to arrive at highly accurate visualizations that elicit exact user feedback, not just fake mockups. http://www.slideshare.net/UPABoston/make-it-real-designing-with-data Â
Salinas highlights specific tools that you can easily (and freely) use to scrape real data, generate into a format that you can poke & prod via interactive prototyping:
** Data viz toolkits: A few others that I’ve been looking closely lately include the following:
** Web prototyping tools: Quite a few new tools have appeared on the scene, def worth checking out to empower your ability to create something interactive and “real†for user feedback:
- Framer Studio
- Macaw
- Pixate
- Bootstrap (from Twitter)
- Foundation (from Zurb)
** Responsive grid systems: As I get into building out the revised vision for our product, I want to ensure a scalable flexible layout for various device screens, to be modern and progressive. To help me I’ve been looking at the following: