Owner: The Business Graphics Blog URL:http://blog.smartdraw.com Join Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:55:43 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Become a more effective communicator and presenter. This blog will show you how to use charts, graphs, and diagrams help you communicate more effectively. Site statistics:Click here
Why Do Adults Forget About Visualization?: An Interview with Dr. Brian Friedlander 2008-03-04 11:25:00 I was recently able to chat with Dr. Brian
Friedlander about his views on visualization, education, and SmartDraw. Dr. Friedlander is a school psychologist with expertise in the area of
assistive technology. He has a passion for using all kinds
of technology in his professional work and is very interested in the
use of mind mapping, visual learning, project management and Web 2.0
technologies. Dr. Friedlander readily applies these technologies in the
graduate courses that he teaches at the College of St. Elizabeth in
Morristown, N.J. Dr. Friedlander consults to many school districts in
N.J. and is available for workshops, training and presentations. His
blog can be found at 1. How do you see your role as a psychologist and educator?I have been in the field of school psychology for over 2 Read more:Adults
, Visualization
Why Are You Still Using A Mouse To Make A Flowchart? 2008-02-12 16:26:00
The Stick Figure Problem
I can't draw a stick figure that does not look like it went through a blender. I draw a line for their body, but it is never straight. I add legs, but they are uneven. Arms, but they start in the wrong spot, so they look like another set of legs. The head, well, it's not pretty, it's not even a circle really. More like a squashed egg.
I am guessing you do not share my plight, but if you are like me and work for a company with a variety of processes and activities, you have probably made a flowchart. Squares, circles, diamonds, trapezoids and a bunch of lines, yup, get that blender out. Sure, you no longer have to grab your graph paper and #2 pencil as this can all be done on the computer with your mous Read more:Mouse
Delicious Products: Appealing To Emotional Buyers Through Visual Symbols 2008-02-01 11:34:00 I was recently hurrying through the mall (horrible places, malls) and came across what must be the easiest, fastest sell in that massive hive of people, shops, and restaurants – cinnamon buns. Tell me this doesn’t make you hungry…
Even Dmitri could sell these if he hadn't tried to eat a whole one himself.
For a company like Cinnabon, visual communication is a no brainer. All they have to do is show a picture of the product and trigger the salivary glands of anyone within visual or olfactory range. Unfortunately, most of us don't sell cinnamon buns. What if you don’t have a delicious product?
When I started to explain the benefits of visual communication to a friend of mine who works at a wholesale security company (they sells locks and other security products), he Read more:Buyers
, Delicious
, Emotional
, Products
, Visual
How To Build An Interactive Electoral Map 2008-01-28 17:08:00 The Primary Elections Map I refer to throughout this article is located here. You should be able to make something like this (or better) by the end of this article.
Traditionally, making interactive graphics for the web is a complex process that goes something like this: A designer takes an image and creates an image map using Dreamweaver or a specific image map tool. The image map, which is simply a set of tagged coordinates, allows a specific section of the original image to act as a hyperlink. This allows a piece of the whole (a state within the country image, for example) to be independently clickable. Using some coding magic, the independent sections can be made to change color on mouseover, take you to a new page when clicked, and a whole host of other things. This is a lot of work Read more:Build
Basic Design Principles With Jose (Part 2) 2008-01-25 05:11:00 Even a little bit of design know-how can go a long way toward making your project look like it was created by a professional. JM, the Art Director at SmartDraw, contributed his expertise to highlight these simple, yet effective techniques.
2. Alignment
Alignment can help elements seem unified and connected.You may not feel as if you are placing items on the page randomly, but unless you are consciously aligning each new element with something on the page, that’s exactly what you are doing.
As with grouping, alignment helps the reader digest information. The imaginary line that connects aligned items reinforces their connection and pleases the eye. Different alignments elicit different reactions so experiment with left or right alignment for something more dramatic th Read more:Basic
, Principles
Cool Visualization Resources 2007-12-26 12:09:00 After a few days of holiday vacation (one can only take so much business graphics), I'm back and ready to rock your collective socks off with my profound elucidations on visual communication, business process, and all manner of other buzzword-worthy topics. Unfortunately, I haven't prepared much for this week so I've decided to introduce you to some excellent resources for visualization. From visualizing social news to five-year discussions on the efficacy of the Gantt chart (those Tufte folks kinda scare me), you will undoubtedly find something useful and interesting among this collection.information aestheticsform follows data - data visualization & visual communicationUpdated frequently, this is where I go to find the latest cool visualizations. As the subheading suggests, aesthetic Read more:Resources
, Visualization
Using Graphics For Evil: Why I Deserve A Raise (Part 1) 2007-12-13 07:43:00 There are two groups of people in the world, those that understand the persuasive power of effective communication techniques, and those that are persuaded by the first group. Now, I'm not advocating the use of these techniques for immoral personal gain - a diabolical agent of manipulation could certainly take advantage of our built in cognitive biases for his/her own ends ...but I could really use a raise.
1) People make decisions based on emotion (emotional reasoning). Once you've gotten a positive emotional response from the viewer/listener they probably won't notice irregularities in your data. After all, you've already made up their mind. I'm always the first person to help out, the first one to pitch in.You just can't measure that kind of individual impact in sales Read more:Graphics
Basic Design Principles With Jose (Part 1) 2007-11-26 11:00:00 Even a little bit of design know-how can go a long way toward making your project look like it was created by a professional. JM, the Art Director at SmartDraw, contributes his expertise to highlight these simple, yet effective techniques.
1. Group Related ElementsVisually group related elements on the page. Scattered elements are visually confusing. The reader’s eye doesn’t know where to settle, or which pieces of information are related to each other. When you group related elements, the reader will take in each part as intended. Don’t make the reader work to see your intention. Make it obvious.
Organize your information into small, manageable chunks. If a headline and subhead are related, put them together. If your address appears on the page, put it in a tight bloc Read more:Basic
, Principles
A First-Grader's Guide To Business Process 2007-11-21 12:17:00 Have you ever tried to describe your sales process to a potential investor or new hire? Or tried to explain the why it rains to a child? The communication concepts are the same.
The water cycle is a process just like any other. Its cyclical nature and multiple inputs/outputs create quite a challenge to teachers and parents alike. To truly understand the water cycle requires knowledge of physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, and more. Try explaining the details of sediment transport to a young child, or anyone else for that matter, to understand the concept of futility. The beauty of the process diagram is that it abstracts away those minute granular details in exchange for conceptual clarity and mass appeal. This is not coincidentally its downfall as well. Any trained scientist Read more:Business
, First
, Grader
, Guide
, Process
My UX Process 2008-03-13 12:58:00 6 Steps of a UX Design
My fascination began when I watched a video of Alan Kay explaining the PARC user interface during a Stanford lecture. That was 4 years ago now, and for the last 2 years I have worked hard to improve the usability of SmartDraw. My work flow looks something like this:
Collect the facts and brainstorm
Make a static rapid prototype
Perform an initial test with a small number of people
Pick 2 designs that get best feedback and create interactive prototypes
Test 2 designs with current users and non-users
Review results and create spec for the developers
Your process may differ from mine, but regardless of the workflow there is one common breaking point; people. When it is just you, you don't have to worry about communicating or delegating. You just do want you know Read more:Process
Organize Your Brainstorming Better Using Mind Maps 2008-03-20 16:36:00 Or, Fun with Brainstorming & Mind Mapping
I know what you’re thinking…brainstorming is not fun. Well, I’m here to prove you wrong! Not only do brainstorming and mind mapping provide quick, creative solutions to problems, but they’re a great way to interact with coworkers and break up the monotony of a long work day. And, there’s always the outside chance that someone will bring snacks.
But first things first.
Brainstorming…what is it?
Put simply, brainstorming is a fun and useful technique to develop highly creative solutions to a problem. It’s usually done as a group where it’s designed to generate a large number of ideas that can be evaluated at a later date. Brainstorming can be very helpful when you need to break out of older, established (and boring!) ways of thin
The Top Ten Brainstorming & Mind Mapping Tips! 2008-03-27 13:35:00 Here at SmartDraw, we’re always thinking up ways to help people work smarter…that’s just the way we roll. This handy list, created by SmartDraw.com’s mind mapping specialists, will help you get your project off to a great start.
Quantity not Quality. When brainstorming on your own or with a team of people, the goal is to express as many ideas as possible very quickly. Do not self-censor or hesitate before offering an idea. A free exchange is what can help bring your most brilliant ideas to the surface. Power to the people!
Pen to Paper. Assign a person to write down all of the ideas on a sheet of paper that can be seen by all of the participants. This list will serve as the master and will be culled to include the most relevant suggestions. (Try not to be this person unle Read more:Mapping
Be a Better Manager - Organize Your Ideas with Mind Maps 2008-05-05 06:00:00 Every
new day presents a new set of problems to be solved; I work as a web developer
and as a marketer thus I have to a wide range of problems, projects, and concerns
that I have to attend to. Before I get started solving a new problem I take the
time to get my thoughts organized, prioritize concerns, and help formulate an
attack plan.
How
do I organize my thoughts? I use a Mind Map.
How
I Use Mind Maps
I
wrote a post on my personal blog about "How I Use Mind Maps to Organize
Online Marketing Messages" a while back; in this post I'm
going to write about how I use Mind Maps in general.
Let's
say that my task for the day is to start brainstorming a few ideas for new
sales messages. Here's how I'd go about doing it.
1.
Start With The Core Issues
The
first thing I'd
Why the Organization Chart is Not Obsolete 2008-05-12 06:00:00 It's fashionable to view the traditional top-down org chart
as about as relevant to today's growing businesses as the three-piece suit. Today
we self-organize into ad-hoc teams that form and melt away again, or so the
theory goes.
As someone who has built a business from one person to 40
(and growing fast) I think most entrepreneurs misunderstand org charts and
their value even to the smallest bu Read more:Chart
, Organization
Screencast: Managing Projects with SmartDraw 2008-05-15 06:00:00 In this screencast we show you how you can use SmartDraw and to manage projects; first we show you how to scope your project with a mind map, then we show you how you can easily convert that mind map into a project chart (Gantt Chart), and finally we show you how to use those two charts as effective project management tools.
Read more:Projects
, Screencast
The Most Common Marketing Mistake: Advertising = Marketing 2008-05-28 06:00:00 Four Steps to Understanding Your Market
Advertising
and promoting are important marketing tactics but they are not nearly as crucial as the process of understanding your market.
Marketing
is like hunting - advertising is a lot like firing your gun at your target, but just "firing your gun" doesn't do you any good if you don't know where the game is. Understanding your market is how you determine Read more:Common
, Mistake
Screencast: Building a Unique Selling Proposition with SmartDraw 2008-06-04 06:00:00 In this screencast I show you how to define a unique selling proposition for your company's product or service using a Selling Proposition
Chart, a new template which SmartDraw 2008 users can download through our latest content pack (1.9 meg.)
Download a free trial of SmartDraw here.
Learn More
If Read more:Building
, Screencast
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