{26} Histograms, P5js & Home Offices
{26} Histograms, P5js & Home Offices
Featuring Infogram, Orr Kislev, Valdemar, lindsay, and miggi
Design: Histograms
Infogram
I love histograms. They are often an excellent abstraction to a data set. If well-designed, they can convey so much information at a glance.
They can also be beautiful, like in this chart from Infogram. It could be simplified to convey similar information in a fraction of the space. But if you want to make it the centerpiece in a magazine or a web page, go nuts. A highly visual implementation certainly grabs a reader’s attention.
Frontend: P5js Guides
Orr Kislev
P5js is my preferred library for building custom interactive data visualization on the web. Sometimes it can be challenging to mentally keep track of the underlying grid as you transform shapes. Seeing the guide lines could be really useful while developing.
Although I find the demo to be disorienting because it dives straight into a complex example. I’d like to see a simpler demo with and without the guides.
Backend: DNS
Valdemar
DNS will never make sense to me. I’d rather fight regex battles than try and figure out why a domain configuration isn’t working. I think the frustrating thing for me is the painfully slow feedback loop. You make a change and have to wait an undetermined period of time to see if it worked.
It’s helpful to see how the underlying system is designed. I’d love to see a visual troubleshooting guide. When you run pings and other commands, how does information flow through the system to give you a response?
While my daily work depends on DNS, it’s hard to justify taking a deeper dive. It’s a reliable abstraction that works well when you get the config right. I hope DNS evolves to be a little more bulletproof and transparent. Until then, thanks to people like Valdemar for helping keep systems connected! 🍻
Marketing: Emotional Responses
lindsay
I agree with Lindsay. It should be rare for individuals to be held accountable for using words that trigger negative emotional responses. By setting that expectation, we discourage dialog. This is particularly worrying because people are now avoiding the hard discussions necessary to lay the groundwork for a more equitable society.
I also agree that words should not be used as inflammatory weapons. There are a lot of words that we collectively agree are inflammatory. It’s good to be thoughtful in our use of those words.
But I didn’t seek out this tweet because I wanted to rant about modern society placing limits on our vocabularies. I’m much more interested in how words can inspire a positive emotional response.
In marketing, we should try to predict an audience’s emotional response to a collection of words. That response should be in line with the brand identity. This is not malicious, it’s thoughtful communication.
I had a discussion with Grammarly last year about the topic.
With that data, it would be amazing to create criteria for a brand identity. Maybe you want a brand that is “friendly, fun, and smart”. Then you could use data to highlight words in a draft document that either reinforces or violates your brand words. By maximizing highlighted green words and minimizing red words, you increase the probability of a positive emotional response.
Team: Home Offices
miggi
With so many teams going remote, I’d love to see companies increase budgets for contributors to beef up their home offices. This is where people will spend most of their time in 2023. They should be working in spaces that are comfortable, ergonomic, and inspiring.
My personal space is a dungeon, so I won’t be sharing photos anytime soon. But I’d love to redesign it at some point.