Three Minutes On Information Design

Three Minutes On Information Design | RMIT University

(Transcript with notations)

VISUAL: A title board appears on a free standing wall at the back corner of a computer generated white room. The RMIT University logo is on the far back wall in the corner. The free standing wall which is at the centre of the screen has simple images gradually drawn onto it from left to right as follows: three pie charts (unable to read label), a vertical bar graph labelled Stock, two line graphs labelled Markets and Transactions and a horizontal bar graph unlabelled. In the centre of the free standing wall is a red arrow curving upwards and to the right with a yellow lightbulb above it. (The lightbulb has lines coming out of it signifying its light). Under the arrow is a four box tree diagram with the labels Budget, Plan, Assets and Product. Three yellow dollar signs are beside it. To the bottom right of the free standing wall a black arrow is bending through images of computers, a mobile phone, email symbol and an envelope and a megaphone. Above these images is a sketch of city skyscrapers and a shopping trolley. (Two little red cars and three people can be seen moving along the street in front of the city buildings). Then to the far right of the screen is a sketched image of the earth with a red flag on top of it. Another black arrow runs under the city image and points at the earth. The word success is written under the earth. The title at the bottom of the free standing wall underneath the images reads: Three Minutes On Information Design.

VISUAL: Adrian Camilleri sitting on a bench leaning against a wall and looking down at something off screen at the bottom right of the screen. He is probably sitting inside an RMIT classroom. A section of a flat screen TV is on the wall behind him to the left of the screen. On the bottom left of the screen the title reads: Adrian Camilleri, PhD. School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: My name is Adrian Camilleri. I'm a lecturer of Marketing and I study consumer behaviour.

VISUAL: Same image as described above ie a computer generated room with a free standing wall near the back with hand drawn colourful images on it, exactly the same finished images as before. The title at the bottom of the free standing wall reads: What is it?

(Ambient instrumental music playing)

VISUAL: Dr Adrian Camilleri speaking to the camera.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: Information Design is about the practice of presenting information in a way that the consumers of the information, really, understand it effectively.

VISUAL: Same image as described above ie a computer generated room with a free standing wall near the back with hand drawn colourful images on it, exactly the same finished images as before. The title at the bottom of the free standing wall reads: Challenges. (The RMIT logo is no longer in the corner of the room as it was at the beginning of the video).

(Ambient instrumental music playing)

VISUAL: Dr Adrian Camilleri speaking to the camera.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: The challenges, I guess, from the perspective of a marketing individual trying to design effective information is what formats of information or structures of information to present to consumers. And that's really tough to guess from the outset. So one thing that I really recommend is running little pilot experiments. So design information in multiple different ways and then present those different formats to different groups of people and to see which one is most effective. Through experimentation we can really learn the truth.

VISUAL: Same image as described above ie a computer generated room with a free standing wall near the back with hand drawn colourful images on it, exactly the same finished images as before. The title at the bottom of the free standing wall reads: In Practice.

(Ambient instrumental music playing)

VISUAL: Dr Adrian Camilleri speaking to the camera.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: There are a lot of apps these days associated with weight loss and monitoring calorie intake and exercise and all of these apps tend to use calorie as the metric that they're focused on and calories really just refers to information regarding energy use and it's not really associated with anything practical.

VISUAL: Camera focuses close up on someone’s hands holding and touching the screen of a tablet which has a Cardio app on the screen - the image on the tablet’s screen gradually becomes clearer. The person’s fingers select Bicycling option under Frequent Cardio Exercises. The tablet’s screen changes to then show the options under Bicycling: Minutes Performed and Calories Burned.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: So one different information format that, I think, could be used is converting calorie information ...

VISUAL: Close up of a plate of two wedge shaped slices of a two layer butter cake with chocolate centre between cake layers with white icing on top. The cake slices are lying untidily on the plate. A person’s hand takes a top part of a cake slice off the plate.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: ... into minutes you need to spend on the treadmill. So imagine you see a cake and you're thinking okay, that's 500 calories.

VISUAL: Video of two people running on treadmills in a gym in the background. The back wall of the gym has televisions along it. Other gym equipment eg steppers and stationary bikes are in the foreground.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: What does that really mean? Well, what if we translate that into that's going to be 60 minutes on the treadmill.

VISUAL: Dr Adrian Camilleri speaking to the camera.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: So that would be an example of good information design.

VISUAL: Same image as described above ie a computer generated room with a free standing wall near the back with hand drawn colourful images on it, exactly the same finished images as before. The title at the bottom of the free standing wall reads: Practical Examples.

(Ambient instrumental music playing)

VISUAL: Dr Adrian Camilleri speaking to the camera.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: So one of my favourite examples of information design is implemented by a company called Hipmunk.com, which is an online flight search company, and they present flight search results in terms of an agony score.

VISUAL: Camera pans across a close up of the Hipmunk website page which has a palm tree to the left of the screen. On the top right corner of the webpage is Hipmunk’s character/mascot - a cartoon character of a chipmunk wearing flying goggles and a scarf. Text at the top of the screen reads: The fastest, easiest way to plan travel. Underneath that are tabs which read: Flights, Hotels, Cars, Packages. The Flights tab is selected. Underneath that headings for options are: Roundtrip (which is selected), One-Way, Multi-City, Price Graph. Underneath that the search boxes left to right across the screen read: London; Cairo; May 01; May 03; 1 person, coach; and then at the end on the right is the Search button. At the bottom of the website screen are three circles with the cartoon chipmunk character in different colour images in the circles. Left to right across the bottom of the screen are: Chipmunk holding a magnifying glass labelled Best Selection; Chipmunk holding a wad of cash labelled Compare Prices; Chipmunk lying down holding graphs above his mouth labelled Easy to Use.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: And they calculate agony in terms of price, number of stops and duration of the trip and then they organise the search results in terms of ranking agony from least to worst.

VISUAL: Camera pans across and down on close up of the Hipmunk website showing the search results page. At the top left of the page is the company logo ie Hipmunk with the chipmunk character. Flights, Hotels, Cars, Packages Deals and an image of a mobile phone is across the top of the page. Next line down is an edit button then the search title: LON CAI RETURN (ie London to Cairo): Tue Jun 2 – Tue June 30, 2 people, Coach. At the far right end of the row there is another tab titled search hotels in Cairo, Egypt. Underneath that the search bar left to right reads: Sort: Agony (which is selected), Price, Duration, Takeoff, Landing. Filter with drop down menus for: Airlines; Airports; Stops. Nonstops: with a blank box. on a London to Cairo Tues June 30, 2 people, Coach. Underneath that, highlighted in green: Cheapest trip from $563.35 with EgyptAir and the travel dates and duration of flight. Underneath that are four other price options with a Book tab beside each of the flight options – the top two are with EgyptAir both for $1,360.06 and then two British flights – the first is the cheapest $563.35 option and then underneath that $619.94 for another British option.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: And so they do, basically, all of the work for you allowing the user to, basically, skip information integration stage and present the information as they require it up-front.

VISUAL: Dr Adrian Camilleri speaking to the camera.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: Another example of information design is shown on the new American fuel economy label, which was released last year, and it presents fuel economy information in terms of seven different metrics. For example, annual fuel ...

VISUAL: Camera pans left to right and down close up on parts of a webpage of the EPA DOT Fuel Economy and Environment. (The camera is so close that it is difficult for the typist to clearly describe this visual and there is also a lot of text on screen). Underneath the heading is Fuel Economy at 119 MPGe combined city/hwy (119 is in very large text). Smaller print beside that reads: Subcompact cars range from 14 to 119 MPG. The best vehicle rates 121 MPGe. Underneath that and beside the large 119 in smaller print are figures for city (128); highway (109) and kW-hrs per 100 miles (28). Underneath that: Driving Range, When fully charged, vehicle can travel about... 82 miles and Charge Time: 7 hours (240V). To the right of the screen text reads: You Save $9,000 in fuel costs over 5 years compared to the average new vehicle. At the bottom left of screen: Annual fuel cost $500. Bottom centre of the screen text reads: Fuel Economy & Greenhouse Gas Rating (tailpipe only) with a scale from 1 to 10 underneath that – 10 is highlighted and Best is written under it. Bottom right of the screen text reads: Smog Rating (tailpipe only) with another scale from 1 to 10 under that heading – 10 is again highlighted as Best. Text across the bottom centre and right of the screen reads: This vehicle emits 0 grams CO2 per mile. The best emits 0 grams per mile (tailpipe only). Producing and distributing fuel also creates emissions; learn more at fueleconomy.gov.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: ... cost, there's a greenhouse gas rating, there's miles per gallon, there's gallons per 100 miles; all of these pieces of information that are, actually ...

VISUAL: Camera pans over the bottom part of the screen (below the Annual fuel cost and Fuel Economy & Greenhouse Gas Rating scale and the Smog Rating scale) the text reads: Actual results will vary for many reasons, including driving conditions and how you drive and maintain your vehicle. The average new vehicle gets 23 MPG and costs $11,55 to fuel over 5 years. Cost estimates are based on 15,000 miles per year at $0.12 per KWhr. MPGe is miles per gasoline gallon equivalent. Vehicle emissions are a significant cause of climate change and smog. Underneath that at the very bottom of the screen is the website: fueleconomony.gov and text: Calculate personalized estimates and compare vehicles. Three different logos (unable to read due to small size) and on the bottom right is a Smartphone QR Code.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: ... the same piece of information just presented in different ways. And some research that I've done has shown that different people sort of focus on different parts of this information.

VISUAL: Same image as described above ie a computer generated room with a free standing wall near the back with hand drawn colourful images on it, exactly the same finished images as before. The title at the bottom of the free standing wall reads: Want More?

(Ambient instrumental music playing)

VISUAL: Dr Adrian Camilleri speaking to the camera.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: There are tonnes of academics who spend their entire lives dedicated to designing better information design and some of this has been written up in popular press. So one of the examples that I would recommend is ...

VISUAL: Camera pans in on the bright yellow cover of a book titled Nudge. A black silhouette of a mother elephant is walking behind a calf and nudging it with her trunk. The title written in black: Nudge is underneath that. Then underneath that written in red: Improving Decisions about Health Wealth and Happiness. Then the authors’ full names (written in blue). Then written in black: Revised and Expanded Edition. There are two more lines of black text underneath that but too small for typist to read.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: ... reading the book called 'Nudge' by Cass Sunstein and Dick Thaler and it has ...

VISUAL: Dr Adrian Camilleri speaking to the camera.

Dr Adrian Camilleri: ... a goldmine of information in there.

VISUAL: Centred on screen on a white background: RMIT University logo. And centred underneath that: www.rmit.edu.au.

End of video

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