(Photo by Robert Scoble)
Some key takeaways from the interview with Charles M. Blow, the visual op-ed columnist from the NY Times:
1) Keep it simple as possible while still visually representing information accurately.
“My thinking is (and the response has been) that my readers are not impressed by visual tricks. They want strong points that are easy to grasp.”
2) One of the best ways to understand stuff is to represent it visually. Not just for the consumer of the visual, but for the creator.
“This is the equivalent of a doctoral degree in current affairs and statistics.”
3) Visual representation is not in itself complicated and is very teachable (that’s a point Dan Roam makes in his book Back of the The Napkin). What is difficult is figuring out WHAT you should be displaying.
“when I hired new graphics editors, the first criteria had nothing to do with their sense of color and spacing or their ability to draw. The criterion at the top of my list was that they be smart and curious and dogged — reporters. You can teach a person which blue to use, but you can’t teach him or her to have a clue.”
Charles M. Blow’s work appears regularly on the op-ed page of the Times. Bonus: he blogs!
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