information design patterns cookbook

6 May 2008

information_design_patterns.jpg
a sophisticated online collection of about 48 design patterns that describe distinct methods for the display of interactive information graphics, their active behavior as well as the forms of user interaction with them.

as part of the written thesis in Interface Design from Christian Behrens, a freelance interface designer in Berlin, the website aims to inform graphic designers who need to deal with complex tasks in the field of information design, but do not have any specific knowledge in statistics or data visualization. it is intended as an online "cookbook" that offers a set of tools & methods to cope with all common forms of data visualization, similar to design patterns in computer science, such as the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library.

each pattern consists of a text part that describes the general characteristics of the pattern, its required or appropriate data source, its generic application, & a discussion of the pattern's usage rationale. besides a real-world example, each pattern is accompanied by a layout that is based on an identical dataset, here the statistical yearbook of the City of Berlin.

Chris informed me there is the possibility to publish the thesis as a book. any interest from infosthetics readers?

[link: niceone.org|thnkx angus & Christian]

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aesthetic & infographic & infovis . comments (13)

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comments

Well, I'd be interested :)
How much would it cost?

Katharina Andresen . 6 May 2008

+1 would buy if not crazy expensive

binky . 6 May 2008

I would buy too if reasonably priced :)

Great work.

S . 6 May 2008

Thanks for your interest in my thesis. For the first four issues of the book I paid around 75 Euros per copy (for paper, laser printing and hardcover binding). That's quite of lot of money, but I'll try to find a cheaper solution depending on the number of potential orders.

In the long run, I'm currently checking possibilities to publish the thesis as a "real" book. If there's any news, I'll let you know.

Christian . 6 May 2008

I'd definitely be interested in a printed version for a reasonable price, though I do love the web interface too. I'm not really sure what a reasonable price is however.

Joga Luce . 7 May 2008

The book looks fantastic, great work christian you can tell you have put a lot of care and attention into the design of the book and the website. I'd love a copy. Let me know what your plans are regarding printing.

Matt Alcock . 7 May 2008

This is a fantastic piece of work!

Have you thought about giving Lulu [http://lulu.com] or Amazon's self-publishing services a try?

Adam J. McIntyre . 7 May 2008

I would love such a book, too. This is very impressive work, and I think it would make a valuable addition to the libraries of many who read this blog. It would certainly go on my shelf! :)

Dave P. . 7 May 2008

Great content. Too bad the site is done in flash. It's the perfect example of where the back button would be so very useful.

I'd definitely buy a the book though. I've been looking for something just like it. I have Information Graphics by Robert Harris but there's not that much information on each graph though there are certainly a lot of graphs.

Thomas . 7 May 2008

I would buy triplets :o) Very nice work..

Helge Tennø . 7 May 2008

i would definitely buy one...

and you could consider a print-on-demand service such as adam recommended.

anya farquhar . 7 May 2008

like some commenters already proposed, maybe self-publishing services might work well in this case? I personally thought of blurb.com. it would save you a lot of administration. infosthetics could be used for advertising.

infosthetics . 7 May 2008

very nice! i second (third?) the suggestion for a publish-on demand approach, at least for the first run. i hear good things about http://www.lulu.com.

Josh Cothran . 8 May 2008

shop

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