Maeda's SIMPLICITY

The Greatest Diagram of 2004

Even Minard's Napoleon in Russia doesn't compare.

I admire the visual somersaults of Joshua Davis, the subtle humor in Ze Frank, and the digital refinement of Yugo Nakamura. I think that these people will be remembered in this century for having helped to humanize a medium that has no shape or form. I refer to the digital medium of course. In the past I once felt strongly that understanding computer codes was an important aspect to mastery of the medium. In the work of Davis, Frank, and Nakamura, their ability to work fluently in the medium of computation is definitely a driving factor in their successful endeavors.

Today I'm less curious about computation. I think in this new chapter of the digital medium, with computation as a kind of a fact more than a need to fulfill, there is definitely something coming. I sense its shape and form, and have a vague inkling of how it is to be constructed. It is almost there. I can see it.

I enjoy using flickr as the interface is simple. Many of its features I do not know how to use. I have a queue of many people that have sent me messages into my flickr account. I have so much e-mail in my other inboxes that I think I will never get to it. So it's not the communication side of flickr that I like. If anything, I like the diagram on the right. It is the overview of the top tags stored in the flickr database. As an information design piece, I think it is the greatest work of 2004 for sure. Just a tiny bit of computation is used ... just enough.

There are many things to admire about this format. Since it is about words, it uses some dimensions implicitly. For instance, it is alphabetized. The order makes complete sense. It is size-based and thus the dominant tags stand out clearly. It is read like a paragraph with its ragged-right margin. The data core is dynamic and thus we can predict different patterns, such as '2005' eventually becoming larger than '2004.' The diagram exudes warmth because it is about images of usually happy events. Some of the biggest tags are 'family,' 'vacation,' 'family,' and 'party.'

Images are so important to our lives. I never realized it fully until one of the students that I coach on my research team, Marc Schwartz, told me a story of how he used to volunteer in an urban complex for destitute people that were at the ends of their lives. He said how he was curious about what these people carried with them to the end of their life, after a lifetime of material things collected. They each had only one shelf to store their items. Marc said that on that shelf, you could usually find an image. A photograph of some memory that is cherished and dear to someone. A memory of their lifetime, to be remembered.

Thus there is something warm about this diagram on flickr that I admire. It has nothing to do with computation or digital this-that as it is the topic matter that is significant, and of course the method only enhances the content. Minard's map of Napoleon's Russia endeavor is no different—the topic matter always makes the meal. Both the flickr map and Minard's map are brilliant on many levels both rationally and emotionally. Is it a coincidence that 'flickr' can be construed as a warm flame that is flickering? Oh yes, and I'm not an investor in flickr so this is coming from the heart. Good day.

Thanks to Ben Kerney of California for pointing out that I was missing the link to the flickr tag page. He agreed that, "[the diagram] communicates volumes in a mind-bogglingly efficient way."

Posted by maeda at March 14, 2005 08:56 AM