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musings on design, coding, manufacturing, fashion, and then some

Musings on visual and UX design, digital manufacturing, eco fashion, coding, and everything else in between and sideways.

 

Happy new year!

Leslie Yang

Can't believe it's 2015 already! I've never been big on resolutions but I do have one goal, which is to complete more projects. Here's what inspired me:

Infographics: A Designer's Approach and Best Practices

Leslie Yang

Just wrapped my first webinar on the topic of infographics. After spending years as an in-house designer, it was great to share all the ideas and insight I'd long wanted to offer to clients and non-designers. 

The presentation was for the California Pacific Public Health Training Center (CALPACT), Center for Health Leadership (CHL), UC Berkeley School of Public Health. 

Slides below. Here's the PDF.

I make a few points that aren’t in the deck:

  • Data visualization and infographics are often used interchangeably. For this presentation, I consider data visualization as the umbrella term for all visual interpretation of data, such as pie charts, line graphs, bar charts and so on. Infographics tell a story with data visuals.  
  • Design’s job isn’t only to “make it pretty.” True, it is important that the work we do be attractive, but more importantly good design is meant engage you, to compel you to take action. 
  • When I say visual elements, I mean shapes, color, text, and how you position them. (Designers don’t separate text or blocks of text as visual elements but for this audience of writers and advocates, I’ve kept them separate.)
  • Key to a good infographic, is a having a good data story. What's a story? A story is a narrative of what’s happening, narrowed down to the essential points.  
  • Data + visual elements = data story

I heard back from the meeting presenter and she said that I specifically got a ton of positive and glowing feedback from their post-presentation survey. :)

Happy lunar new year!

Leslie Yang

I’m Chinese American and while I'm not terribly superstitious, lately I've taken to thinking of each year as a different beast, full of new lessons and opportunities to learn different ways to approach challenges. This lunar year is the Year of the Wood Horse. Inspired by this article, I plan to imagine this year as a galloping horse; a force for change, inspiration, and positive energy:

The Horse is asking us to appreciate [life’s] changes and advance from them.  The energy of this upcoming year will NOT support you if you choose to be a victim.  You must become the change you wish to see in the world.  We are all connected and the simple acts of changing your attitude and behavior will have a great impact.  Be grateful and be mindful with all your actions and you will find that the horse will respond to you with great speed and exhilaration.

Happy new year!