In keeping with the subject of our book, Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, we wanted to see how the people that attended the event connected and what the network that formed would look like.

To do this we gave each attendee a sheet of stickers with a unique number on them.

We asked that each attendee exchange stickers with anyone they “linked” with and stick that person’s number on to the back of their sheet.

At the end of the night everyone turned in their sheets and I entered the data into Many Eyes, a new initiative by IBM’s Collaborative User Experience Visualization Lab whose purpose is to “democratize visualization and to enable a new social kind of data analysis.”

Looking at a visualization of these results is all the more interesting as I think back on the event and remember that each of my links was a real life connection with a real life person. For me, this is one of the awesome powers of visual communication. The image itself conveys information in a way that words simply could not. But on a more personal level graphic representations of ideas or memories provide a depth of understanding I just don’t get any other way.

As with most of the other people who read the book, I wonder how this new perspective and understanding about how networks form and work can be used in my design work. Will it allow me to devise a way for a network to grow or to remain healthy and vibrant? Can I use my new knowledge to make myself into a well-connected “hub” or identify existing hubs to become a more active and connected part of an existing network?

One thing I certainly got from the book was a new perspective on how the world works and there’s not too much more you can ask of a book, right?

Finally, to wrap this all up in a neat bow that ties together networks and the book club, head on over and join the new UX Book Club NYC Ning social network.

Looking forward to connecting with you.

- Ray

At New York City’s second VizThink event, veteran public speaker, Jonny Goldstein, will show you how to use visual thinking as one of your tools to create and deliver a powerful presentation.

By the end of the session, you will develop and deliver a 2 minute mini-presentation, with visuals, to a small group.

Special Guest: Heather Willems of Image Think will capture our session proceedings visually in a mural which she will create in real time. Check this video below for a demo of Heather and Nora creating graphic recordings.

Registration Deadline: Noon, Sept 22. We need to provide Liquidnet with a list of attendees in advance, which necessitates this deadline.

Date & Time
Thursday, 24 September 2009, 6:30 PM — 8:30 PM

Location
Liquidnet
498 Seventh Ave, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10019
Map

Space is limited. Register here
Please register by Tuesday, 22 September 2009, 12:00 PM

Once I got the paper and pen in their hands eveyrone understood the problem and we whipped up a potential solution in under two minutes.

What this really drove home for me is that visual communication is not art. It’s not infographics, slide decks, or process flows. It may even be downright ugly sometimes.

What it really is is a way of thinking and connecting. Neither person in the video is an artist (sorry Dad & Paul) and the final product could hardly be confused for art.. but I still find it beautiful.