Archive: Dynamic Diagrams News
August 10, 2010, 9:42 am
Global Reach, Local Recognition
by Henry Woodbury
Recently Providence Business News ran a profile of Dynamic Diagrams, based on a visit to the company and an interview with our president, Tim Roy. Here, Tim explains the importance of our information architecture and visualization practice:
“People are dealing with 100,000 words per day coming at them,” Roy said, “and they spend on average almost 12 hours consuming information every day and most of that takes place in front of screens, whether it’s a computer screen, a smart phone or a television set.
“We believe this is too much information coming at people and what we’re really trying to do is help folks simplify the story, take all of this data and transform it into knowledge,” he said.
From our founding in 1990 by Krzysztof Lenk and Paul Kahn, we have been proud to call Providence home. We’ve been fortunate to work with many dynamic organizations in the city and region. And we’ve found this city a great base from which to take on projects from around the world.
July 29, 2010, 12:26 pm
Historic New England’s Collections Online
by Kirsten Robinson
The Portsmouth Herald has published an article about Historic New England’s new web site and online collections project, for which Dynamic Diagrams provided web strategy, information architecture and design services, as well as project management for the site’s development.
You can view the web site at www.historicnewengland.org or dive right into searching and browsing the online collections — full of photos, artifacts, and reference materials having to do with 400 years of New England History.
We’re currently in the final stage of the project, conducting usability tests on the new site.
July 19, 2010, 11:11 am
Review, Reuse, Inflate
by Henry Woodbury
One of our favorite design interns, Jonathan O’Conner is on to bigger things. Much bigger.
Last summer Jonathan helped us out with his 3D modeling skills on a 21 inch monitor. This summer, with a team of fellow industrial designers, he is figuring out how to reuse giant plastic billboard sheets.
Check out their blog for a look at their creative process (the multi-colored post-it notes look familiar), brainstorms, technical investigations, and prototypes.
May 27, 2010, 2:15 pm
Historic New England Web Site Goes Live
by Kirsten Robinson
Historic New England’s redesigned web site is now live at www.historicnewengland.org. Historic New England is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and presenting New England’s history. They own and operate 36 historic house museums, provide educational programming for adults and children, collect and conserve historic objects and archives, help preservation organizations and homeowners protect and maintain historic sites, and publish books and magazines about history and preservation.
Some highlights of the new site:
- Improved navigation and fresh visual design replaced a site that had grown organically over ten years.
- Greatly expanded content on historic properties, preservation, and more: site updates are completely under the control of Historic New England staff for the first time, through an easy-to-use content management system (CMS) called Plone.
- Online collections access: users can now browse and search Historic New England’s extensive collections of museum objects, archival materials, and books. Online exhibitions are also easier to create.
Users can search and browse the collections and archives
- Interactive events calendar allows users to browse events by date and location and then click through to the online shop for registration.
- Search engine provides quick access to site content and collection highlights from any page, and there are also specialized searches for collections and events.
- Galleries and slide shows are available throughout the site to better present Historic New England’s great photography. Here’s one about the animals at Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm.
- Multimedia is also supported, as seen in the Berlin & Coos County oral history project.
- Interactive map provides a visual overview of Historic New England’s 36 property locations.
Interactive map to Historic New England's 36 properties
- Integration with Historic New England’s online shop (developed by a third party) enables them to sell memberships, donations, event registrations, and merchandise. The shop integration will also enable single sign on between the site and the shop, allowing access to restricted content as well as member discounts on purchases.
- News has categories and feeds to position news appropriately throughout the site, and allows user commenting.
- Microsites enable visitors to rent properties for weddings and functions and to celebrate Historic New England’s centennial.
Home page for the Function Rentals microsite
Dynamic Diagrams has been working with Historic New England since January 2009 to define web strategy, information architecture, user experience, and visual design for the site. We worked with our development partners to implement the site using the Plone CMS, to convert legacy content, and to integrate the site visually and functionally with Historic New England’s online shop. We collaborated with our partners and Historic New England’s collections team to define and develop the Collections Access portal. Finally, we and our partners trained Historic New England staff authors on Plone and writing for the web, so that they could develop new content for the site and maintain it going forward.
We are thrilled to see the site go live and congratulate Historic New England on a successful launch.
May 25, 2010, 11:38 am
Saint Ginés Wins MUSE Award
by Henry Woodbury
Dynamic Diagrams and the J. Paul Getty Museum have won a 2010 Silver MUSE award for the Getty-produced video Making a Spanish Polychrome Sculpture. Dynamic Diagrams created the 3D animation that opens the video and shows how the XVII century sculpture was assembled. The Getty integrated this animation with live action footage that shows carving and surface treatment techniques. The effectiveness of this combination was noted by many of the judges:
This is a fine example of technology effectively used to clearly demonstrate an intricate artistic process. It’s the combination of the digital imagery with the live footage of an artist that makes this video exciting and fascinating for all kinds of audiences
The MUSE awards are presented annually by the American Association of Museums’ Media and Technology committee. They recognize “institutions or independent producers which use digital media to enhance the museum experience and engage new audiences.” We are proud to work with The Getty on projects of such scope and distinction.
May 19, 2010, 12:52 pm
Explore the Display Cabinet
by Henry Woodbury
One of the masterworks in The Getty Museum’s newly opened European sculpture and decorative arts galleries is the Augsburg Display Cabinet, a lavishly decorated 17th century cabinet that once would have stored a collector’s curios and precious objects.
The cabinet features many panels and doors beyond those opened for display. To give visitors a look inside the cabinet and help them understand the details of its decoration and construction, The Getty asked Dynamic Diagrams to create an interactive 3D model of the artifact.
Working closely with Getty curators and media professionals, we used a comprehensive set of photographs to build the model and apply surface details. We then coded our application to import text and zoomable images from an external source, allowing Getty staff full control over the descriptions and detail views that accompany the model.
Our application is presented in the gallery on a touchscreen display, as seen at right in this photo from the Daily News of Los Angeles.
April 8, 2010, 4:57 pm
Guest Teaching InfoViz
by Kirsten Robinson
Dr. Bill Gribbons at Bentley University recently invited Dynamic Diagrams to present some of our work to his Information Visualization class. The class is part of the Master’s degree program in Human Factors in Information Design, of which I’m an alumna.
After I gave a brief introduction to Dynamic Diagrams, Piotr took the spotlight, showing a wide variety of visual explanations from past and present projects. Examples included highly detailed web site inventories and architecture diagrams, process illustrations, data visualizations, and animated 3D models. While Piotr explained the challenges and design solutions for each project, I played Vanna White, zooming and scrolling so the students (some of whom were attending online) could see relevant sections.
It was a great experience for me to revisit some of the past work (Samsung Electronics, Holtzbrinck), and to understand some of the more recent work (Getty) in greater depth. There never seems to be enough time to sit back and appreciate our colleagues’ work during a normal workday.
Holtzbrinck web properties inventory
The best part was hearing the audible gasps as we revealed each new piece. As part of their coursework, students are required to create their own information displays, while also explaining the human factors (visual and cognitive) that help or hinder our ability to process them. I hope we were able to provide a bit of inspiration for their next projects!
February 20, 2010, 10:42 am
Visualizing More Affordable Care
by Henry Woodbury
The February 2010 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology features work by Dynamic Diagrams for an article titled Alternatives to a Routine Follow-Up Visit for Early Medical Abortion. The article describes a protocol for assessing a woman’s health after an abortion without routine use of ultrasonography. To quote from the abstract:
We constructed five model algorithms for evaluating women’s postabortion status, each using a different assortment of data. Four of the algorithms (algorithms 1–4) rely on data collected by the woman and on the results of the low-sensitivity pregnancy test. Algorithm 5 relies on the woman’s assessment, the results of the pregnancy test, and follow-up physician assessment (sometimes including bimanual or speculum examination).
A sponsor of the study, Gynuity Health Products, asked Dynamic Diagrams to visualize the data. Our explanation shows the results for the current standard of care and five algorithms tested by the researchers. For each approach we show the total number of cases, the number of women returning to a clinic for a follow-up visit, and the number of women receiving a follow-up ultrasound. In contrasting colors we show specific additional treatment cases in two columns; those identified by the protocol on the left vs. those not necessarily identified by the protocol on the right. In large type we provided the percentage of the number of follow-up ultrasounds to the total number of cases. This combination of rich data points and a key percentage makes it easy to compare the effectiveness of each algorithm. A sample of this visual language (without labels) is shown below:
While we cannot reprint the full text of article, we can provide the visual explanation used as Figure 2: Algorithms identifying women who received additional care after medical abortion (PDF, 409K).
February 15, 2010, 4:01 pm
Cressey Performance Web Site Relaunches
by Henry Woodbury
Our latest web site design is for Cressey Performance in nearby Hudson, Massachusetts. Cressey Performance is a weight-training gym with an international reputation for its work with competitive athletes, from youth sports to professionals. Directed by the highly-respected Eric Cressey, the facility is a go-to training destination for professional baseball players, including Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox, as well as other elite athletes such as 2010 USA Olympic Bobsledder Bree Schaaf.
The site is designed around a tight core of informational pages about the facility, while a new CP Blog provides an ongoing venue for current news, training videos, and links to the top stories at the separate blogs maintained by Eric Cressey and staff nutritionist Brian St. Pierre.
January 12, 2010, 11:13 am
Historic New England Centennial Site Now Live
by Kirsten Robinson
Historic New England has launched a Centennial microsite to celebrate their 100th year of preserving New England’s history and to highlight centennial projects that they are creating in conjunction with community partners throughout the New England states. Key site features include an events calendar, photo galleries and slide shows, and video oral histories.
Historic New England selected Dynamic Diagrams to create the user experience for the site (research, information architecture, visual design, and XHTML and CSS coding). We worked with our development partners to implement a Plone content management system (CMS) that provides Historic New England — for the first time — with complete control to create their own pages.
The Centennial site is also a preview of things to come. Watch this space for a future announcement of Historic New England’s redesigned and enhanced main web site.
December 8, 2009, 3:30 pm
Additional Features Launched on ipHandbook Site
by Lisa Agustin
Dynamic Diagrams is pleased to announce the latest release of the ipHandbook of Best Practices web site. An online resource for practitioners of intellectual property management, the initial site was based on a comprehensive printed Handbook and Executive Guide. Now, with support from the Concept Foundation, the latest iteration of the site includes:
- Selected video presentations from the Licensing Executives Society International annual meeting, created exclusively for the ipHandbook site
- Commenting and uploading capabilities to enable the larger community to contribute original content
- An updated Networking area with discussion forum functionality
- Country-specific intellectual property management resources for India and the Republic of Ghana, with more to follow
These latest additions will expand the ipHandbook site as a key resource for IP management, while enabling the creation of a global virtual community of IP and innovation managers, policymakers, scientists, and R&D leaders.
October 23, 2009, 3:45 pm
The Mummy Animation Joins the Mummy
by Henry Woodbury
At the J. Paul Getty Museum’s Getty Villa Malibu, our 3D animation of the of Mummy of Herakleides is now installed in the gallery:
It’s a perfect day for a trip to Malibu.
September 30, 2009, 9:10 am
TDR Launches New Interface Design
by Henry Woodbury
Today TDR updated their site with a new banner, color palette, and home page layout.
The design and roll out resulted from close partnership between TDR, Dynamic Diagrams, and other consultants. The result is a fresh look and a home page layout that reflects the evolving use of the site.
Co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank, and WHO, TDR, “funds research in infectious diseases of poverty, and provides support and training to researchers and institutions in the countries where these diseases occur.”
August 26, 2009, 1:29 pm
Mummy of Herakleides
by Henry Woodbury
The Mummy of Herakleides at the J. Paul Getty Museum’s Getty Villa Malibu is an Egyptian mummy from the Roman period (about A.D. 150). To explain the mummification process, the Getty asked Dynamic Diagrams to create a short movie for display in the gallery.
This particular mummy has several unique features, revealed by CT scans, including the removal of the heart (more commonly the lungs were removed) and the placement of a mummified ibis on the abdomen of Herakleides within the final wrapping.
Using 3D modeling software we animated the process by which the nearly 2000-year-old artifact was created. The final cut, with voice over, has now been posted to the Getty web site and YouTube:
May 12, 2009, 2:47 pm
Enhanced ipHandbook Web Site Launched
by Lisa Agustin
Dynamic Diagrams is pleased to announce the re-launch of the ipHandbook of Best Practices web site. Developed for practitioners of intellectual property management, the site first launched in 2007 with a comprehensive printed Handbook and Executive Guide serving as core content. Now, thanks to a new collaboration with the Concept Foundation and funding by the Rockefeller Foundation, the site has expanded to include multimedia content and tools that collectively result in a more dynamic experience. New offerings include:
- A growing collection of online video presentations, including several prepared specifically for the ipHandbook site
- Distance learning courses, including one prepared by and for the ipHandbook community in collaboration with UNIDO’s e-Biosafety Training Programme
- Integration of a Twitter feed for timely updates
- Integrated Google translation on each page
- Advanced search functionality
Over the next six months, additional features will be released, including networking functionality, discussion boards, and a feature for posting comments and uploading original content to the site. These enhancements will not only grow the site as an online resource, but also encourage the creation of a global virtual community of IP and innovation managers, policymakers, scientists, and R&D leaders.
March 20, 2009, 2:01 pm
Dynamic Diagrams at Etech 09
by Maia Garau
Last week I presented a tutorial at Etech on Holistic Service Prototyping with Matt Cottam, Jasper Speicher and Brian Hinch of Tellart. This tutorial built on the advanced studio Matt and I taught last semester in the Industrial Design department at RISD on the topic of Service Design. Services are by nature intangible and therefore present exciting new design challenges both in terms of communicating and developing service concepts. Through a combination of lectures and hands-on projects we explored a range of approaches with our students, from customer journeys and service blueprints to video and live enactment. Some of their work is featured here.
In addition to the key concepts and methods covered in our studio, the Etech tutorial introduced tools and techniques for building functional sketch models of web, mobile and embedded service experiences. Participants also played a brainstorming game we created that was partly inspired by Clue (“Professor Plum…. in the Library…. with a Candlestick”). They chose different combinations of users, contexts and tools to dream up new mobile and embedded service experiences, e.g. “Only child… on a road trip…. with an airflow sensor.” We have some video of the session and plan to post it soon.
February 18, 2009, 8:53 pm
3D Modeling Reveals Construction of Saint Ginés
by Henry Woodbury
In conjunction with a current exhibition of Luisa Roldana’s Saint Ginés de La Jara, the J. Paul Getty Museum created a video of the techniques used to create the medieval polychrome statue.
Dynamic Diagrams work is featured in the first section of the video, in which 3D modeling software is used to recreate the assembly of the XVII century wooden sculpture.
January 16, 2009, 4:46 pm
Dynamic Diagrams White Papers
by Henry Woodbury
For our recent Dynamic Diagrams site redesign we competely updated our two longstanding white papers (PDF format):
Why Your Ideas Need Visual Explanation and
Why Your Online Projects Need Information Architecture
Today we added our most recent white paper to the site:
Why Your Sales and Marketing Communciations Need Visual Explanation
With analysis and examples, this paper rounds out our presentation of how our approach delivers tangible benefits to business. We welcome your perusal and feedback.
October 31, 2008, 10:51 am
Dynamic Diagrams Poster Part of Award-Winning Conference Presentation
by Mac McBurney
Congratulations to Colette Hannan on winning the Young Scientist Award for best poster presentation at the 17th International Conference of Racing Analysts and Veterinarians. Colette won the award for her presentation, “Controlling therapeutic substances – a European harmonised approach: Determination of the detection time for lidocaine following an administration to horses.”
Dynamic Diagrams designed posters for five research studies conducted by BHP Labs in Limerick, Ireland, where Colette works as a chemist. The studies tracked how long drugs like lidocaine and morphine remain — or remain detectable — in race horses. These drugs are legitimate veterinary medications, but they’re a big no-no if your horse tests positive on race day.
The posters present research data and findings to a scientific audience, so we retained the organizing principles of a scientific poster or paper (methods, results, conclusions). In the central graphs, a circular blow-up shows the data of greatest interest. A timeline down the center shows when blood and urine samples were collected from the horses.
October 27, 2008, 11:54 am
Dynamic Diagrams Relaunches Web Site
by Henry Woodbury
We have redesigned our company web site: www.dynamicdiagrams.com.
Our core skills remain the same: information architecture, visual explanation, interface design, usability consulting, and web development. With the site redesign, we focus more strongly on how these disciplines benefit our clients.
Sell with substance shows how a structured approach to information coupled with innovative design can refresh sales tools, bring clarity to corporate communications, and help business and organizations sell complex products and services to a skeptical world.
Explain with clarity shows how visual explanation helps organizations conceptualize big-picture strategies, visualize project plans, and illuminate complex initiatives. The result is better executive decision-making, faster buy-in by stakeholders and customers, and improved project planning.
Create with confidence shows how our information architecture, interface design, and development know-how generates better outcomes for web and interactive design projects, whether a full-fledged concept-to-launch initiative, or user-centered improvements to an existing site or product.
Our About d/D section describes who we are, including a new look at our approach and team.
Please use the comments to tell us what you like, what you would change, and if there is any information you would like us to add to the site.
October 9, 2008, 11:13 am
Dynamic Diagrams Project for the World Health Organization Goes Live
by Lisa Agustin
The World Health Organization’s Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) unveiled its new corporate web site this week.
Although the existing site had much to offer, users had difficulty finding the information they needed (namely grant opportunties and TDR research publications), and the client felt that TDR’s contributions were buried. The redesigned site features a new information architecture that makes key content easier to find, while highlighting TDR’s accomplishments and new business strategy.
February 7, 2008, 1:02 pm
Dynamic Diagrams Has Moved
by Henry Woodbury
Our new address is:
111 Chestnut Street
Providence R1 02903
Our email, internet address, and phone numbers have stayed the same.
January 2, 2008, 11:10 am
American Physical Society Launches Dynamic Diagrams Redesign of Physical Review Letters
by Lisa Agustin
The American Physical Society’s flagship journal, Physical Review Letters, has a new look and feel, thanks to a redesign by Dynamic Diagrams. Along with an updated masthead, the redesign features clearer navigation options, quick access to content from the current issue via a tabbed interface, and a snapshot of the latest news and most cited papers. As part of the PRL redesign, Dynamic Diagrams also designed a sub-site to commemorate the journal’s 50th anniversary, which includes an interactive timeline of notable papers and events since 1893. PRL’s new visual design is part of a larger effort to create a new visual design system that will be applied to eight additional journals and the APS Journals umbrella site. Redesigned versions of these sites will be launched in the coming months.
November 26, 2007, 3:18 pm
Dynamic Diagrams’ Project Wins Award
by Lisa Agustin
WaveNet, Sentara Healthcare’s employee Intranet, recently received a Gold “eHealthcare Leadership Award” for Best Intranet Site from publisher Strategic Health Care Communications. As with many Intranets, WaveNet is not so much a single web site as a collection of sub-sites produced for business units, internal programs, and promotional efforts. Dynamic Diagrams helped improve WaveNet by creating an information architecture that is more intuitive, making it easier for users to find information, but also standardized and modular–a plus for developers who are implementing new sub-sites. Using our final information architecture and supporting wireframes, Sentara created page designs which we then reviewed to ensure that they followed best practices for usability.
November 12, 2007, 10:37 am
Dynamic Diagrams Launches Two Web Sites
by Lisa Agustin
Two web sites created by Dynamic Diagrams were launched last month at the annual Global Forum for Health Research in Beijing.
The IP Handbook of Best Practices is an intellectual property management resource for policy makers, technology transfer professionals, licensing executives, and scientific researchers. Core to the web site is the Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices, a printed text comprised of 153 chapters covering a variety of topics ranging from subject overviews (e.g., technology evaluation and valuation) to more practical concerns (e.g., contracts and agreements). The IP Handbook site leverages the capabilities of the web by enabling users to explore content based on their audience role with links to user-specific site and topic guides, and a blog for keeping up to date on the latest IP management news and views. The handbook also takes advantage of existing IP-related resources, with links to networking opportunities, training programs, publications, and IP-related databases. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the site was developed with MIHR (the Centre for Management of Intellectual Property in Health Research and Development) and PIPRA (The Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture).
The Tropical Diseases Research to Foster Innovation and Knowledge Application web site, or TropIKA, is a global knowledge management electronic portal for sharing essential information and facilitating identification of priority needs and major research gaps in the field of infectious diseases of poverty. Areas of knowledge include: public health research needs and scientific opportunities; research-based evidence in support of control and policy; high profile research activities and control projects; international research funding and support opportunities; and potential innovations for interventions and control of infectious diseases of poverty. Intended for policy makers and research scientists, the site offers research, news, commissioned thematic reviews, virtual journals, policy and strategy briefs, funding opportunities, networks (communities of practice, forums) and resources (training packages, factual databases, multimedia). To help users access specialized content quickly, the site offers a mechanism for filtering content across multiple diseases, content types, and geographic regions. This site was developed under the leadership of the World Health Organization’s Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR).
We are grateful to the project team members that made these endeavors a success, especially those at Frederick Toth & Associates, Inc., our development partner for both projects.
May 10, 2007, 8:32 pm
St Andrews Relaunches Web Site with Information Architecture by Dynamic Diagrams
by Mac McBurney
Our collaboration with the University of St Andrews was an important reminder about organizations and their information: Good information architecture is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Copious, heterogeneous, complex information tends to come from organizations of similar description, so improving the web site–especially the public web site–means getting intimate with the culture and politics of the organization.
Luckily, our colleagues at St Andrews understood their new information architecture as a process, not an event. They involved people from across the university, took the time to understand the reasons behind our recommendations, and called on us to help educate stakeholders about our plans. The project was part town meeting, part information architecture crash course, not to mention figuring out where to put all those web pages.
Structurally, the relaunched web site is a radical departure from the old. (The 404 error page gives a hint.) Previously, the university’s many administrative offices had each looked after their own presence on the web, and the site became–for good and understandable reasons–a daunting, overgrown web-site-as-org-chart. The new information architecture makes two important changes. First, the site represents the character and vitality of the institution as a whole, not just the individual parts. Second, no prior knowledge of the university’s bureaucracy is required. Content is organized according to its audience, not its author. The home page and its subsidiaries are tailored for outside audiences and infrequent visitors. Alternate home pages, a completely separate system of categories, and different navigation and interface designs are provided for current students and staff.
To see photos of a sunny day in Scotland and read about our presentation last June (and other tales) from someone on the client’s side, check out Gareth Saunders’ personal blog, View from the Potting Shed.
November 16, 2006, 10:59 am
Dynamic Diagrams Project Wins eHealthcare Leadership Awards
by Lisa Agustin
Sentara Healthcare, a healthcare organization based in southeastern Virginia, recently received two eHealthcare Leadership Awards for its public-facing web site, Sentara.com.
The site received the awards from eHealthcare Strategy & Trends magazine in the categories of “Best Quality Communication” and “Best Overall Internet Site” for a healthcare system. Dynamic Diagrams partnered with Sentara to create a new information architecture and supporting visual design, with the goal of enabling deeper online interaction between patients and the Sentara organization.
The redesign was also an early step in the organization’s plan for a role-based enterprise portal, which will eventually merge Sentara.com with the organization’s employee and provider intranet sites, and the public site for its health insurance plan, Optima Health.
October 5, 2006, 9:20 am
Photographs by Piotr Kaczmarek
by Henry Woodbury
The new issue of New, the “Irregular Literary Poetry Avant Garde Art Magazine” edited by Dynamic Diagrams’ founder, Paul Kahn, features photographs by our Creative Director Piotr Kaczmarek:
I chose the leafless trees as a subject because I was interested in a clear visual representation of a complex structure; starting from the high level of defined spaces between tree canopies, then the obvious organization of branches, and patterns of twigs. I like the drawing-like line qualities of the subject. What the collages are after is to reveal the fractal nature of these organic shapes.
