From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment.jpg From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0001.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0001.jpg From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0002.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0002.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0001.htm From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0004.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0004.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0002.htm From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0005.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0005.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0003.htm From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0006.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0006.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0004.htm From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0007.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0007.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0005.htm From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0008.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0008.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0006.htm From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0009.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0009.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0007.htm From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0010.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0010.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0008.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment.htm From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0011.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0011.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0009.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0001.htm From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0012.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0012.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0010.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0002.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment.htm From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0013.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0013.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0011.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0004.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0001.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; the Labour party have > adopted Robert Cialdini's > Influence). What a fascinating tidbit! Over here, many conservatives are suspicious even of "nudges," especially when emanating from government sources. If they thought congressional democrats were using Cialdini's "scientifically proven ways to be persuasive" on them -- funded by taxpayer dollars -- the new Tea Party probably could foment a 2nd American Revolution! ;-) > Looking back at old film > footage (1940s and 50s, > rarely a bulge in sight > during and after war-time > rationing) I think supply > may be the only answer, > and limited access to > motorised transport. For some demographics (Information Designers, say? ;-), you may be right. However, in the U.S., there are way too many communities where there is a lot more hunger than food. Yet, even in areas where poverty has already limited the food supply, obesity and diseases such as diabetes are still prevalent. Similarly, there are communities in the U.S. with surprisingly little motorized transport, which brings on its own health issues, as pointed out by the activist Bus Riders Union (an arm of the progressive-to-left, multicultural Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles), which first organized in 1995 around the link it saw between environmental racism and racism in L.A.'s mass transportation policies (e.g., in 1997, their "Fight for the Night" street demonstration and other activism forced L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reinstate night time bus service cuts). And in 2005, BRU launched its "Clean Air Clean Lungs Clean Buses" campaign, "linking the fights against air toxins and climate change gases -- where L.A.'s auto system is a major source for both -- to the fight for a world class, bus-centered transit system." (If anyone's interested, their report _The Bus Riders Union Transit Model: Why a Bus-Centered System Will Best Serve U.S. Cities_, authored by "new urbanist" transportation planner Ryan Snyder, is available online at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/ ). So not everyone lives in idyllic neighborhoods where it's safe to saunter down to the corner store for groceries ... assuming there even is a corner store in the neighborhood that sells unprocessed foods. Moreover, researchers are learning that obesity (yet another complex & "contested" modern medical condition/identity, as Obama and Lehrer circled around in the _PBS NewsHour_ interview) is probably more dynamic and on the move than most of us are, even when we do get enough exercise. Here, I'm thinking not only of the very *active* role played by lipids in the human body, and the new thinking that, as with cholesterol, there is "good" and "bad" body fat (e.g., from a 14 Aug. 2005 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_: "For all the women who look down on their ample thighs with loathing: Fret no more. There is new reason to love that dimpled plumpness. "For many people, mainly women, fat on legs, hips and buttocks may help ward off heart disease and diabetes, recent research suggests. ... When women were also heavy above the waist, most advantages of the leg fat vanished, but thick thighs still improved their scores on triglycerides, potentially harmful fats in the blood." ), but also of new research on childhood obesity showing how it causes actual, lasting changes to human biochemistry: "Science is helping doctors better understand why many youngsters and adults can't seem to shed pounds through diet and exercise once they've packed on an excessive amount of weight. "'It turns out that once you're about 100 pounds over your ideal body weight, your body has reset its thermostat,' said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon in San Diego. "The process works this way: Overeating produces an oversupply of insulin, which causes the body to use more of its energy to store fat. That tricks the body into thinking it's being starved when it isn't. The body responds by lowering physical activity, increasing hunger pangs and converting even more energy into fat. "'This is not about a habit that has gone bad. This is about a physiological illness,' Bhoyrul said." (from 21 Sept. 2008 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_) + "If you look at children at the age of two or three, they compensate. If you give them more calories in one meal, they'll eat less later in the day. But if they get exposed to sugar, fat, and salt all day for a few years, they lose the ability to compensate. By age four or five, they're eating all the time." (David Kessler, from interview with the editors of _Nutrition Action_, July/August 2009 issue) I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. ... which is why I think *education* (of children and adults), followed by community-based solutions & initiatives, supported in turn by judicious state and federal policies & wise use of resources, remains our best strategy for going forward. I still believe that it's the "nudges" we come up with for ourselves (rather than having others manipulate us from on high) which have the best chance of working. E.g., not every "nudge" recommended by Tufts University's Susan Roberts (author of _The Instinct Diet_) is going to work equally well for each of us. I don't see myself pouring water over the leftover French Fries on my dinner plate when eating out at a restaurant, which is one of her 5 tips for fighting "restaurant syndrome": "1. NIP NEGATIVE CYCLES IN THE BUD. After an indulgent night of eating out, start your day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. "2. EAT OUT LESS FREQUENTLY, EVEN IF YOU GO OUT JUST AS OFTEN. Try eating at home before a social event, then just nibble lightly while being sociable. "3. NEVER ARRIVE STARVING. Snack on something satisfying before you eat out, such as an apple. "4. MICROMANAGE YOUR ORDER. Be specific about what you want, from salad dressing on the side to no cheese atop the French onion soup. "5. TAKE CONTROL OVER THE SIGNALS YOUR EYES AND NOSE SEND YOUR BRAIN. Drape a napkin over the bread basket. Spill some water on those leftover fries." But I do see myself beginning every day after a night of indulgence with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. Best of all, it's nice to know enough to be able to pick-and-choose from lots of options, and make my own trade-offs like this. Too often, we just don't have enough information to be able to exercise real choice. Strictly speaking, I suppose the many tactical interventions suggested by David Kessler in _The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite_ aren't really "nudges" either, because they require mindfulness at the point of execution. Kessler's guide to making it through "Food Rehab" and resisting the pull of unhealthy foods asks us to act preemptively on ourselves. E.g., "1. REPLACE CHAOS WITH STRUCTURE. Determine ahead of time what you'll eat for meals and snacks. Block out everything else. "2. PRACTICE JUST-RIGHT EATING. Figure out how much food you need. (Odds are, it's less than you think.) Put it on your plate and don't go back for more. "3. PICK FOODS THAT WILL SATISFY, NOT STIMULATE, YOU. What satisfies you is personal, but try foods that occur in nature, like whole grains, beans, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit, combined with lean protein and a small amount of fat. "4. REHEARSE. Anticipate your moves like an elite athlete before a competition. For example, tell yourself, 'If I encounter chocolate-covered pretzels, I'll keep walking.' "5. SEIZE CONTROL. Stay alert to emotional stressors or other stimuli that trigger automatic behavior. Recognize emotions (like sadness, fatigue, or anxiety) that might lead you to overeat. "6. STOP THAT THOUGHT. Change the channel. Turn off the image of the trigger food before you start to debate whether to eat it. "7. THINK NEGATIVE. Pair the unhealthy food with a stream of (unappealing) images. 'That's the flip side of what advertising agencies do when they link an Olympic athlete to a pair of sneakers or an attractive woman to a new piece of technology,' says Kessler." But re-designing food labels for better information transparency at the point of sale -- in line with Kessler's warning about misleading obfuscation in _The End of Overeating_ -- *would* probably qualify as a "nudge" I think: "'If a food contains more sugar than any other ingredient, federal regulations dictate that sugar be listed first on the label. But if a food contains several different kinds of sweeteners, they can be listed separately, which pushes each one farther down the list.' Breakfast cereals, for example, often include a combination of sugar, brown sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey and molasses -- in part so moms looking at the labels don't spot 'sugar' as the top ingredient." (from the Special Supplement to Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ for Aug. 2009) Imagine if the "Ingredients" label on U.S. processed foods -- currently printed in small, sans serif, ALL CAPS right-justified type, with minimal leading, thus making the block paragraph as hard as possible to read in full, and requiring many mothers and grandmothers to get out their reading glasses in the supermarket aisle even to attempt it -- was redesigned as a folksonomy "tag" cloud ... or given an eye-catching graphic treatment like a simple bar chart.... These would be regulated "nudges" I think even the most wary of us could support. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0014.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0014.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0012.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0005.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0002.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; the Labour party have > adopted Robert Cialdini's > Influence). What a fascinating tidbit! Over here, many conservatives are suspicious even of "nudges," especially when emanating from government sources. If they thought congressional democrats were using Cialdini's "scientifically proven ways to be persuasive" on them -- funded by taxpayer dollars -- the new Tea Party probably could foment a 2nd American Revolution! ;-) > Looking back at old film > footage (1940s and 50s, > rarely a bulge in sight > during and after war-time > rationing) I think supply > may be the only answer, > and limited access to > motorised transport. For some demographics (Information Designers, say? ;-), you may be right. However, in the U.S., there are way too many communities where there is a lot more hunger than food. Yet, even in areas where poverty has already limited the food supply, obesity and diseases such as diabetes are still prevalent. Similarly, there are communities in the U.S. with surprisingly little motorized transport, which brings on its own health issues, as pointed out by the activist Bus Riders Union (an arm of the progressive-to-left, multicultural Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles), which first organized in 1995 around the link it saw between environmental racism and racism in L.A.'s mass transportation policies (e.g., in 1997, their "Fight for the Night" street demonstration and other activism forced L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reinstate night time bus service cuts). And in 2005, BRU launched its "Clean Air Clean Lungs Clean Buses" campaign, "linking the fights against air toxins and climate change gases -- where L.A.'s auto system is a major source for both -- to the fight for a world class, bus-centered transit system." (If anyone's interested, their report _The Bus Riders Union Transit Model: Why a Bus-Centered System Will Best Serve U.S. Cities_, authored by "new urbanist" transportation planner Ryan Snyder, is available online at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/ ). So not everyone lives in idyllic neighborhoods where it's safe to saunter down to the corner store for groceries ... assuming there even is a corner store in the neighborhood that sells unprocessed foods. Moreover, researchers are learning that obesity (yet another complex & "contested" modern medical condition/identity, as Obama and Lehrer circled around in the _PBS NewsHour_ interview) is probably more dynamic and on the move than most of us are, even when we do get enough exercise. Here, I'm thinking not only of the very *active* role played by lipids in the human body, and the new thinking that, as with cholesterol, there is "good" and "bad" body fat (e.g., from a 14 Aug. 2005 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_: "For all the women who look down on their ample thighs with loathing: Fret no more. There is new reason to love that dimpled plumpness. "For many people, mainly women, fat on legs, hips and buttocks may help ward off heart disease and diabetes, recent research suggests. ... When women were also heavy above the waist, most advantages of the leg fat vanished, but thick thighs still improved their scores on triglycerides, potentially harmful fats in the blood." ), but also of new research on childhood obesity showing how it causes actual, lasting changes to human biochemistry: "Science is helping doctors better understand why many youngsters and adults can't seem to shed pounds through diet and exercise once they've packed on an excessive amount of weight. "'It turns out that once you're about 100 pounds over your ideal body weight, your body has reset its thermostat,' said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon in San Diego. "The process works this way: Overeating produces an oversupply of insulin, which causes the body to use more of its energy to store fat. That tricks the body into thinking it's being starved when it isn't. The body responds by lowering physical activity, increasing hunger pangs and converting even more energy into fat. "'This is not about a habit that has gone bad. This is about a physiological illness,' Bhoyrul said." (from 21 Sept. 2008 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_) + "If you look at children at the age of two or three, they compensate. If you give them more calories in one meal, they'll eat less later in the day. But if they get exposed to sugar, fat, and salt all day for a few years, they lose the ability to compensate. By age four or five, they're eating all the time." (David Kessler, from interview with the editors of _Nutrition Action_, July/August 2009 issue) I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. ... which is why I think *education* (of children and adults), followed by community-based solutions & initiatives, supported in turn by judicious state and federal policies & wise use of resources, remains our best strategy for going forward. I still believe that it's the "nudges" we come up with for ourselves (rather than having others manipulate us from on high) which have the best chance of working. E.g., not every "nudge" recommended by Tufts University's Susan Roberts (author of _The Instinct Diet_) is going to work equally well for each of us. I don't see myself pouring water over the leftover French Fries on my dinner plate when eating out at a restaurant, which is one of her 5 tips for fighting "restaurant syndrome": "1. NIP NEGATIVE CYCLES IN THE BUD. After an indulgent night of eating out, start your day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. "2. EAT OUT LESS FREQUENTLY, EVEN IF YOU GO OUT JUST AS OFTEN. Try eating at home before a social event, then just nibble lightly while being sociable. "3. NEVER ARRIVE STARVING. Snack on something satisfying before you eat out, such as an apple. "4. MICROMANAGE YOUR ORDER. Be specific about what you want, from salad dressing on the side to no cheese atop the French onion soup. "5. TAKE CONTROL OVER THE SIGNALS YOUR EYES AND NOSE SEND YOUR BRAIN. Drape a napkin over the bread basket. Spill some water on those leftover fries." But I do see myself beginning every day after a night of indulgence with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. Best of all, it's nice to know enough to be able to pick-and-choose from lots of options, and make my own trade-offs like this. Too often, we just don't have enough information to be able to exercise real choice. Strictly speaking, I suppose the many tactical interventions suggested by David Kessler in _The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite_ aren't really "nudges" either, because they require mindfulness at the point of execution. Kessler's guide to making it through "Food Rehab" and resisting the pull of unhealthy foods asks us to act preemptively on ourselves. E.g., "1. REPLACE CHAOS WITH STRUCTURE. Determine ahead of time what you'll eat for meals and snacks. Block out everything else. "2. PRACTICE JUST-RIGHT EATING. Figure out how much food you need. (Odds are, it's less than you think.) Put it on your plate and don't go back for more. "3. PICK FOODS THAT WILL SATISFY, NOT STIMULATE, YOU. What satisfies you is personal, but try foods that occur in nature, like whole grains, beans, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit, combined with lean protein and a small amount of fat. "4. REHEARSE. Anticipate your moves like an elite athlete before a competition. For example, tell yourself, 'If I encounter chocolate-covered pretzels, I'll keep walking.' "5. SEIZE CONTROL. Stay alert to emotional stressors or other stimuli that trigger automatic behavior. Recognize emotions (like sadness, fatigue, or anxiety) that might lead you to overeat. "6. STOP THAT THOUGHT. Change the channel. Turn off the image of the trigger food before you start to debate whether to eat it. "7. THINK NEGATIVE. Pair the unhealthy food with a stream of (unappealing) images. 'That's the flip side of what advertising agencies do when they link an Olympic athlete to a pair of sneakers or an attractive woman to a new piece of technology,' says Kessler." But re-designing food labels for better information transparency at the point of sale -- in line with Kessler's warning about misleading obfuscation in _The End of Overeating_ -- *would* probably qualify as a "nudge" I think: "'If a food contains more sugar than any other ingredient, federal regulations dictate that sugar be listed first on the label. But if a food contains several different kinds of sweeteners, they can be listed separately, which pushes each one farther down the list.' Breakfast cereals, for example, often include a combination of sugar, brown sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey and molasses -- in part so moms looking at the labels don't spot 'sugar' as the top ingredient." (from the Special Supplement to Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ for Aug. 2009) Imagine if the "Ingredients" label on U.S. processed foods -- currently printed in small, sans serif, ALL CAPS right-justified type, with minimal leading, thus making the block paragraph as hard as possible to read in full, and requiring many mothers and grandmothers to get out their reading glasses in the supermarket aisle even to attempt it -- was redesigned as a folksonomy "tag" cloud ... or given an eye-catching graphic treatment like a simple bar chart.... These would be regulated "nudges" I think even the most wary of us could support. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0015.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0015.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0013.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0006.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0003.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; the Labour party have > adopted Robert Cialdini's > Influence). What a fascinating tidbit! Over here, many conservatives are suspicious even of "nudges," especially when emanating from government sources. If they thought congressional democrats were using Cialdini's "scientifically proven ways to be persuasive" on them -- funded by taxpayer dollars -- the new Tea Party probably could foment a 2nd American Revolution! ;-) > Looking back at old film > footage (1940s and 50s, > rarely a bulge in sight > during and after war-time > rationing) I think supply > may be the only answer, > and limited access to > motorised transport. For some demographics (Information Designers, say? ;-), you may be right. However, in the U.S., there are way too many communities where there is a lot more hunger than food. Yet, even in areas where poverty has already limited the food supply, obesity and diseases such as diabetes are still prevalent. Similarly, there are communities in the U.S. with surprisingly little motorized transport, which brings on its own health issues, as pointed out by the activist Bus Riders Union (an arm of the progressive-to-left, multicultural Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles), which first organized in 1995 around the link it saw between environmental racism and racism in L.A.'s mass transportation policies (e.g., in 1997, their "Fight for the Night" street demonstration and other activism forced L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reinstate night time bus service cuts). And in 2005, BRU launched its "Clean Air Clean Lungs Clean Buses" campaign, "linking the fights against air toxins and climate change gases -- where L.A.'s auto system is a major source for both -- to the fight for a world class, bus-centered transit system." (If anyone's interested, their report _The Bus Riders Union Transit Model: Why a Bus-Centered System Will Best Serve U.S. Cities_, authored by "new urbanist" transportation planner Ryan Snyder, is available online at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/ ). So not everyone lives in idyllic neighborhoods where it's safe to saunter down to the corner store for groceries ... assuming there even is a corner store in the neighborhood that sells unprocessed foods. Moreover, researchers are learning that obesity (yet another complex & "contested" modern medical condition/identity, as Obama and Lehrer circled around in the _PBS NewsHour_ interview) is probably more dynamic and on the move than most of us are, even when we do get enough exercise. Here, I'm thinking not only of the very *active* role played by lipids in the human body, and the new thinking that, as with cholesterol, there is "good" and "bad" body fat (e.g., from a 14 Aug. 2005 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_: "For all the women who look down on their ample thighs with loathing: Fret no more. There is new reason to love that dimpled plumpness. "For many people, mainly women, fat on legs, hips and buttocks may help ward off heart disease and diabetes, recent research suggests. ... When women were also heavy above the waist, most advantages of the leg fat vanished, but thick thighs still improved their scores on triglycerides, potentially harmful fats in the blood." ), but also of new research on childhood obesity showing how it causes actual, lasting changes to human biochemistry: "Science is helping doctors better understand why many youngsters and adults can't seem to shed pounds through diet and exercise once they've packed on an excessive amount of weight. "'It turns out that once you're about 100 pounds over your ideal body weight, your body has reset its thermostat,' said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon in San Diego. "The process works this way: Overeating produces an oversupply of insulin, which causes the body to use more of its energy to store fat. That tricks the body into thinking it's being starved when it isn't. The body responds by lowering physical activity, increasing hunger pangs and converting even more energy into fat. "'This is not about a habit that has gone bad. This is about a physiological illness,' Bhoyrul said." (from 21 Sept. 2008 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_) + "If you look at children at the age of two or three, they compensate. If you give them more calories in one meal, they'll eat less later in the day. But if they get exposed to sugar, fat, and salt all day for a few years, they lose the ability to compensate. By age four or five, they're eating all the time." (David Kessler, from interview with the editors of _Nutrition Action_, July/August 2009 issue) I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. ... which is why I think *education* (of children and adults), followed by community-based solutions & initiatives, supported in turn by judicious state and federal policies & wise use of resources, remains our best strategy for going forward. I still believe that it's the "nudges" we come up with for ourselves (rather than having others manipulate us from on high) which have the best chance of working. E.g., not every "nudge" recommended by Tufts University's Susan Roberts (author of _The Instinct Diet_) is going to work equally well for each of us. I don't see myself pouring water over the leftover French Fries on my dinner plate when eating out at a restaurant, which is one of her 5 tips for fighting "restaurant syndrome": "1. NIP NEGATIVE CYCLES IN THE BUD. After an indulgent night of eating out, start your day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. "2. EAT OUT LESS FREQUENTLY, EVEN IF YOU GO OUT JUST AS OFTEN. Try eating at home before a social event, then just nibble lightly while being sociable. "3. NEVER ARRIVE STARVING. Snack on something satisfying before you eat out, such as an apple. "4. MICROMANAGE YOUR ORDER. Be specific about what you want, from salad dressing on the side to no cheese atop the French onion soup. "5. TAKE CONTROL OVER THE SIGNALS YOUR EYES AND NOSE SEND YOUR BRAIN. Drape a napkin over the bread basket. Spill some water on those leftover fries." But I do see myself beginning every day after a night of indulgence with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. Best of all, it's nice to know enough to be able to pick-and-choose from lots of options, and make my own trade-offs like this. Too often, we just don't have enough information to be able to exercise real choice. Strictly speaking, I suppose the many tactical interventions suggested by David Kessler in _The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite_ aren't really "nudges" either, because they require mindfulness at the point of execution. Kessler's guide to making it through "Food Rehab" and resisting the pull of unhealthy foods asks us to act preemptively on ourselves. E.g., "1. REPLACE CHAOS WITH STRUCTURE. Determine ahead of time what you'll eat for meals and snacks. Block out everything else. "2. PRACTICE JUST-RIGHT EATING. Figure out how much food you need. (Odds are, it's less than you think.) Put it on your plate and don't go back for more. "3. PICK FOODS THAT WILL SATISFY, NOT STIMULATE, YOU. What satisfies you is personal, but try foods that occur in nature, like whole grains, beans, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit, combined with lean protein and a small amount of fat. "4. REHEARSE. Anticipate your moves like an elite athlete before a competition. For example, tell yourself, 'If I encounter chocolate-covered pretzels, I'll keep walking.' "5. SEIZE CONTROL. Stay alert to emotional stressors or other stimuli that trigger automatic behavior. Recognize emotions (like sadness, fatigue, or anxiety) that might lead you to overeat. "6. STOP THAT THOUGHT. Change the channel. Turn off the image of the trigger food before you start to debate whether to eat it. "7. THINK NEGATIVE. Pair the unhealthy food with a stream of (unappealing) images. 'That's the flip side of what advertising agencies do when they link an Olympic athlete to a pair of sneakers or an attractive woman to a new piece of technology,' says Kessler." But re-designing food labels for better information transparency at the point of sale -- in line with Kessler's warning about misleading obfuscation in _The End of Overeating_ -- *would* probably qualify as a "nudge" I think: "'If a food contains more sugar than any other ingredient, federal regulations dictate that sugar be listed first on the label. But if a food contains several different kinds of sweeteners, they can be listed separately, which pushes each one farther down the list.' Breakfast cereals, for example, often include a combination of sugar, brown sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey and molasses -- in part so moms looking at the labels don't spot 'sugar' as the top ingredient." (from the Special Supplement to Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ for Aug. 2009) Imagine if the "Ingredients" label on U.S. processed foods -- currently printed in small, sans serif, ALL CAPS right-justified type, with minimal leading, thus making the block paragraph as hard as possible to read in full, and requiring many mothers and grandmothers to get out their reading glasses in the supermarket aisle even to attempt it -- was redesigned as a folksonomy "tag" cloud ... or given an eye-catching graphic treatment like a simple bar chart.... These would be regulated "nudges" I think even the most wary of us could support. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0016.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0016.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0014.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0007.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0004.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; the Labour party have > adopted Robert Cialdini's > Influence). What a fascinating tidbit! Over here, many conservatives are suspicious even of "nudges," especially when emanating from government sources. If they thought congressional democrats were using Cialdini's "scientifically proven ways to be persuasive" on them -- funded by taxpayer dollars -- the new Tea Party probably could foment a 2nd American Revolution! ;-) > Looking back at old film > footage (1940s and 50s, > rarely a bulge in sight > during and after war-time > rationing) I think supply > may be the only answer, > and limited access to > motorised transport. For some demographics (Information Designers, say? ;-), you may be right. However, in the U.S., there are way too many communities where there is a lot more hunger than food. Yet, even in areas where poverty has already limited the food supply, obesity and diseases such as diabetes are still prevalent. Similarly, there are communities in the U.S. with surprisingly little motorized transport, which brings on its own health issues, as pointed out by the activist Bus Riders Union (an arm of the progressive-to-left, multicultural Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles), which first organized in 1995 around the link it saw between environmental racism and racism in L.A.'s mass transportation policies (e.g., in 1997, their "Fight for the Night" street demonstration and other activism forced L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reinstate night time bus service cuts). And in 2005, BRU launched its "Clean Air Clean Lungs Clean Buses" campaign, "linking the fights against air toxins and climate change gases -- where L.A.'s auto system is a major source for both -- to the fight for a world class, bus-centered transit system." (If anyone's interested, their report _The Bus Riders Union Transit Model: Why a Bus-Centered System Will Best Serve U.S. Cities_, authored by "new urbanist" transportation planner Ryan Snyder, is available online at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/ ). So not everyone lives in idyllic neighborhoods where it's safe to saunter down to the corner store for groceries ... assuming there even is a corner store in the neighborhood that sells unprocessed foods. Moreover, researchers are learning that obesity (yet another complex & "contested" modern medical condition/identity, as Obama and Lehrer circled around in the _PBS NewsHour_ interview) is probably more dynamic and on the move than most of us are, even when we do get enough exercise. Here, I'm thinking not only of the very *active* role played by lipids in the human body, and the new thinking that, as with cholesterol, there is "good" and "bad" body fat (e.g., from a 14 Aug. 2005 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_: "For all the women who look down on their ample thighs with loathing: Fret no more. There is new reason to love that dimpled plumpness. "For many people, mainly women, fat on legs, hips and buttocks may help ward off heart disease and diabetes, recent research suggests. ... When women were also heavy above the waist, most advantages of the leg fat vanished, but thick thighs still improved their scores on triglycerides, potentially harmful fats in the blood." ), but also of new research on childhood obesity showing how it causes actual, lasting changes to human biochemistry: "Science is helping doctors better understand why many youngsters and adults can't seem to shed pounds through diet and exercise once they've packed on an excessive amount of weight. "'It turns out that once you're about 100 pounds over your ideal body weight, your body has reset its thermostat,' said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon in San Diego. "The process works this way: Overeating produces an oversupply of insulin, which causes the body to use more of its energy to store fat. That tricks the body into thinking it's being starved when it isn't. The body responds by lowering physical activity, increasing hunger pangs and converting even more energy into fat. "'This is not about a habit that has gone bad. This is about a physiological illness,' Bhoyrul said." (from 21 Sept. 2008 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_) + "If you look at children at the age of two or three, they compensate. If you give them more calories in one meal, they'll eat less later in the day. But if they get exposed to sugar, fat, and salt all day for a few years, they lose the ability to compensate. By age four or five, they're eating all the time." (David Kessler, from interview with the editors of _Nutrition Action_, July/August 2009 issue) I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. ... which is why I think *education* (of children and adults), followed by community-based solutions & initiatives, supported in turn by judicious state and federal policies & wise use of resources, remains our best strategy for going forward. I still believe that it's the "nudges" we come up with for ourselves (rather than having others manipulate us from on high) which have the best chance of working. E.g., not every "nudge" recommended by Tufts University's Susan Roberts (author of _The Instinct Diet_) is going to work equally well for each of us. I don't see myself pouring water over the leftover French Fries on my dinner plate when eating out at a restaurant, which is one of her 5 tips for fighting "restaurant syndrome": "1. NIP NEGATIVE CYCLES IN THE BUD. After an indulgent night of eating out, start your day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. "2. EAT OUT LESS FREQUENTLY, EVEN IF YOU GO OUT JUST AS OFTEN. Try eating at home before a social event, then just nibble lightly while being sociable. "3. NEVER ARRIVE STARVING. Snack on something satisfying before you eat out, such as an apple. "4. MICROMANAGE YOUR ORDER. Be specific about what you want, from salad dressing on the side to no cheese atop the French onion soup. "5. TAKE CONTROL OVER THE SIGNALS YOUR EYES AND NOSE SEND YOUR BRAIN. Drape a napkin over the bread basket. Spill some water on those leftover fries." But I do see myself beginning every day after a night of indulgence with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. Best of all, it's nice to know enough to be able to pick-and-choose from lots of options, and make my own trade-offs like this. Too often, we just don't have enough information to be able to exercise real choice. Strictly speaking, I suppose the many tactical interventions suggested by David Kessler in _The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite_ aren't really "nudges" either, because they require mindfulness at the point of execution. Kessler's guide to making it through "Food Rehab" and resisting the pull of unhealthy foods asks us to act preemptively on ourselves. E.g., "1. REPLACE CHAOS WITH STRUCTURE. Determine ahead of time what you'll eat for meals and snacks. Block out everything else. "2. PRACTICE JUST-RIGHT EATING. Figure out how much food you need. (Odds are, it's less than you think.) Put it on your plate and don't go back for more. "3. PICK FOODS THAT WILL SATISFY, NOT STIMULATE, YOU. What satisfies you is personal, but try foods that occur in nature, like whole grains, beans, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit, combined with lean protein and a small amount of fat. "4. REHEARSE. Anticipate your moves like an elite athlete before a competition. For example, tell yourself, 'If I encounter chocolate-covered pretzels, I'll keep walking.' "5. SEIZE CONTROL. Stay alert to emotional stressors or other stimuli that trigger automatic behavior. Recognize emotions (like sadness, fatigue, or anxiety) that might lead you to overeat. "6. STOP THAT THOUGHT. Change the channel. Turn off the image of the trigger food before you start to debate whether to eat it. "7. THINK NEGATIVE. Pair the unhealthy food with a stream of (unappealing) images. 'That's the flip side of what advertising agencies do when they link an Olympic athlete to a pair of sneakers or an attractive woman to a new piece of technology,' says Kessler." But re-designing food labels for better information transparency at the point of sale -- in line with Kessler's warning about misleading obfuscation in _The End of Overeating_ -- *would* probably qualify as a "nudge" I think: "'If a food contains more sugar than any other ingredient, federal regulations dictate that sugar be listed first on the label. But if a food contains several different kinds of sweeteners, they can be listed separately, which pushes each one farther down the list.' Breakfast cereals, for example, often include a combination of sugar, brown sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey and molasses -- in part so moms looking at the labels don't spot 'sugar' as the top ingredient." (from the Special Supplement to Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ for Aug. 2009) Imagine if the "Ingredients" label on U.S. processed foods -- currently printed in small, sans serif, ALL CAPS right-justified type, with minimal leading, thus making the block paragraph as hard as possible to read in full, and requiring many mothers and grandmothers to get out their reading glasses in the supermarket aisle even to attempt it -- was redesigned as a folksonomy "tag" cloud ... or given an eye-catching graphic treatment like a simple bar chart.... These would be regulated "nudges" I think even the most wary of us could support. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0017.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0017.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0015.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0008.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0005.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; the Labour party have > adopted Robert Cialdini's > Influence). What a fascinating tidbit! Over here, many conservatives are suspicious even of "nudges," especially when emanating from government sources. If they thought congressional democrats were using Cialdini's "scientifically proven ways to be persuasive" on them -- funded by taxpayer dollars -- the new Tea Party probably could foment a 2nd American Revolution! ;-) > Looking back at old film > footage (1940s and 50s, > rarely a bulge in sight > during and after war-time > rationing) I think supply > may be the only answer, > and limited access to > motorised transport. For some demographics (Information Designers, say? ;-), you may be right. However, in the U.S., there are way too many communities where there is a lot more hunger than food. Yet, even in areas where poverty has already limited the food supply, obesity and diseases such as diabetes are still prevalent. Similarly, there are communities in the U.S. with surprisingly little motorized transport, which brings on its own health issues, as pointed out by the activist Bus Riders Union (an arm of the progressive-to-left, multicultural Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles), which first organized in 1995 around the link it saw between environmental racism and racism in L.A.'s mass transportation policies (e.g., in 1997, their "Fight for the Night" street demonstration and other activism forced L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reinstate night time bus service cuts). And in 2005, BRU launched its "Clean Air Clean Lungs Clean Buses" campaign, "linking the fights against air toxins and climate change gases -- where L.A.'s auto system is a major source for both -- to the fight for a world class, bus-centered transit system." (If anyone's interested, their report _The Bus Riders Union Transit Model: Why a Bus-Centered System Will Best Serve U.S. Cities_, authored by "new urbanist" transportation planner Ryan Snyder, is available online at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/ ). So not everyone lives in idyllic neighborhoods where it's safe to saunter down to the corner store for groceries ... assuming there even is a corner store in the neighborhood that sells unprocessed foods. Moreover, researchers are learning that obesity (yet another complex & "contested" modern medical condition/identity, as Obama and Lehrer circled around in the _PBS NewsHour_ interview) is probably more dynamic and on the move than most of us are, even when we do get enough exercise. Here, I'm thinking not only of the very *active* role played by lipids in the human body, and the new thinking that, as with cholesterol, there is "good" and "bad" body fat (e.g., from a 14 Aug. 2005 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_: "For all the women who look down on their ample thighs with loathing: Fret no more. There is new reason to love that dimpled plumpness. "For many people, mainly women, fat on legs, hips and buttocks may help ward off heart disease and diabetes, recent research suggests. ... When women were also heavy above the waist, most advantages of the leg fat vanished, but thick thighs still improved their scores on triglycerides, potentially harmful fats in the blood." ), but also of new research on childhood obesity showing how it causes actual, lasting changes to human biochemistry: "Science is helping doctors better understand why many youngsters and adults can't seem to shed pounds through diet and exercise once they've packed on an excessive amount of weight. "'It turns out that once you're about 100 pounds over your ideal body weight, your body has reset its thermostat,' said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon in San Diego. "The process works this way: Overeating produces an oversupply of insulin, which causes the body to use more of its energy to store fat. That tricks the body into thinking it's being starved when it isn't. The body responds by lowering physical activity, increasing hunger pangs and converting even more energy into fat. "'This is not about a habit that has gone bad. This is about a physiological illness,' Bhoyrul said." (from 21 Sept. 2008 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_) + "If you look at children at the age of two or three, they compensate. If you give them more calories in one meal, they'll eat less later in the day. But if they get exposed to sugar, fat, and salt all day for a few years, they lose the ability to compensate. By age four or five, they're eating all the time." (David Kessler, from interview with the editors of _Nutrition Action_, July/August 2009 issue) I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. ... which is why I think *education* (of children and adults), followed by community-based solutions & initiatives, supported in turn by judicious state and federal policies & wise use of resources, remains our best strategy for going forward. I still believe that it's the "nudges" we come up with for ourselves (rather than having others manipulate us from on high) which have the best chance of working. E.g., not every "nudge" recommended by Tufts University's Susan Roberts (author of _The Instinct Diet_) is going to work equally well for each of us. I don't see myself pouring water over the leftover French Fries on my dinner plate when eating out at a restaurant, which is one of her 5 tips for fighting "restaurant syndrome": "1. NIP NEGATIVE CYCLES IN THE BUD. After an indulgent night of eating out, start your day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. "2. EAT OUT LESS FREQUENTLY, EVEN IF YOU GO OUT JUST AS OFTEN. Try eating at home before a social event, then just nibble lightly while being sociable. "3. NEVER ARRIVE STARVING. Snack on something satisfying before you eat out, such as an apple. "4. MICROMANAGE YOUR ORDER. Be specific about what you want, from salad dressing on the side to no cheese atop the French onion soup. "5. TAKE CONTROL OVER THE SIGNALS YOUR EYES AND NOSE SEND YOUR BRAIN. Drape a napkin over the bread basket. Spill some water on those leftover fries." But I do see myself beginning every day after a night of indulgence with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. Best of all, it's nice to know enough to be able to pick-and-choose from lots of options, and make my own trade-offs like this. Too often, we just don't have enough information to be able to exercise real choice. Strictly speaking, I suppose the many tactical interventions suggested by David Kessler in _The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite_ aren't really "nudges" either, because they require mindfulness at the point of execution. Kessler's guide to making it through "Food Rehab" and resisting the pull of unhealthy foods asks us to act preemptively on ourselves. E.g., "1. REPLACE CHAOS WITH STRUCTURE. Determine ahead of time what you'll eat for meals and snacks. Block out everything else. "2. PRACTICE JUST-RIGHT EATING. Figure out how much food you need. (Odds are, it's less than you think.) Put it on your plate and don't go back for more. "3. PICK FOODS THAT WILL SATISFY, NOT STIMULATE, YOU. What satisfies you is personal, but try foods that occur in nature, like whole grains, beans, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit, combined with lean protein and a small amount of fat. "4. REHEARSE. Anticipate your moves like an elite athlete before a competition. For example, tell yourself, 'If I encounter chocolate-covered pretzels, I'll keep walking.' "5. SEIZE CONTROL. Stay alert to emotional stressors or other stimuli that trigger automatic behavior. Recognize emotions (like sadness, fatigue, or anxiety) that might lead you to overeat. "6. STOP THAT THOUGHT. Change the channel. Turn off the image of the trigger food before you start to debate whether to eat it. "7. THINK NEGATIVE. Pair the unhealthy food with a stream of (unappealing) images. 'That's the flip side of what advertising agencies do when they link an Olympic athlete to a pair of sneakers or an attractive woman to a new piece of technology,' says Kessler." But re-designing food labels for better information transparency at the point of sale -- in line with Kessler's warning about misleading obfuscation in _The End of Overeating_ -- *would* probably qualify as a "nudge" I think: "'If a food contains more sugar than any other ingredient, federal regulations dictate that sugar be listed first on the label. But if a food contains several different kinds of sweeteners, they can be listed separately, which pushes each one farther down the list.' Breakfast cereals, for example, often include a combination of sugar, brown sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey and molasses -- in part so moms looking at the labels don't spot 'sugar' as the top ingredient." (from the Special Supplement to Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ for Aug. 2009) Imagine if the "Ingredients" label on U.S. processed foods -- currently printed in small, sans serif, ALL CAPS right-justified type, with minimal leading, thus making the block paragraph as hard as possible to read in full, and requiring many mothers and grandmothers to get out their reading glasses in the supermarket aisle even to attempt it -- was redesigned as a folksonomy "tag" cloud ... or given an eye-catching graphic treatment like a simple bar chart.... These would be regulated "nudges" I think even the most wary of us could support. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From markb at textmatters.com Thu Feb 18 00:13:08 2010 From: markb at textmatters.com (Mark Barratt) Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:13:08 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: ATypI 2010 Dublin: call for papers Message-ID: <4B7C7804.6080902@textmatters.com> ATypI's 2010 conference committee is requesting proposals for papers and workshops for the Dublin event in September. Proposals must be received by 12 March 2010. Those of us who engage with letters for a living are uniquely placed to examine the political, cultural, historical and social significance of words in all their forms. However, we rarely get this chance ? ATypI Dublin 2010 is our opportunity. We encourage submissions that consider typography, in as broad a context as possible, as part of the material fabric of everyday life. Therefore you are invited to explore the word in its various dimensions including typographic, literary, historical, political, technological and aesthetic. ATypI 2010 welcomes investigations into the materiality of the word in any of its myriad forms: aural, oral, digital, concrete, architectural, environmental, printed and written. Conference attendees will represent the craft, business, educational and technological spheres of type and typography. They will include type designers, graphic designers, project managers and software engineers from leading software companies and font foundries, web designers, information designers, researchers, historians, educators, writers, publishers, lettering artists, students, and typography enthusiasts from around the world. A submission must contain a title and an abstract of the proposed presentation (400 words maximum), and a speaker?s biography (100 words maximum). Presentations may be of 20 or 40 minutes duration. Duration of paper should be specified in the proposal. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to Barbara Jarzyna, the Executive Secretary of ATypI, at secretariat at atypi.org. E-mail messages should have the subject line: Proposal for ATypI 2010. Abstracts for workshops should attempt to identify the likely audience and optimum number of participants as well as space or other requirements. The goals and outcomes of the workshop should be clearly explained. All abstracts will be read by a selection panel made up of ATypI board members and members of the local preparatory committee. Programme committee may suggest amendments to papers or presentations. Submissions due: 12 March 2010 Notification date: 9th April, 2010 best -- Mark Barratt Text Matters Information design: we help explain things using language | design | systems | process improvement ____________________________________________ phone +44 (0)118 986 8313 email markb at textmatters.com web http://www.textmatters.com From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0018.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0018.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0016.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0009.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0006.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; the Labour party have > adopted Robert Cialdini's > Influence). What a fascinating tidbit! Over here, many conservatives are suspicious even of "nudges," especially when emanating from government sources. If they thought congressional democrats were using Cialdini's "scientifically proven ways to be persuasive" on them -- funded by taxpayer dollars -- the new Tea Party probably could foment a 2nd American Revolution! ;-) > Looking back at old film > footage (1940s and 50s, > rarely a bulge in sight > during and after war-time > rationing) I think supply > may be the only answer, > and limited access to > motorised transport. For some demographics (Information Designers, say? ;-), you may be right. However, in the U.S., there are way too many communities where there is a lot more hunger than food. Yet, even in areas where poverty has already limited the food supply, obesity and diseases such as diabetes are still prevalent. Similarly, there are communities in the U.S. with surprisingly little motorized transport, which brings on its own health issues, as pointed out by the activist Bus Riders Union (an arm of the progressive-to-left, multicultural Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles), which first organized in 1995 around the link it saw between environmental racism and racism in L.A.'s mass transportation policies (e.g., in 1997, their "Fight for the Night" street demonstration and other activism forced L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reinstate night time bus service cuts). And in 2005, BRU launched its "Clean Air Clean Lungs Clean Buses" campaign, "linking the fights against air toxins and climate change gases -- where L.A.'s auto system is a major source for both -- to the fight for a world class, bus-centered transit system." (If anyone's interested, their report _The Bus Riders Union Transit Model: Why a Bus-Centered System Will Best Serve U.S. Cities_, authored by "new urbanist" transportation planner Ryan Snyder, is available online at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/ ). So not everyone lives in idyllic neighborhoods where it's safe to saunter down to the corner store for groceries ... assuming there even is a corner store in the neighborhood that sells unprocessed foods. Moreover, researchers are learning that obesity (yet another complex & "contested" modern medical condition/identity, as Obama and Lehrer circled around in the _PBS NewsHour_ interview) is probably more dynamic and on the move than most of us are, even when we do get enough exercise. Here, I'm thinking not only of the very *active* role played by lipids in the human body, and the new thinking that, as with cholesterol, there is "good" and "bad" body fat (e.g., from a 14 Aug. 2005 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_: "For all the women who look down on their ample thighs with loathing: Fret no more. There is new reason to love that dimpled plumpness. "For many people, mainly women, fat on legs, hips and buttocks may help ward off heart disease and diabetes, recent research suggests. ... When women were also heavy above the waist, most advantages of the leg fat vanished, but thick thighs still improved their scores on triglycerides, potentially harmful fats in the blood." ), but also of new research on childhood obesity showing how it causes actual, lasting changes to human biochemistry: "Science is helping doctors better understand why many youngsters and adults can't seem to shed pounds through diet and exercise once they've packed on an excessive amount of weight. "'It turns out that once you're about 100 pounds over your ideal body weight, your body has reset its thermostat,' said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon in San Diego. "The process works this way: Overeating produces an oversupply of insulin, which causes the body to use more of its energy to store fat. That tricks the body into thinking it's being starved when it isn't. The body responds by lowering physical activity, increasing hunger pangs and converting even more energy into fat. "'This is not about a habit that has gone bad. This is about a physiological illness,' Bhoyrul said." (from 21 Sept. 2008 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_) + "If you look at children at the age of two or three, they compensate. If you give them more calories in one meal, they'll eat less later in the day. But if they get exposed to sugar, fat, and salt all day for a few years, they lose the ability to compensate. By age four or five, they're eating all the time." (David Kessler, from interview with the editors of _Nutrition Action_, July/August 2009 issue) I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. ... which is why I think *education* (of children and adults), followed by community-based solutions & initiatives, supported in turn by judicious state and federal policies & wise use of resources, remains our best strategy for going forward. I still believe that it's the "nudges" we come up with for ourselves (rather than having others manipulate us from on high) which have the best chance of working. E.g., not every "nudge" recommended by Tufts University's Susan Roberts (author of _The Instinct Diet_) is going to work equally well for each of us. I don't see myself pouring water over the leftover French Fries on my dinner plate when eating out at a restaurant, which is one of her 5 tips for fighting "restaurant syndrome": "1. NIP NEGATIVE CYCLES IN THE BUD. After an indulgent night of eating out, start your day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. "2. EAT OUT LESS FREQUENTLY, EVEN IF YOU GO OUT JUST AS OFTEN. Try eating at home before a social event, then just nibble lightly while being sociable. "3. NEVER ARRIVE STARVING. Snack on something satisfying before you eat out, such as an apple. "4. MICROMANAGE YOUR ORDER. Be specific about what you want, from salad dressing on the side to no cheese atop the French onion soup. "5. TAKE CONTROL OVER THE SIGNALS YOUR EYES AND NOSE SEND YOUR BRAIN. Drape a napkin over the bread basket. Spill some water on those leftover fries." But I do see myself beginning every day after a night of indulgence with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. Best of all, it's nice to know enough to be able to pick-and-choose from lots of options, and make my own trade-offs like this. Too often, we just don't have enough information to be able to exercise real choice. Strictly speaking, I suppose the many tactical interventions suggested by David Kessler in _The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite_ aren't really "nudges" either, because they require mindfulness at the point of execution. Kessler's guide to making it through "Food Rehab" and resisting the pull of unhealthy foods asks us to act preemptively on ourselves. E.g., "1. REPLACE CHAOS WITH STRUCTURE. Determine ahead of time what you'll eat for meals and snacks. Block out everything else. "2. PRACTICE JUST-RIGHT EATING. Figure out how much food you need. (Odds are, it's less than you think.) Put it on your plate and don't go back for more. "3. PICK FOODS THAT WILL SATISFY, NOT STIMULATE, YOU. What satisfies you is personal, but try foods that occur in nature, like whole grains, beans, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit, combined with lean protein and a small amount of fat. "4. REHEARSE. Anticipate your moves like an elite athlete before a competition. For example, tell yourself, 'If I encounter chocolate-covered pretzels, I'll keep walking.' "5. SEIZE CONTROL. Stay alert to emotional stressors or other stimuli that trigger automatic behavior. Recognize emotions (like sadness, fatigue, or anxiety) that might lead you to overeat. "6. STOP THAT THOUGHT. Change the channel. Turn off the image of the trigger food before you start to debate whether to eat it. "7. THINK NEGATIVE. Pair the unhealthy food with a stream of (unappealing) images. 'That's the flip side of what advertising agencies do when they link an Olympic athlete to a pair of sneakers or an attractive woman to a new piece of technology,' says Kessler." But re-designing food labels for better information transparency at the point of sale -- in line with Kessler's warning about misleading obfuscation in _The End of Overeating_ -- *would* probably qualify as a "nudge" I think: "'If a food contains more sugar than any other ingredient, federal regulations dictate that sugar be listed first on the label. But if a food contains several different kinds of sweeteners, they can be listed separately, which pushes each one farther down the list.' Breakfast cereals, for example, often include a combination of sugar, brown sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey and molasses -- in part so moms looking at the labels don't spot 'sugar' as the top ingredient." (from the Special Supplement to Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ for Aug. 2009) Imagine if the "Ingredients" label on U.S. processed foods -- currently printed in small, sans serif, ALL CAPS right-justified type, with minimal leading, thus making the block paragraph as hard as possible to read in full, and requiring many mothers and grandmothers to get out their reading glasses in the supermarket aisle even to attempt it -- was redesigned as a folksonomy "tag" cloud ... or given an eye-catching graphic treatment like a simple bar chart.... These would be regulated "nudges" I think even the most wary of us could support. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From markb at textmatters.com Thu Feb 18 00:13:08 2010 From: markb at textmatters.com (Mark Barratt) Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:13:08 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: ATypI 2010 Dublin: call for papers Message-ID: <4B7C7804.6080902@textmatters.com> ATypI's 2010 conference committee is requesting proposals for papers and workshops for the Dublin event in September. Proposals must be received by 12 March 2010. Those of us who engage with letters for a living are uniquely placed to examine the political, cultural, historical and social significance of words in all their forms. However, we rarely get this chance ? ATypI Dublin 2010 is our opportunity. We encourage submissions that consider typography, in as broad a context as possible, as part of the material fabric of everyday life. Therefore you are invited to explore the word in its various dimensions including typographic, literary, historical, political, technological and aesthetic. ATypI 2010 welcomes investigations into the materiality of the word in any of its myriad forms: aural, oral, digital, concrete, architectural, environmental, printed and written. Conference attendees will represent the craft, business, educational and technological spheres of type and typography. They will include type designers, graphic designers, project managers and software engineers from leading software companies and font foundries, web designers, information designers, researchers, historians, educators, writers, publishers, lettering artists, students, and typography enthusiasts from around the world. A submission must contain a title and an abstract of the proposed presentation (400 words maximum), and a speaker?s biography (100 words maximum). Presentations may be of 20 or 40 minutes duration. Duration of paper should be specified in the proposal. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to Barbara Jarzyna, the Executive Secretary of ATypI, at secretariat at atypi.org. E-mail messages should have the subject line: Proposal for ATypI 2010. Abstracts for workshops should attempt to identify the likely audience and optimum number of participants as well as space or other requirements. The goals and outcomes of the workshop should be clearly explained. All abstracts will be read by a selection panel made up of ATypI board members and members of the local preparatory committee. Programme committee may suggest amendments to papers or presentations. Submissions due: 12 March 2010 Notification date: 9th April, 2010 best -- Mark Barratt Text Matters Information design: we help explain things using language | design | systems | process improvement ____________________________________________ phone +44 (0)118 986 8313 email markb at textmatters.com web http://www.textmatters.com From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0019.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0019.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0017.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0010.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0007.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; the Labour party have > adopted Robert Cialdini's > Influence). What a fascinating tidbit! Over here, many conservatives are suspicious even of "nudges," especially when emanating from government sources. If they thought congressional democrats were using Cialdini's "scientifically proven ways to be persuasive" on them -- funded by taxpayer dollars -- the new Tea Party probably could foment a 2nd American Revolution! ;-) > Looking back at old film > footage (1940s and 50s, > rarely a bulge in sight > during and after war-time > rationing) I think supply > may be the only answer, > and limited access to > motorised transport. For some demographics (Information Designers, say? ;-), you may be right. However, in the U.S., there are way too many communities where there is a lot more hunger than food. Yet, even in areas where poverty has already limited the food supply, obesity and diseases such as diabetes are still prevalent. Similarly, there are communities in the U.S. with surprisingly little motorized transport, which brings on its own health issues, as pointed out by the activist Bus Riders Union (an arm of the progressive-to-left, multicultural Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles), which first organized in 1995 around the link it saw between environmental racism and racism in L.A.'s mass transportation policies (e.g., in 1997, their "Fight for the Night" street demonstration and other activism forced L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reinstate night time bus service cuts). And in 2005, BRU launched its "Clean Air Clean Lungs Clean Buses" campaign, "linking the fights against air toxins and climate change gases -- where L.A.'s auto system is a major source for both -- to the fight for a world class, bus-centered transit system." (If anyone's interested, their report _The Bus Riders Union Transit Model: Why a Bus-Centered System Will Best Serve U.S. Cities_, authored by "new urbanist" transportation planner Ryan Snyder, is available online at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/ ). So not everyone lives in idyllic neighborhoods where it's safe to saunter down to the corner store for groceries ... assuming there even is a corner store in the neighborhood that sells unprocessed foods. Moreover, researchers are learning that obesity (yet another complex & "contested" modern medical condition/identity, as Obama and Lehrer circled around in the _PBS NewsHour_ interview) is probably more dynamic and on the move than most of us are, even when we do get enough exercise. Here, I'm thinking not only of the very *active* role played by lipids in the human body, and the new thinking that, as with cholesterol, there is "good" and "bad" body fat (e.g., from a 14 Aug. 2005 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_: "For all the women who look down on their ample thighs with loathing: Fret no more. There is new reason to love that dimpled plumpness. "For many people, mainly women, fat on legs, hips and buttocks may help ward off heart disease and diabetes, recent research suggests. ... When women were also heavy above the waist, most advantages of the leg fat vanished, but thick thighs still improved their scores on triglycerides, potentially harmful fats in the blood." ), but also of new research on childhood obesity showing how it causes actual, lasting changes to human biochemistry: "Science is helping doctors better understand why many youngsters and adults can't seem to shed pounds through diet and exercise once they've packed on an excessive amount of weight. "'It turns out that once you're about 100 pounds over your ideal body weight, your body has reset its thermostat,' said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon in San Diego. "The process works this way: Overeating produces an oversupply of insulin, which causes the body to use more of its energy to store fat. That tricks the body into thinking it's being starved when it isn't. The body responds by lowering physical activity, increasing hunger pangs and converting even more energy into fat. "'This is not about a habit that has gone bad. This is about a physiological illness,' Bhoyrul said." (from 21 Sept. 2008 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_) + "If you look at children at the age of two or three, they compensate. If you give them more calories in one meal, they'll eat less later in the day. But if they get exposed to sugar, fat, and salt all day for a few years, they lose the ability to compensate. By age four or five, they're eating all the time." (David Kessler, from interview with the editors of _Nutrition Action_, July/August 2009 issue) I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. ... which is why I think *education* (of children and adults), followed by community-based solutions & initiatives, supported in turn by judicious state and federal policies & wise use of resources, remains our best strategy for going forward. I still believe that it's the "nudges" we come up with for ourselves (rather than having others manipulate us from on high) which have the best chance of working. E.g., not every "nudge" recommended by Tufts University's Susan Roberts (author of _The Instinct Diet_) is going to work equally well for each of us. I don't see myself pouring water over the leftover French Fries on my dinner plate when eating out at a restaurant, which is one of her 5 tips for fighting "restaurant syndrome": "1. NIP NEGATIVE CYCLES IN THE BUD. After an indulgent night of eating out, start your day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. "2. EAT OUT LESS FREQUENTLY, EVEN IF YOU GO OUT JUST AS OFTEN. Try eating at home before a social event, then just nibble lightly while being sociable. "3. NEVER ARRIVE STARVING. Snack on something satisfying before you eat out, such as an apple. "4. MICROMANAGE YOUR ORDER. Be specific about what you want, from salad dressing on the side to no cheese atop the French onion soup. "5. TAKE CONTROL OVER THE SIGNALS YOUR EYES AND NOSE SEND YOUR BRAIN. Drape a napkin over the bread basket. Spill some water on those leftover fries." But I do see myself beginning every day after a night of indulgence with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. Best of all, it's nice to know enough to be able to pick-and-choose from lots of options, and make my own trade-offs like this. Too often, we just don't have enough information to be able to exercise real choice. Strictly speaking, I suppose the many tactical interventions suggested by David Kessler in _The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite_ aren't really "nudges" either, because they require mindfulness at the point of execution. Kessler's guide to making it through "Food Rehab" and resisting the pull of unhealthy foods asks us to act preemptively on ourselves. E.g., "1. REPLACE CHAOS WITH STRUCTURE. Determine ahead of time what you'll eat for meals and snacks. Block out everything else. "2. PRACTICE JUST-RIGHT EATING. Figure out how much food you need. (Odds are, it's less than you think.) Put it on your plate and don't go back for more. "3. PICK FOODS THAT WILL SATISFY, NOT STIMULATE, YOU. What satisfies you is personal, but try foods that occur in nature, like whole grains, beans, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit, combined with lean protein and a small amount of fat. "4. REHEARSE. Anticipate your moves like an elite athlete before a competition. For example, tell yourself, 'If I encounter chocolate-covered pretzels, I'll keep walking.' "5. SEIZE CONTROL. Stay alert to emotional stressors or other stimuli that trigger automatic behavior. Recognize emotions (like sadness, fatigue, or anxiety) that might lead you to overeat. "6. STOP THAT THOUGHT. Change the channel. Turn off the image of the trigger food before you start to debate whether to eat it. "7. THINK NEGATIVE. Pair the unhealthy food with a stream of (unappealing) images. 'That's the flip side of what advertising agencies do when they link an Olympic athlete to a pair of sneakers or an attractive woman to a new piece of technology,' says Kessler." But re-designing food labels for better information transparency at the point of sale -- in line with Kessler's warning about misleading obfuscation in _The End of Overeating_ -- *would* probably qualify as a "nudge" I think: "'If a food contains more sugar than any other ingredient, federal regulations dictate that sugar be listed first on the label. But if a food contains several different kinds of sweeteners, they can be listed separately, which pushes each one farther down the list.' Breakfast cereals, for example, often include a combination of sugar, brown sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey and molasses -- in part so moms looking at the labels don't spot 'sugar' as the top ingredient." (from the Special Supplement to Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ for Aug. 2009) Imagine if the "Ingredients" label on U.S. processed foods -- currently printed in small, sans serif, ALL CAPS right-justified type, with minimal leading, thus making the block paragraph as hard as possible to read in full, and requiring many mothers and grandmothers to get out their reading glasses in the supermarket aisle even to attempt it -- was redesigned as a folksonomy "tag" cloud ... or given an eye-catching graphic treatment like a simple bar chart.... These would be regulated "nudges" I think even the most wary of us could support. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From markb at textmatters.com Thu Feb 18 00:13:08 2010 From: markb at textmatters.com (Mark Barratt) Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:13:08 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: ATypI 2010 Dublin: call for papers Message-ID: <4B7C7804.6080902@textmatters.com> ATypI's 2010 conference committee is requesting proposals for papers and workshops for the Dublin event in September. Proposals must be received by 12 March 2010. Those of us who engage with letters for a living are uniquely placed to examine the political, cultural, historical and social significance of words in all their forms. However, we rarely get this chance ? ATypI Dublin 2010 is our opportunity. We encourage submissions that consider typography, in as broad a context as possible, as part of the material fabric of everyday life. Therefore you are invited to explore the word in its various dimensions including typographic, literary, historical, political, technological and aesthetic. ATypI 2010 welcomes investigations into the materiality of the word in any of its myriad forms: aural, oral, digital, concrete, architectural, environmental, printed and written. Conference attendees will represent the craft, business, educational and technological spheres of type and typography. They will include type designers, graphic designers, project managers and software engineers from leading software companies and font foundries, web designers, information designers, researchers, historians, educators, writers, publishers, lettering artists, students, and typography enthusiasts from around the world. A submission must contain a title and an abstract of the proposed presentation (400 words maximum), and a speaker?s biography (100 words maximum). Presentations may be of 20 or 40 minutes duration. Duration of paper should be specified in the proposal. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to Barbara Jarzyna, the Executive Secretary of ATypI, at secretariat at atypi.org. E-mail messages should have the subject line: Proposal for ATypI 2010. Abstracts for workshops should attempt to identify the likely audience and optimum number of participants as well as space or other requirements. The goals and outcomes of the workshop should be clearly explained. All abstracts will be read by a selection panel made up of ATypI board members and members of the local preparatory committee. Programme committee may suggest amendments to papers or presentations. Submissions due: 12 March 2010 Notification date: 9th April, 2010 best -- Mark Barratt Text Matters Information design: we help explain things using language | design | systems | process improvement ____________________________________________ phone +44 (0)118 986 8313 email markb at textmatters.com web http://www.textmatters.com From marconi2006 at googlemail.com Fri Feb 19 12:58:25 2010 From: marconi2006 at googlemail.com (Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:58:25 -0200 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics Message-ID: Dear all, Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your nearest distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html Jos? -- Jos? Marconi Bezerra de Souza Visiting lecturer of Paran? Federal University, Brazil PhD - Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University of Reading (UK) From lbrasseu at ilstu.edu Fri Feb 19 17:57:25 2010 From: lbrasseu at ilstu.edu (Lee Brasseur) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:57:25 -0600 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> I can't believe it--after all these years. This is very good news. Lee On Feb 19, 2010, at 5:58 AM, Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza wrote: > Dear all, > > Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" > will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. > This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your nearest > distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html > > Jos? > > -- > Jos? Marconi Bezerra de Souza > Visiting lecturer of Paran? Federal University, Brazil > PhD - Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University > of Reading (UK) > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ Lee Brasseur lbrasseu at ilstu.edu Dept. of English Illinois State University Normal Il 61790-4240 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100219/dff2c56f/attachment-0001.htm From davewrenne at gmail.com Fri Feb 19 19:58:28 2010 From: davewrenne at gmail.com (Dave Wrenne) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:58:28 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers Message-ID: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Hello All Hope this finds you well. I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering if anyone here knew any resources? Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any thanks in advance. Best Regards Dave Wrenne From alan at alphabyte.co.nz Fri Feb 19 20:08:57 2010 From: alan at alphabyte.co.nz (Alan T Litchfield) Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:08:57 +1300 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics In-Reply-To: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> References: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> Message-ID: Certainly one of the most important books on my shelf. Alan On 20/02/2010, at 5:57 AM, Lee Brasseur wrote: > I can't believe it--after all these years. This is very good news. > > Lee > > On Feb 19, 2010, at 5:58 AM, Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza wrote: > >> Dear all, >> >> Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" >> will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. >> This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your >> nearest >> distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html >> >> Jos? >> -- Alan T Litchfield AlphaByte PO Box 141, Auckland, 1140 New Zealand http://www.alphabyte.co.nz http://www.alphabyte.co.nz/beatrice From waarde at glo.be Fri Feb 19 20:30:09 2010 From: waarde at glo.be (Karel van der Waarde) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:30:09 +0100 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers In-Reply-To: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> References: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dave, The Dutch Voting form for the June 2009 European elections can be downloaded from: http://users.telenet.be/waarde/Papers/DutchEU-votingform2009-2.jpg (It's a 434K jpg file. If you need a high resolution version, just ask.) The Dutch have abandoned the electronic systems after a fierce campaign "We don't trust computer voting" Their website ( http://wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/) has parts in English: http://wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/English . There are several major problems with the Dutch form for this elections. The Dutch need to elect 25 representatives. That's clear. But there are list-connections. So is list 1 (CDA-Christian Democrats) linked with list 6 (Conservatist Christians). List 2 (Social) is combined with list 4 (Environmental-left) and list 3 (liberal democrats) is combined with list 7 (democrats). So what happens if I give my preference vote to number 27 on list 7? There are several options: a. This gentleman (Floris Kreiken) gets enough preference votes to go directly to the EU-parliament. This is unlikely. b. So, List 7 (Democrats) gets my vote. So there will be a representative (probably the first one on the list) who goes to the EU-parliament. However, this is a fairly small party, which is unlikely to reach enough votes for a single representative. c. Because of the list-connections, it might be that I have voted for the party on list 3. So, on of the first of list 3 goes to the EU-parliament. That was certainly not my intention when I selected number 27 on list 7 .... So, yes, please look at these voting forms and suggest something - on paper - that is clearer. Kind regards, Karel. waarde at glo.be >>>> On 19 Feb 2010, at 19:58, Dave Wrenne wrote: > Hello All > > Hope this finds you well. > > I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in > London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with > voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers > and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to > poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of > form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. > > I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering > if anyone here knew any resources? > > Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any thanks in advance. > > Best Regards > Dave Wrenne > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ From caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk Fri Feb 19 22:17:34 2010 From: caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk (Caroline Jarrett) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:17:34 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers In-Reply-To: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> References: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <000001cab1a8$f59debf0$e0d9c3d0$@jarrett@effortmark.co.uk> Dave Wrenne writes: > > I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in > London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with > voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers > and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to > poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of > form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. > > I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering > if anyone here knew any resources? > A topic dear to my heart. --UK------------------ In 2008, Effortmark Ltd (that's me, Caroline Jarrett) worked with User Vision in Scotland on a project for the Electoral Commission where we ran usability tests on UK ballot papers and other polling materials: - Parliamentary (i.e. General election) - European Parliament - Local election - London elections (x3: Mayor, London Assembly individual members and London Assembly constituency members) - Scottish Parliament - Welsh Assembly - Northern Ireland Assembly These various elections use the following different voting systems: . First past the post used at: UK General elections; the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliamentary and GLA elections for the Constituency Member vote; local government elections in England and Wales; referendums; . Closed list used at: European Parliamentary elections (except in Northern Ireland); the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliamentary elections for the Regional Member vote; the Greater London Authority election for the London-wide Assembly members; . Single transferable vote used at: all elections in Northern Ireland except a UK General election; the Scottish local government elections; . Supplementary vote used at: elections for directly elected mayors in England, including the Mayor of London. We also tested a selection of different postal voting materials. Our report is available at: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/document-summary?assetid=77687 It contains extracts from ballot papers including the mistakes that participants made when trying to vote with them. The Electoral Commission used this evidence, and other work, to inform its new guidelines on electoral materials. These are published at: http://www.dopolitics.org.uk/making-your-mark The Electoral Commission people that we worked with were great and very approachable. Their names are listed on the page that describes our report. If you do contact them, please bear in mind that they are extremely busy at the moment because of the General Election that must happen this year. Louise Ferguson has worked on improving the voting experience in the UK for ages, and is particularly interested in evoting. Her resources are here: http://louiseferguson.com/evoting/ --USA-------------- In the US, the Brennan Center for Justice published its report "Better Ballots". (I had the honour of being one of task force members). The report is available here: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/better_ballots/ and the page also has links to other problematic ballots. The report shows many examples of voting problems and ballot designs. Whitney Quesenbery was one of the authors of the Brennan Center report. She is the founder and a key member of the Usability Professionals' Association Voting and Usability project, more details here: http://www.upassoc.org/civiclife/voting/ They maintain a blog on this topic: http://ballotusability.blogspot.com/ and indeed recently posted an example of a problematic ballot paper. Their email address is: voting at usabilityprofessionals.org You might ask them to post a call for examples for you. Whitney was also a member of the Election Assistance Committee. You can read more about her work on voting (with examples) here: http://www.wqusability.com/articles/voting-intro.html The AIGA also has a group called 'Design for Democracy'. Their web site is here: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/election-project --Mexico--------------- In 2007, the Information Design Association conference in Greenwich had a very interesting talk about voting problems in Mexico. Unfortunately, the conference web site doesn't seem to be working any more. --Netherlands--------- Thanks, Karel - another set of examples for my list! --Actual examples----- As you will see, there are quite a few examples in the materials above. I've also got a few original ballot papers tucked away somewhere (if I can find them) - contact me offlist and I'll see what I can do about digging them up and lending them to you. Best Caroline Jarrett caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk www.formsthatwork.com Author: "Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability" From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0020.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0020.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0018.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0011.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0009.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; the Labour party have > adopted Robert Cialdini's > Influence). What a fascinating tidbit! Over here, many conservatives are suspicious even of "nudges," especially when emanating from government sources. If they thought congressional democrats were using Cialdini's "scientifically proven ways to be persuasive" on them -- funded by taxpayer dollars -- the new Tea Party probably could foment a 2nd American Revolution! ;-) > Looking back at old film > footage (1940s and 50s, > rarely a bulge in sight > during and after war-time > rationing) I think supply > may be the only answer, > and limited access to > motorised transport. For some demographics (Information Designers, say? ;-), you may be right. However, in the U.S., there are way too many communities where there is a lot more hunger than food. Yet, even in areas where poverty has already limited the food supply, obesity and diseases such as diabetes are still prevalent. Similarly, there are communities in the U.S. with surprisingly little motorized transport, which brings on its own health issues, as pointed out by the activist Bus Riders Union (an arm of the progressive-to-left, multicultural Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles), which first organized in 1995 around the link it saw between environmental racism and racism in L.A.'s mass transportation policies (e.g., in 1997, their "Fight for the Night" street demonstration and other activism forced L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reinstate night time bus service cuts). And in 2005, BRU launched its "Clean Air Clean Lungs Clean Buses" campaign, "linking the fights against air toxins and climate change gases -- where L.A.'s auto system is a major source for both -- to the fight for a world class, bus-centered transit system." (If anyone's interested, their report _The Bus Riders Union Transit Model: Why a Bus-Centered System Will Best Serve U.S. Cities_, authored by "new urbanist" transportation planner Ryan Snyder, is available online at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/ ). So not everyone lives in idyllic neighborhoods where it's safe to saunter down to the corner store for groceries ... assuming there even is a corner store in the neighborhood that sells unprocessed foods. Moreover, researchers are learning that obesity (yet another complex & "contested" modern medical condition/identity, as Obama and Lehrer circled around in the _PBS NewsHour_ interview) is probably more dynamic and on the move than most of us are, even when we do get enough exercise. Here, I'm thinking not only of the very *active* role played by lipids in the human body, and the new thinking that, as with cholesterol, there is "good" and "bad" body fat (e.g., from a 14 Aug. 2005 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_: "For all the women who look down on their ample thighs with loathing: Fret no more. There is new reason to love that dimpled plumpness. "For many people, mainly women, fat on legs, hips and buttocks may help ward off heart disease and diabetes, recent research suggests. ... When women were also heavy above the waist, most advantages of the leg fat vanished, but thick thighs still improved their scores on triglycerides, potentially harmful fats in the blood." ), but also of new research on childhood obesity showing how it causes actual, lasting changes to human biochemistry: "Science is helping doctors better understand why many youngsters and adults can't seem to shed pounds through diet and exercise once they've packed on an excessive amount of weight. "'It turns out that once you're about 100 pounds over your ideal body weight, your body has reset its thermostat,' said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon in San Diego. "The process works this way: Overeating produces an oversupply of insulin, which causes the body to use more of its energy to store fat. That tricks the body into thinking it's being starved when it isn't. The body responds by lowering physical activity, increasing hunger pangs and converting even more energy into fat. "'This is not about a habit that has gone bad. This is about a physiological illness,' Bhoyrul said." (from 21 Sept. 2008 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_) + "If you look at children at the age of two or three, they compensate. If you give them more calories in one meal, they'll eat less later in the day. But if they get exposed to sugar, fat, and salt all day for a few years, they lose the ability to compensate. By age four or five, they're eating all the time." (David Kessler, from interview with the editors of _Nutrition Action_, July/August 2009 issue) I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. ... which is why I think *education* (of children and adults), followed by community-based solutions & initiatives, supported in turn by judicious state and federal policies & wise use of resources, remains our best strategy for going forward. I still believe that it's the "nudges" we come up with for ourselves (rather than having others manipulate us from on high) which have the best chance of working. E.g., not every "nudge" recommended by Tufts University's Susan Roberts (author of _The Instinct Diet_) is going to work equally well for each of us. I don't see myself pouring water over the leftover French Fries on my dinner plate when eating out at a restaurant, which is one of her 5 tips for fighting "restaurant syndrome": "1. NIP NEGATIVE CYCLES IN THE BUD. After an indulgent night of eating out, start your day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. "2. EAT OUT LESS FREQUENTLY, EVEN IF YOU GO OUT JUST AS OFTEN. Try eating at home before a social event, then just nibble lightly while being sociable. "3. NEVER ARRIVE STARVING. Snack on something satisfying before you eat out, such as an apple. "4. MICROMANAGE YOUR ORDER. Be specific about what you want, from salad dressing on the side to no cheese atop the French onion soup. "5. TAKE CONTROL OVER THE SIGNALS YOUR EYES AND NOSE SEND YOUR BRAIN. Drape a napkin over the bread basket. Spill some water on those leftover fries." But I do see myself beginning every day after a night of indulgence with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. Best of all, it's nice to know enough to be able to pick-and-choose from lots of options, and make my own trade-offs like this. Too often, we just don't have enough information to be able to exercise real choice. Strictly speaking, I suppose the many tactical interventions suggested by David Kessler in _The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite_ aren't really "nudges" either, because they require mindfulness at the point of execution. Kessler's guide to making it through "Food Rehab" and resisting the pull of unhealthy foods asks us to act preemptively on ourselves. E.g., "1. REPLACE CHAOS WITH STRUCTURE. Determine ahead of time what you'll eat for meals and snacks. Block out everything else. "2. PRACTICE JUST-RIGHT EATING. Figure out how much food you need. (Odds are, it's less than you think.) Put it on your plate and don't go back for more. "3. PICK FOODS THAT WILL SATISFY, NOT STIMULATE, YOU. What satisfies you is personal, but try foods that occur in nature, like whole grains, beans, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit, combined with lean protein and a small amount of fat. "4. REHEARSE. Anticipate your moves like an elite athlete before a competition. For example, tell yourself, 'If I encounter chocolate-covered pretzels, I'll keep walking.' "5. SEIZE CONTROL. Stay alert to emotional stressors or other stimuli that trigger automatic behavior. Recognize emotions (like sadness, fatigue, or anxiety) that might lead you to overeat. "6. STOP THAT THOUGHT. Change the channel. Turn off the image of the trigger food before you start to debate whether to eat it. "7. THINK NEGATIVE. Pair the unhealthy food with a stream of (unappealing) images. 'That's the flip side of what advertising agencies do when they link an Olympic athlete to a pair of sneakers or an attractive woman to a new piece of technology,' says Kessler." But re-designing food labels for better information transparency at the point of sale -- in line with Kessler's warning about misleading obfuscation in _The End of Overeating_ -- *would* probably qualify as a "nudge" I think: "'If a food contains more sugar than any other ingredient, federal regulations dictate that sugar be listed first on the label. But if a food contains several different kinds of sweeteners, they can be listed separately, which pushes each one farther down the list.' Breakfast cereals, for example, often include a combination of sugar, brown sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey and molasses -- in part so moms looking at the labels don't spot 'sugar' as the top ingredient." (from the Special Supplement to Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ for Aug. 2009) Imagine if the "Ingredients" label on U.S. processed foods -- currently printed in small, sans serif, ALL CAPS right-justified type, with minimal leading, thus making the block paragraph as hard as possible to read in full, and requiring many mothers and grandmothers to get out their reading glasses in the supermarket aisle even to attempt it -- was redesigned as a folksonomy "tag" cloud ... or given an eye-catching graphic treatment like a simple bar chart.... These would be regulated "nudges" I think even the most wary of us could support. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From markb at textmatters.com Thu Feb 18 00:13:08 2010 From: markb at textmatters.com (Mark Barratt) Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:13:08 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: ATypI 2010 Dublin: call for papers Message-ID: <4B7C7804.6080902@textmatters.com> ATypI's 2010 conference committee is requesting proposals for papers and workshops for the Dublin event in September. Proposals must be received by 12 March 2010. Those of us who engage with letters for a living are uniquely placed to examine the political, cultural, historical and social significance of words in all their forms. However, we rarely get this chance ? ATypI Dublin 2010 is our opportunity. We encourage submissions that consider typography, in as broad a context as possible, as part of the material fabric of everyday life. Therefore you are invited to explore the word in its various dimensions including typographic, literary, historical, political, technological and aesthetic. ATypI 2010 welcomes investigations into the materiality of the word in any of its myriad forms: aural, oral, digital, concrete, architectural, environmental, printed and written. Conference attendees will represent the craft, business, educational and technological spheres of type and typography. They will include type designers, graphic designers, project managers and software engineers from leading software companies and font foundries, web designers, information designers, researchers, historians, educators, writers, publishers, lettering artists, students, and typography enthusiasts from around the world. A submission must contain a title and an abstract of the proposed presentation (400 words maximum), and a speaker?s biography (100 words maximum). Presentations may be of 20 or 40 minutes duration. Duration of paper should be specified in the proposal. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to Barbara Jarzyna, the Executive Secretary of ATypI, at secretariat at atypi.org. E-mail messages should have the subject line: Proposal for ATypI 2010. Abstracts for workshops should attempt to identify the likely audience and optimum number of participants as well as space or other requirements. The goals and outcomes of the workshop should be clearly explained. All abstracts will be read by a selection panel made up of ATypI board members and members of the local preparatory committee. Programme committee may suggest amendments to papers or presentations. Submissions due: 12 March 2010 Notification date: 9th April, 2010 best -- Mark Barratt Text Matters Information design: we help explain things using language | design | systems | process improvement ____________________________________________ phone +44 (0)118 986 8313 email markb at textmatters.com web http://www.textmatters.com From marconi2006 at googlemail.com Fri Feb 19 12:58:25 2010 From: marconi2006 at googlemail.com (Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:58:25 -0200 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics Message-ID: Dear all, Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your nearest distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html Jos? -- Jos? Marconi Bezerra de Souza Visiting lecturer of Paran? Federal University, Brazil PhD - Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University of Reading (UK) From lbrasseu at ilstu.edu Fri Feb 19 17:57:25 2010 From: lbrasseu at ilstu.edu (Lee Brasseur) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:57:25 -0600 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> I can't believe it--after all these years. This is very good news. Lee On Feb 19, 2010, at 5:58 AM, Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza wrote: > Dear all, > > Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" > will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. > This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your nearest > distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html > > Jos? > > -- > Jos? Marconi Bezerra de Souza > Visiting lecturer of Paran? Federal University, Brazil > PhD - Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University > of Reading (UK) > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ Lee Brasseur lbrasseu at ilstu.edu Dept. of English Illinois State University Normal Il 61790-4240 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100219/dff2c56f/attachment-0002.htm From davewrenne at gmail.com Fri Feb 19 19:58:28 2010 From: davewrenne at gmail.com (Dave Wrenne) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:58:28 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers Message-ID: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Hello All Hope this finds you well. I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering if anyone here knew any resources? Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any thanks in advance. Best Regards Dave Wrenne From alan at alphabyte.co.nz Fri Feb 19 20:08:57 2010 From: alan at alphabyte.co.nz (Alan T Litchfield) Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:08:57 +1300 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics In-Reply-To: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> References: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> Message-ID: Certainly one of the most important books on my shelf. Alan On 20/02/2010, at 5:57 AM, Lee Brasseur wrote: > I can't believe it--after all these years. This is very good news. > > Lee > > On Feb 19, 2010, at 5:58 AM, Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza wrote: > >> Dear all, >> >> Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" >> will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. >> This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your >> nearest >> distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html >> >> Jos? >> -- Alan T Litchfield AlphaByte PO Box 141, Auckland, 1140 New Zealand http://www.alphabyte.co.nz http://www.alphabyte.co.nz/beatrice From waarde at glo.be Fri Feb 19 20:30:09 2010 From: waarde at glo.be (Karel van der Waarde) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:30:09 +0100 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers In-Reply-To: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> References: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dave, The Dutch Voting form for the June 2009 European elections can be downloaded from: http://users.telenet.be/waarde/Papers/DutchEU-votingform2009-2.jpg (It's a 434K jpg file. If you need a high resolution version, just ask.) The Dutch have abandoned the electronic systems after a fierce campaign "We don't trust computer voting" Their website ( http://wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/) has parts in English: http://wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/English . There are several major problems with the Dutch form for this elections. The Dutch need to elect 25 representatives. That's clear. But there are list-connections. So is list 1 (CDA-Christian Democrats) linked with list 6 (Conservatist Christians). List 2 (Social) is combined with list 4 (Environmental-left) and list 3 (liberal democrats) is combined with list 7 (democrats). So what happens if I give my preference vote to number 27 on list 7? There are several options: a. This gentleman (Floris Kreiken) gets enough preference votes to go directly to the EU-parliament. This is unlikely. b. So, List 7 (Democrats) gets my vote. So there will be a representative (probably the first one on the list) who goes to the EU-parliament. However, this is a fairly small party, which is unlikely to reach enough votes for a single representative. c. Because of the list-connections, it might be that I have voted for the party on list 3. So, on of the first of list 3 goes to the EU-parliament. That was certainly not my intention when I selected number 27 on list 7 .... So, yes, please look at these voting forms and suggest something - on paper - that is clearer. Kind regards, Karel. waarde at glo.be >>>> On 19 Feb 2010, at 19:58, Dave Wrenne wrote: > Hello All > > Hope this finds you well. > > I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in > London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with > voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers > and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to > poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of > form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. > > I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering > if anyone here knew any resources? > > Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any thanks in advance. > > Best Regards > Dave Wrenne > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ From caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk Fri Feb 19 22:17:34 2010 From: caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk (Caroline Jarrett) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:17:34 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers In-Reply-To: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> References: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <000001cab1a8$f59debf0$e0d9c3d0$@jarrett@effortmark.co.uk> Dave Wrenne writes: > > I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in > London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with > voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers > and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to > poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of > form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. > > I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering > if anyone here knew any resources? > A topic dear to my heart. --UK------------------ In 2008, Effortmark Ltd (that's me, Caroline Jarrett) worked with User Vision in Scotland on a project for the Electoral Commission where we ran usability tests on UK ballot papers and other polling materials: - Parliamentary (i.e. General election) - European Parliament - Local election - London elections (x3: Mayor, London Assembly individual members and London Assembly constituency members) - Scottish Parliament - Welsh Assembly - Northern Ireland Assembly These various elections use the following different voting systems: . First past the post used at: UK General elections; the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliamentary and GLA elections for the Constituency Member vote; local government elections in England and Wales; referendums; . Closed list used at: European Parliamentary elections (except in Northern Ireland); the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliamentary elections for the Regional Member vote; the Greater London Authority election for the London-wide Assembly members; . Single transferable vote used at: all elections in Northern Ireland except a UK General election; the Scottish local government elections; . Supplementary vote used at: elections for directly elected mayors in England, including the Mayor of London. We also tested a selection of different postal voting materials. Our report is available at: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/document-summary?assetid=77687 It contains extracts from ballot papers including the mistakes that participants made when trying to vote with them. The Electoral Commission used this evidence, and other work, to inform its new guidelines on electoral materials. These are published at: http://www.dopolitics.org.uk/making-your-mark The Electoral Commission people that we worked with were great and very approachable. Their names are listed on the page that describes our report. If you do contact them, please bear in mind that they are extremely busy at the moment because of the General Election that must happen this year. Louise Ferguson has worked on improving the voting experience in the UK for ages, and is particularly interested in evoting. Her resources are here: http://louiseferguson.com/evoting/ --USA-------------- In the US, the Brennan Center for Justice published its report "Better Ballots". (I had the honour of being one of task force members). The report is available here: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/better_ballots/ and the page also has links to other problematic ballots. The report shows many examples of voting problems and ballot designs. Whitney Quesenbery was one of the authors of the Brennan Center report. She is the founder and a key member of the Usability Professionals' Association Voting and Usability project, more details here: http://www.upassoc.org/civiclife/voting/ They maintain a blog on this topic: http://ballotusability.blogspot.com/ and indeed recently posted an example of a problematic ballot paper. Their email address is: voting at usabilityprofessionals.org You might ask them to post a call for examples for you. Whitney was also a member of the Election Assistance Committee. You can read more about her work on voting (with examples) here: http://www.wqusability.com/articles/voting-intro.html The AIGA also has a group called 'Design for Democracy'. Their web site is here: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/election-project --Mexico--------------- In 2007, the Information Design Association conference in Greenwich had a very interesting talk about voting problems in Mexico. Unfortunately, the conference web site doesn't seem to be working any more. --Netherlands--------- Thanks, Karel - another set of examples for my list! --Actual examples----- As you will see, there are quite a few examples in the materials above. I've also got a few original ballot papers tucked away somewhere (if I can find them) - contact me offlist and I'll see what I can do about digging them up and lending them to you. Best Caroline Jarrett caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk www.formsthatwork.com Author: "Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability" From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0021.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0021.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0019.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0012.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0010.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; the Labour party have > adopted Robert Cialdini's > Influence). What a fascinating tidbit! Over here, many conservatives are suspicious even of "nudges," especially when emanating from government sources. If they thought congressional democrats were using Cialdini's "scientifically proven ways to be persuasive" on them -- funded by taxpayer dollars -- the new Tea Party probably could foment a 2nd American Revolution! ;-) > Looking back at old film > footage (1940s and 50s, > rarely a bulge in sight > during and after war-time > rationing) I think supply > may be the only answer, > and limited access to > motorised transport. For some demographics (Information Designers, say? ;-), you may be right. However, in the U.S., there are way too many communities where there is a lot more hunger than food. Yet, even in areas where poverty has already limited the food supply, obesity and diseases such as diabetes are still prevalent. Similarly, there are communities in the U.S. with surprisingly little motorized transport, which brings on its own health issues, as pointed out by the activist Bus Riders Union (an arm of the progressive-to-left, multicultural Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles), which first organized in 1995 around the link it saw between environmental racism and racism in L.A.'s mass transportation policies (e.g., in 1997, their "Fight for the Night" street demonstration and other activism forced L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reinstate night time bus service cuts). And in 2005, BRU launched its "Clean Air Clean Lungs Clean Buses" campaign, "linking the fights against air toxins and climate change gases -- where L.A.'s auto system is a major source for both -- to the fight for a world class, bus-centered transit system." (If anyone's interested, their report _The Bus Riders Union Transit Model: Why a Bus-Centered System Will Best Serve U.S. Cities_, authored by "new urbanist" transportation planner Ryan Snyder, is available online at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/ ). So not everyone lives in idyllic neighborhoods where it's safe to saunter down to the corner store for groceries ... assuming there even is a corner store in the neighborhood that sells unprocessed foods. Moreover, researchers are learning that obesity (yet another complex & "contested" modern medical condition/identity, as Obama and Lehrer circled around in the _PBS NewsHour_ interview) is probably more dynamic and on the move than most of us are, even when we do get enough exercise. Here, I'm thinking not only of the very *active* role played by lipids in the human body, and the new thinking that, as with cholesterol, there is "good" and "bad" body fat (e.g., from a 14 Aug. 2005 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_: "For all the women who look down on their ample thighs with loathing: Fret no more. There is new reason to love that dimpled plumpness. "For many people, mainly women, fat on legs, hips and buttocks may help ward off heart disease and diabetes, recent research suggests. ... When women were also heavy above the waist, most advantages of the leg fat vanished, but thick thighs still improved their scores on triglycerides, potentially harmful fats in the blood." ), but also of new research on childhood obesity showing how it causes actual, lasting changes to human biochemistry: "Science is helping doctors better understand why many youngsters and adults can't seem to shed pounds through diet and exercise once they've packed on an excessive amount of weight. "'It turns out that once you're about 100 pounds over your ideal body weight, your body has reset its thermostat,' said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon in San Diego. "The process works this way: Overeating produces an oversupply of insulin, which causes the body to use more of its energy to store fat. That tricks the body into thinking it's being starved when it isn't. The body responds by lowering physical activity, increasing hunger pangs and converting even more energy into fat. "'This is not about a habit that has gone bad. This is about a physiological illness,' Bhoyrul said." (from 21 Sept. 2008 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_) + "If you look at children at the age of two or three, they compensate. If you give them more calories in one meal, they'll eat less later in the day. But if they get exposed to sugar, fat, and salt all day for a few years, they lose the ability to compensate. By age four or five, they're eating all the time." (David Kessler, from interview with the editors of _Nutrition Action_, July/August 2009 issue) I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. ... which is why I think *education* (of children and adults), followed by community-based solutions & initiatives, supported in turn by judicious state and federal policies & wise use of resources, remains our best strategy for going forward. I still believe that it's the "nudges" we come up with for ourselves (rather than having others manipulate us from on high) which have the best chance of working. E.g., not every "nudge" recommended by Tufts University's Susan Roberts (author of _The Instinct Diet_) is going to work equally well for each of us. I don't see myself pouring water over the leftover French Fries on my dinner plate when eating out at a restaurant, which is one of her 5 tips for fighting "restaurant syndrome": "1. NIP NEGATIVE CYCLES IN THE BUD. After an indulgent night of eating out, start your day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. "2. EAT OUT LESS FREQUENTLY, EVEN IF YOU GO OUT JUST AS OFTEN. Try eating at home before a social event, then just nibble lightly while being sociable. "3. NEVER ARRIVE STARVING. Snack on something satisfying before you eat out, such as an apple. "4. MICROMANAGE YOUR ORDER. Be specific about what you want, from salad dressing on the side to no cheese atop the French onion soup. "5. TAKE CONTROL OVER THE SIGNALS YOUR EYES AND NOSE SEND YOUR BRAIN. Drape a napkin over the bread basket. Spill some water on those leftover fries." But I do see myself beginning every day after a night of indulgence with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. Best of all, it's nice to know enough to be able to pick-and-choose from lots of options, and make my own trade-offs like this. Too often, we just don't have enough information to be able to exercise real choice. Strictly speaking, I suppose the many tactical interventions suggested by David Kessler in _The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite_ aren't really "nudges" either, because they require mindfulness at the point of execution. Kessler's guide to making it through "Food Rehab" and resisting the pull of unhealthy foods asks us to act preemptively on ourselves. E.g., "1. REPLACE CHAOS WITH STRUCTURE. Determine ahead of time what you'll eat for meals and snacks. Block out everything else. "2. PRACTICE JUST-RIGHT EATING. Figure out how much food you need. (Odds are, it's less than you think.) Put it on your plate and don't go back for more. "3. PICK FOODS THAT WILL SATISFY, NOT STIMULATE, YOU. What satisfies you is personal, but try foods that occur in nature, like whole grains, beans, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit, combined with lean protein and a small amount of fat. "4. REHEARSE. Anticipate your moves like an elite athlete before a competition. For example, tell yourself, 'If I encounter chocolate-covered pretzels, I'll keep walking.' "5. SEIZE CONTROL. Stay alert to emotional stressors or other stimuli that trigger automatic behavior. Recognize emotions (like sadness, fatigue, or anxiety) that might lead you to overeat. "6. STOP THAT THOUGHT. Change the channel. Turn off the image of the trigger food before you start to debate whether to eat it. "7. THINK NEGATIVE. Pair the unhealthy food with a stream of (unappealing) images. 'That's the flip side of what advertising agencies do when they link an Olympic athlete to a pair of sneakers or an attractive woman to a new piece of technology,' says Kessler." But re-designing food labels for better information transparency at the point of sale -- in line with Kessler's warning about misleading obfuscation in _The End of Overeating_ -- *would* probably qualify as a "nudge" I think: "'If a food contains more sugar than any other ingredient, federal regulations dictate that sugar be listed first on the label. But if a food contains several different kinds of sweeteners, they can be listed separately, which pushes each one farther down the list.' Breakfast cereals, for example, often include a combination of sugar, brown sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey and molasses -- in part so moms looking at the labels don't spot 'sugar' as the top ingredient." (from the Special Supplement to Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ for Aug. 2009) Imagine if the "Ingredients" label on U.S. processed foods -- currently printed in small, sans serif, ALL CAPS right-justified type, with minimal leading, thus making the block paragraph as hard as possible to read in full, and requiring many mothers and grandmothers to get out their reading glasses in the supermarket aisle even to attempt it -- was redesigned as a folksonomy "tag" cloud ... or given an eye-catching graphic treatment like a simple bar chart.... These would be regulated "nudges" I think even the most wary of us could support. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From markb at textmatters.com Thu Feb 18 00:13:08 2010 From: markb at textmatters.com (Mark Barratt) Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:13:08 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: ATypI 2010 Dublin: call for papers Message-ID: <4B7C7804.6080902@textmatters.com> ATypI's 2010 conference committee is requesting proposals for papers and workshops for the Dublin event in September. Proposals must be received by 12 March 2010. Those of us who engage with letters for a living are uniquely placed to examine the political, cultural, historical and social significance of words in all their forms. However, we rarely get this chance ? ATypI Dublin 2010 is our opportunity. We encourage submissions that consider typography, in as broad a context as possible, as part of the material fabric of everyday life. Therefore you are invited to explore the word in its various dimensions including typographic, literary, historical, political, technological and aesthetic. ATypI 2010 welcomes investigations into the materiality of the word in any of its myriad forms: aural, oral, digital, concrete, architectural, environmental, printed and written. Conference attendees will represent the craft, business, educational and technological spheres of type and typography. They will include type designers, graphic designers, project managers and software engineers from leading software companies and font foundries, web designers, information designers, researchers, historians, educators, writers, publishers, lettering artists, students, and typography enthusiasts from around the world. A submission must contain a title and an abstract of the proposed presentation (400 words maximum), and a speaker?s biography (100 words maximum). Presentations may be of 20 or 40 minutes duration. Duration of paper should be specified in the proposal. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to Barbara Jarzyna, the Executive Secretary of ATypI, at secretariat at atypi.org. E-mail messages should have the subject line: Proposal for ATypI 2010. Abstracts for workshops should attempt to identify the likely audience and optimum number of participants as well as space or other requirements. The goals and outcomes of the workshop should be clearly explained. All abstracts will be read by a selection panel made up of ATypI board members and members of the local preparatory committee. Programme committee may suggest amendments to papers or presentations. Submissions due: 12 March 2010 Notification date: 9th April, 2010 best -- Mark Barratt Text Matters Information design: we help explain things using language | design | systems | process improvement ____________________________________________ phone +44 (0)118 986 8313 email markb at textmatters.com web http://www.textmatters.com From marconi2006 at googlemail.com Fri Feb 19 12:58:25 2010 From: marconi2006 at googlemail.com (Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:58:25 -0200 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics Message-ID: Dear all, Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your nearest distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html Jos? -- Jos? Marconi Bezerra de Souza Visiting lecturer of Paran? Federal University, Brazil PhD - Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University of Reading (UK) From lbrasseu at ilstu.edu Fri Feb 19 17:57:25 2010 From: lbrasseu at ilstu.edu (Lee Brasseur) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:57:25 -0600 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> I can't believe it--after all these years. This is very good news. Lee On Feb 19, 2010, at 5:58 AM, Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza wrote: > Dear all, > > Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" > will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. > This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your nearest > distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html > > Jos? > > -- > Jos? Marconi Bezerra de Souza > Visiting lecturer of Paran? Federal University, Brazil > PhD - Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University > of Reading (UK) > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ Lee Brasseur lbrasseu at ilstu.edu Dept. of English Illinois State University Normal Il 61790-4240 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100219/dff2c56f/attachment-0003.htm From davewrenne at gmail.com Fri Feb 19 19:58:28 2010 From: davewrenne at gmail.com (Dave Wrenne) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:58:28 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers Message-ID: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Hello All Hope this finds you well. I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering if anyone here knew any resources? Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any thanks in advance. Best Regards Dave Wrenne From alan at alphabyte.co.nz Fri Feb 19 20:08:57 2010 From: alan at alphabyte.co.nz (Alan T Litchfield) Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:08:57 +1300 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics In-Reply-To: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> References: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> Message-ID: Certainly one of the most important books on my shelf. Alan On 20/02/2010, at 5:57 AM, Lee Brasseur wrote: > I can't believe it--after all these years. This is very good news. > > Lee > > On Feb 19, 2010, at 5:58 AM, Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza wrote: > >> Dear all, >> >> Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" >> will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. >> This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your >> nearest >> distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html >> >> Jos? >> -- Alan T Litchfield AlphaByte PO Box 141, Auckland, 1140 New Zealand http://www.alphabyte.co.nz http://www.alphabyte.co.nz/beatrice From waarde at glo.be Fri Feb 19 20:30:09 2010 From: waarde at glo.be (Karel van der Waarde) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:30:09 +0100 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers In-Reply-To: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> References: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dave, The Dutch Voting form for the June 2009 European elections can be downloaded from: http://users.telenet.be/waarde/Papers/DutchEU-votingform2009-2.jpg (It's a 434K jpg file. If you need a high resolution version, just ask.) The Dutch have abandoned the electronic systems after a fierce campaign "We don't trust computer voting" Their website ( http://wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/) has parts in English: http://wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/English . There are several major problems with the Dutch form for this elections. The Dutch need to elect 25 representatives. That's clear. But there are list-connections. So is list 1 (CDA-Christian Democrats) linked with list 6 (Conservatist Christians). List 2 (Social) is combined with list 4 (Environmental-left) and list 3 (liberal democrats) is combined with list 7 (democrats). So what happens if I give my preference vote to number 27 on list 7? There are several options: a. This gentleman (Floris Kreiken) gets enough preference votes to go directly to the EU-parliament. This is unlikely. b. So, List 7 (Democrats) gets my vote. So there will be a representative (probably the first one on the list) who goes to the EU-parliament. However, this is a fairly small party, which is unlikely to reach enough votes for a single representative. c. Because of the list-connections, it might be that I have voted for the party on list 3. So, on of the first of list 3 goes to the EU-parliament. That was certainly not my intention when I selected number 27 on list 7 .... So, yes, please look at these voting forms and suggest something - on paper - that is clearer. Kind regards, Karel. waarde at glo.be >>>> On 19 Feb 2010, at 19:58, Dave Wrenne wrote: > Hello All > > Hope this finds you well. > > I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in > London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with > voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers > and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to > poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of > form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. > > I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering > if anyone here knew any resources? > > Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any thanks in advance. > > Best Regards > Dave Wrenne > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ From caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk Fri Feb 19 22:17:34 2010 From: caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk (Caroline Jarrett) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:17:34 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers In-Reply-To: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> References: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <000001cab1a8$f59debf0$e0d9c3d0$@jarrett@effortmark.co.uk> Dave Wrenne writes: > > I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in > London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with > voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers > and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to > poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of > form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. > > I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering > if anyone here knew any resources? > A topic dear to my heart. --UK------------------ In 2008, Effortmark Ltd (that's me, Caroline Jarrett) worked with User Vision in Scotland on a project for the Electoral Commission where we ran usability tests on UK ballot papers and other polling materials: - Parliamentary (i.e. General election) - European Parliament - Local election - London elections (x3: Mayor, London Assembly individual members and London Assembly constituency members) - Scottish Parliament - Welsh Assembly - Northern Ireland Assembly These various elections use the following different voting systems: . First past the post used at: UK General elections; the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliamentary and GLA elections for the Constituency Member vote; local government elections in England and Wales; referendums; . Closed list used at: European Parliamentary elections (except in Northern Ireland); the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliamentary elections for the Regional Member vote; the Greater London Authority election for the London-wide Assembly members; . Single transferable vote used at: all elections in Northern Ireland except a UK General election; the Scottish local government elections; . Supplementary vote used at: elections for directly elected mayors in England, including the Mayor of London. We also tested a selection of different postal voting materials. Our report is available at: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/document-summary?assetid=77687 It contains extracts from ballot papers including the mistakes that participants made when trying to vote with them. The Electoral Commission used this evidence, and other work, to inform its new guidelines on electoral materials. These are published at: http://www.dopolitics.org.uk/making-your-mark The Electoral Commission people that we worked with were great and very approachable. Their names are listed on the page that describes our report. If you do contact them, please bear in mind that they are extremely busy at the moment because of the General Election that must happen this year. Louise Ferguson has worked on improving the voting experience in the UK for ages, and is particularly interested in evoting. Her resources are here: http://louiseferguson.com/evoting/ --USA-------------- In the US, the Brennan Center for Justice published its report "Better Ballots". (I had the honour of being one of task force members). The report is available here: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/better_ballots/ and the page also has links to other problematic ballots. The report shows many examples of voting problems and ballot designs. Whitney Quesenbery was one of the authors of the Brennan Center report. She is the founder and a key member of the Usability Professionals' Association Voting and Usability project, more details here: http://www.upassoc.org/civiclife/voting/ They maintain a blog on this topic: http://ballotusability.blogspot.com/ and indeed recently posted an example of a problematic ballot paper. Their email address is: voting at usabilityprofessionals.org You might ask them to post a call for examples for you. Whitney was also a member of the Election Assistance Committee. You can read more about her work on voting (with examples) here: http://www.wqusability.com/articles/voting-intro.html The AIGA also has a group called 'Design for Democracy'. Their web site is here: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/election-project --Mexico--------------- In 2007, the Information Design Association conference in Greenwich had a very interesting talk about voting problems in Mexico. Unfortunately, the conference web site doesn't seem to be working any more. --Netherlands--------- Thanks, Karel - another set of examples for my list! --Actual examples----- As you will see, there are quite a few examples in the materials above. I've also got a few original ballot papers tucked away somewhere (if I can find them) - contact me offlist and I'll see what I can do about digging them up and lending them to you. Best Caroline Jarrett caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk www.formsthatwork.com Author: "Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability" From caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk Sun Feb 21 15:48:48 2010 From: caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk (Caroline Jarrett) Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:48:48 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers In-Reply-To: References: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> <000001cab1a8$f59debf0$e0d9c3d0$@jarrett@effortmark.co.uk> Message-ID: <000601cab304$fe388b00$faa9a100$@jarrett@effortmark.co.uk> Hi all, Whitney Quesenbery also send this along to me: > > There is a good collection of US ballots at the NIST elections site. > http://vote.nist.gov/ballots.htm > Best Caroline Jarrett www.formsthatwork.com From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0022.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0022.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0020.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0013.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0011.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; the Labour party have > adopted Robert Cialdini's > Influence). What a fascinating tidbit! Over here, many conservatives are suspicious even of "nudges," especially when emanating from government sources. If they thought congressional democrats were using Cialdini's "scientifically proven ways to be persuasive" on them -- funded by taxpayer dollars -- the new Tea Party probably could foment a 2nd American Revolution! ;-) > Looking back at old film > footage (1940s and 50s, > rarely a bulge in sight > during and after war-time > rationing) I think supply > may be the only answer, > and limited access to > motorised transport. For some demographics (Information Designers, say? ;-), you may be right. However, in the U.S., there are way too many communities where there is a lot more hunger than food. Yet, even in areas where poverty has already limited the food supply, obesity and diseases such as diabetes are still prevalent. Similarly, there are communities in the U.S. with surprisingly little motorized transport, which brings on its own health issues, as pointed out by the activist Bus Riders Union (an arm of the progressive-to-left, multicultural Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles), which first organized in 1995 around the link it saw between environmental racism and racism in L.A.'s mass transportation policies (e.g., in 1997, their "Fight for the Night" street demonstration and other activism forced L.A.'s Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reinstate night time bus service cuts). And in 2005, BRU launched its "Clean Air Clean Lungs Clean Buses" campaign, "linking the fights against air toxins and climate change gases -- where L.A.'s auto system is a major source for both -- to the fight for a world class, bus-centered transit system." (If anyone's interested, their report _The Bus Riders Union Transit Model: Why a Bus-Centered System Will Best Serve U.S. Cities_, authored by "new urbanist" transportation planner Ryan Snyder, is available online at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/ ). So not everyone lives in idyllic neighborhoods where it's safe to saunter down to the corner store for groceries ... assuming there even is a corner store in the neighborhood that sells unprocessed foods. Moreover, researchers are learning that obesity (yet another complex & "contested" modern medical condition/identity, as Obama and Lehrer circled around in the _PBS NewsHour_ interview) is probably more dynamic and on the move than most of us are, even when we do get enough exercise. Here, I'm thinking not only of the very *active* role played by lipids in the human body, and the new thinking that, as with cholesterol, there is "good" and "bad" body fat (e.g., from a 14 Aug. 2005 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_: "For all the women who look down on their ample thighs with loathing: Fret no more. There is new reason to love that dimpled plumpness. "For many people, mainly women, fat on legs, hips and buttocks may help ward off heart disease and diabetes, recent research suggests. ... When women were also heavy above the waist, most advantages of the leg fat vanished, but thick thighs still improved their scores on triglycerides, potentially harmful fats in the blood." ), but also of new research on childhood obesity showing how it causes actual, lasting changes to human biochemistry: "Science is helping doctors better understand why many youngsters and adults can't seem to shed pounds through diet and exercise once they've packed on an excessive amount of weight. "'It turns out that once you're about 100 pounds over your ideal body weight, your body has reset its thermostat,' said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a bariatric surgeon in San Diego. "The process works this way: Overeating produces an oversupply of insulin, which causes the body to use more of its energy to store fat. That tricks the body into thinking it's being starved when it isn't. The body responds by lowering physical activity, increasing hunger pangs and converting even more energy into fat. "'This is not about a habit that has gone bad. This is about a physiological illness,' Bhoyrul said." (from 21 Sept. 2008 article in the _San Diego Union-Tribune_) + "If you look at children at the age of two or three, they compensate. If you give them more calories in one meal, they'll eat less later in the day. But if they get exposed to sugar, fat, and salt all day for a few years, they lose the ability to compensate. By age four or five, they're eating all the time." (David Kessler, from interview with the editors of _Nutrition Action_, July/August 2009 issue) I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. ... which is why I think *education* (of children and adults), followed by community-based solutions & initiatives, supported in turn by judicious state and federal policies & wise use of resources, remains our best strategy for going forward. I still believe that it's the "nudges" we come up with for ourselves (rather than having others manipulate us from on high) which have the best chance of working. E.g., not every "nudge" recommended by Tufts University's Susan Roberts (author of _The Instinct Diet_) is going to work equally well for each of us. I don't see myself pouring water over the leftover French Fries on my dinner plate when eating out at a restaurant, which is one of her 5 tips for fighting "restaurant syndrome": "1. NIP NEGATIVE CYCLES IN THE BUD. After an indulgent night of eating out, start your day with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. "2. EAT OUT LESS FREQUENTLY, EVEN IF YOU GO OUT JUST AS OFTEN. Try eating at home before a social event, then just nibble lightly while being sociable. "3. NEVER ARRIVE STARVING. Snack on something satisfying before you eat out, such as an apple. "4. MICROMANAGE YOUR ORDER. Be specific about what you want, from salad dressing on the side to no cheese atop the French onion soup. "5. TAKE CONTROL OVER THE SIGNALS YOUR EYES AND NOSE SEND YOUR BRAIN. Drape a napkin over the bread basket. Spill some water on those leftover fries." But I do see myself beginning every day after a night of indulgence with a bowl of high-fiber cereal. Best of all, it's nice to know enough to be able to pick-and-choose from lots of options, and make my own trade-offs like this. Too often, we just don't have enough information to be able to exercise real choice. Strictly speaking, I suppose the many tactical interventions suggested by David Kessler in _The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite_ aren't really "nudges" either, because they require mindfulness at the point of execution. Kessler's guide to making it through "Food Rehab" and resisting the pull of unhealthy foods asks us to act preemptively on ourselves. E.g., "1. REPLACE CHAOS WITH STRUCTURE. Determine ahead of time what you'll eat for meals and snacks. Block out everything else. "2. PRACTICE JUST-RIGHT EATING. Figure out how much food you need. (Odds are, it's less than you think.) Put it on your plate and don't go back for more. "3. PICK FOODS THAT WILL SATISFY, NOT STIMULATE, YOU. What satisfies you is personal, but try foods that occur in nature, like whole grains, beans, non-starchy vegetables, and fruit, combined with lean protein and a small amount of fat. "4. REHEARSE. Anticipate your moves like an elite athlete before a competition. For example, tell yourself, 'If I encounter chocolate-covered pretzels, I'll keep walking.' "5. SEIZE CONTROL. Stay alert to emotional stressors or other stimuli that trigger automatic behavior. Recognize emotions (like sadness, fatigue, or anxiety) that might lead you to overeat. "6. STOP THAT THOUGHT. Change the channel. Turn off the image of the trigger food before you start to debate whether to eat it. "7. THINK NEGATIVE. Pair the unhealthy food with a stream of (unappealing) images. 'That's the flip side of what advertising agencies do when they link an Olympic athlete to a pair of sneakers or an attractive woman to a new piece of technology,' says Kessler." But re-designing food labels for better information transparency at the point of sale -- in line with Kessler's warning about misleading obfuscation in _The End of Overeating_ -- *would* probably qualify as a "nudge" I think: "'If a food contains more sugar than any other ingredient, federal regulations dictate that sugar be listed first on the label. But if a food contains several different kinds of sweeteners, they can be listed separately, which pushes each one farther down the list.' Breakfast cereals, for example, often include a combination of sugar, brown sugar, fructose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey and molasses -- in part so moms looking at the labels don't spot 'sugar' as the top ingredient." (from the Special Supplement to Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ for Aug. 2009) Imagine if the "Ingredients" label on U.S. processed foods -- currently printed in small, sans serif, ALL CAPS right-justified type, with minimal leading, thus making the block paragraph as hard as possible to read in full, and requiring many mothers and grandmothers to get out their reading glasses in the supermarket aisle even to attempt it -- was redesigned as a folksonomy "tag" cloud ... or given an eye-catching graphic treatment like a simple bar chart.... These would be regulated "nudges" I think even the most wary of us could support. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From markb at textmatters.com Thu Feb 18 00:13:08 2010 From: markb at textmatters.com (Mark Barratt) Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:13:08 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: ATypI 2010 Dublin: call for papers Message-ID: <4B7C7804.6080902@textmatters.com> ATypI's 2010 conference committee is requesting proposals for papers and workshops for the Dublin event in September. Proposals must be received by 12 March 2010. Those of us who engage with letters for a living are uniquely placed to examine the political, cultural, historical and social significance of words in all their forms. However, we rarely get this chance ? ATypI Dublin 2010 is our opportunity. We encourage submissions that consider typography, in as broad a context as possible, as part of the material fabric of everyday life. Therefore you are invited to explore the word in its various dimensions including typographic, literary, historical, political, technological and aesthetic. ATypI 2010 welcomes investigations into the materiality of the word in any of its myriad forms: aural, oral, digital, concrete, architectural, environmental, printed and written. Conference attendees will represent the craft, business, educational and technological spheres of type and typography. They will include type designers, graphic designers, project managers and software engineers from leading software companies and font foundries, web designers, information designers, researchers, historians, educators, writers, publishers, lettering artists, students, and typography enthusiasts from around the world. A submission must contain a title and an abstract of the proposed presentation (400 words maximum), and a speaker?s biography (100 words maximum). Presentations may be of 20 or 40 minutes duration. Duration of paper should be specified in the proposal. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to Barbara Jarzyna, the Executive Secretary of ATypI, at secretariat at atypi.org. E-mail messages should have the subject line: Proposal for ATypI 2010. Abstracts for workshops should attempt to identify the likely audience and optimum number of participants as well as space or other requirements. The goals and outcomes of the workshop should be clearly explained. All abstracts will be read by a selection panel made up of ATypI board members and members of the local preparatory committee. Programme committee may suggest amendments to papers or presentations. Submissions due: 12 March 2010 Notification date: 9th April, 2010 best -- Mark Barratt Text Matters Information design: we help explain things using language | design | systems | process improvement ____________________________________________ phone +44 (0)118 986 8313 email markb at textmatters.com web http://www.textmatters.com From marconi2006 at googlemail.com Fri Feb 19 12:58:25 2010 From: marconi2006 at googlemail.com (Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:58:25 -0200 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics Message-ID: Dear all, Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your nearest distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html Jos? -- Jos? Marconi Bezerra de Souza Visiting lecturer of Paran? Federal University, Brazil PhD - Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University of Reading (UK) From lbrasseu at ilstu.edu Fri Feb 19 17:57:25 2010 From: lbrasseu at ilstu.edu (Lee Brasseur) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:57:25 -0600 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> I can't believe it--after all these years. This is very good news. Lee On Feb 19, 2010, at 5:58 AM, Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza wrote: > Dear all, > > Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" > will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. > This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your nearest > distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html > > Jos? > > -- > Jos? Marconi Bezerra de Souza > Visiting lecturer of Paran? Federal University, Brazil > PhD - Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, The University > of Reading (UK) > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ Lee Brasseur lbrasseu at ilstu.edu Dept. of English Illinois State University Normal Il 61790-4240 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100219/dff2c56f/attachment-0004.htm From davewrenne at gmail.com Fri Feb 19 19:58:28 2010 From: davewrenne at gmail.com (Dave Wrenne) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:58:28 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers Message-ID: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Hello All Hope this finds you well. I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering if anyone here knew any resources? Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any thanks in advance. Best Regards Dave Wrenne From alan at alphabyte.co.nz Fri Feb 19 20:08:57 2010 From: alan at alphabyte.co.nz (Alan T Litchfield) Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:08:57 +1300 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Semiology of Graphics In-Reply-To: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> References: <066D9F05-82ED-4CD8-B5A4-6A254AC791A6@ilstu.edu> Message-ID: Certainly one of the most important books on my shelf. Alan On 20/02/2010, at 5:57 AM, Lee Brasseur wrote: > I can't believe it--after all these years. This is very good news. > > Lee > > On Feb 19, 2010, at 5:58 AM, Jose Marconi Bezerra de Souza wrote: > >> Dear all, >> >> Just to inform that Jacques Bertin?s "Semiology of Graphics" >> will be republished later November by the ESRI Press. >> This link will take you to the site that helps you locate your >> nearest >> distributor: http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html >> >> Jos? >> -- Alan T Litchfield AlphaByte PO Box 141, Auckland, 1140 New Zealand http://www.alphabyte.co.nz http://www.alphabyte.co.nz/beatrice From waarde at glo.be Fri Feb 19 20:30:09 2010 From: waarde at glo.be (Karel van der Waarde) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:30:09 +0100 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers In-Reply-To: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> References: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dave, The Dutch Voting form for the June 2009 European elections can be downloaded from: http://users.telenet.be/waarde/Papers/DutchEU-votingform2009-2.jpg (It's a 434K jpg file. If you need a high resolution version, just ask.) The Dutch have abandoned the electronic systems after a fierce campaign "We don't trust computer voting" Their website ( http://wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/) has parts in English: http://wijvertrouwenstemcomputersniet.nl/English . There are several major problems with the Dutch form for this elections. The Dutch need to elect 25 representatives. That's clear. But there are list-connections. So is list 1 (CDA-Christian Democrats) linked with list 6 (Conservatist Christians). List 2 (Social) is combined with list 4 (Environmental-left) and list 3 (liberal democrats) is combined with list 7 (democrats). So what happens if I give my preference vote to number 27 on list 7? There are several options: a. This gentleman (Floris Kreiken) gets enough preference votes to go directly to the EU-parliament. This is unlikely. b. So, List 7 (Democrats) gets my vote. So there will be a representative (probably the first one on the list) who goes to the EU-parliament. However, this is a fairly small party, which is unlikely to reach enough votes for a single representative. c. Because of the list-connections, it might be that I have voted for the party on list 3. So, on of the first of list 3 goes to the EU-parliament. That was certainly not my intention when I selected number 27 on list 7 .... So, yes, please look at these voting forms and suggest something - on paper - that is clearer. Kind regards, Karel. waarde at glo.be >>>> On 19 Feb 2010, at 19:58, Dave Wrenne wrote: > Hello All > > Hope this finds you well. > > I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in > London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with > voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers > and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to > poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of > form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. > > I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering > if anyone here knew any resources? > > Thanks for taking the time to read my post and any thanks in advance. > > Best Regards > Dave Wrenne > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ From caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk Fri Feb 19 22:17:34 2010 From: caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk (Caroline Jarrett) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:17:34 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers In-Reply-To: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> References: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <000001cab1a8$f59debf0$e0d9c3d0$@jarrett@effortmark.co.uk> Dave Wrenne writes: > > I am a MA Communication Design student at Central St. Martins in > London and am currently working on my main MA project which deals with > voting and electorial design with special interest in ballot papers > and the issues that have arrisen in many democratic elections due to > poor ballot design. I am currently researching the fundamentals of > form design as to inform my research on the design of the ballot. > > I am having issues in finding ballot paper examples and was wondering > if anyone here knew any resources? > A topic dear to my heart. --UK------------------ In 2008, Effortmark Ltd (that's me, Caroline Jarrett) worked with User Vision in Scotland on a project for the Electoral Commission where we ran usability tests on UK ballot papers and other polling materials: - Parliamentary (i.e. General election) - European Parliament - Local election - London elections (x3: Mayor, London Assembly individual members and London Assembly constituency members) - Scottish Parliament - Welsh Assembly - Northern Ireland Assembly These various elections use the following different voting systems: . First past the post used at: UK General elections; the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliamentary and GLA elections for the Constituency Member vote; local government elections in England and Wales; referendums; . Closed list used at: European Parliamentary elections (except in Northern Ireland); the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliamentary elections for the Regional Member vote; the Greater London Authority election for the London-wide Assembly members; . Single transferable vote used at: all elections in Northern Ireland except a UK General election; the Scottish local government elections; . Supplementary vote used at: elections for directly elected mayors in England, including the Mayor of London. We also tested a selection of different postal voting materials. Our report is available at: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/document-summary?assetid=77687 It contains extracts from ballot papers including the mistakes that participants made when trying to vote with them. The Electoral Commission used this evidence, and other work, to inform its new guidelines on electoral materials. These are published at: http://www.dopolitics.org.uk/making-your-mark The Electoral Commission people that we worked with were great and very approachable. Their names are listed on the page that describes our report. If you do contact them, please bear in mind that they are extremely busy at the moment because of the General Election that must happen this year. Louise Ferguson has worked on improving the voting experience in the UK for ages, and is particularly interested in evoting. Her resources are here: http://louiseferguson.com/evoting/ --USA-------------- In the US, the Brennan Center for Justice published its report "Better Ballots". (I had the honour of being one of task force members). The report is available here: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/better_ballots/ and the page also has links to other problematic ballots. The report shows many examples of voting problems and ballot designs. Whitney Quesenbery was one of the authors of the Brennan Center report. She is the founder and a key member of the Usability Professionals' Association Voting and Usability project, more details here: http://www.upassoc.org/civiclife/voting/ They maintain a blog on this topic: http://ballotusability.blogspot.com/ and indeed recently posted an example of a problematic ballot paper. Their email address is: voting at usabilityprofessionals.org You might ask them to post a call for examples for you. Whitney was also a member of the Election Assistance Committee. You can read more about her work on voting (with examples) here: http://www.wqusability.com/articles/voting-intro.html The AIGA also has a group called 'Design for Democracy'. Their web site is here: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/election-project --Mexico--------------- In 2007, the Information Design Association conference in Greenwich had a very interesting talk about voting problems in Mexico. Unfortunately, the conference web site doesn't seem to be working any more. --Netherlands--------- Thanks, Karel - another set of examples for my list! --Actual examples----- As you will see, there are quite a few examples in the materials above. I've also got a few original ballot papers tucked away somewhere (if I can find them) - contact me offlist and I'll see what I can do about digging them up and lending them to you. Best Caroline Jarrett caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk www.formsthatwork.com Author: "Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability" From caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk Sun Feb 21 15:48:48 2010 From: caroline.jarrett at effortmark.co.uk (Caroline Jarrett) Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:48:48 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Ballot Papers In-Reply-To: References: <1420a5981002191058y4c8f134w4dacb4df9022e04b@mail.gmail.com> <000001cab1a8$f59debf0$e0d9c3d0$@jarrett@effortmark.co.uk> Message-ID: <000601cab304$fe388b00$faa9a100$@jarrett@effortmark.co.uk> Hi all, Whitney Quesenbery also send this along to me: > > There is a good collection of US ballots at the NIST elections site. > http://vote.nist.gov/ballots.htm > Best Caroline Jarrett www.formsthatwork.com From s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk Mon Feb 1 21:01:07 2010 From: s.boyd-davis at mdx.ac.uk (Stephen Boyd Davis) Date: Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:01:07 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Lansdown Lecture Wednesday 10 Feb - Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although Jonathan will not be focussing on information design as such, I think the implications of his work may be of interest to some on this list. Stephen _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT, UK Lansdown Lecture: Prof. Jonathan Raper on Location-Based Media When: 4:45pm, Wednesday 10 February 2010 Where: Room 137, Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet EN4 8HT A Lansdown Lecture for the Art and Design Research Institute at Middlesex University. As media escape the traditional confines of the screen and the page they have become interactive, social, portable and personal. One of the most significant developments has been location-sensitivity. Devices such as phones, PDAs, cameras - and of course cars - now know where they are, and this opens up startling possibilities for providing pertinent, topical information, tailored to the user's current situation. It also generates spatial information about users' movements which can be used for many purposes. I am therefore particularly pleased to announce a Lansdown Lecture by Jonathan Raper, Professor of Geographic Information Science at City University London. He is an internationally renowned expert who has recently focussed on the design, development and implications of location-based services and will talk on Publishing and Discovering Locative Media. He is currently advising the Mayor of London on the London DataStore project to release all London's public sector data. This is a rare opportunity to get to grips with these new opportunities and identify the potential - and perhaps the dangers - for the future. Entrance free. All welcome. No need to book. http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=85&item=32 -- _____________________________________________________________ Stephen Boyd Davis Reader in Interactive Media Acting Head, Art and Design Research Institute Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072 ............................................................. The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0023.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 8823 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100201/b00dc98d/attachment-0023.jpg From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 4 00:14:51 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 23:14:51 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: PhD research at Reading Message-ID: <36BE69E4-CC5A-441D-A809-600F01C403D8@reading.ac.uk> Find out more about doctoral study at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Announcing a postgraduate research colloquium & workshop, Tuesday 23 March 2010, 10am-4pm Open to potential students, current academics and interested parties. A day of talks and other activities including: ? presentations of staff research activities ? workshop on writing a research proposal for a PhD ? a day in the life of a postgraduate research student. Assistance with travel to Reading may be available for current UK- based students who are interested in applying The event is free of charge, but registration in advance required. For further information or to register, contact Carolyn Davidson +44 (0)118 378 6598, c.davidson at reading.ac.uk __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading T +44 (0) 118 378 6411 M +44 (0) 7850 665933 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100203/ccd087ea/attachment-0021.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Wed Feb 10 22:18:00 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:18:00 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her interview: "The beverage industry today just announced that they're going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic location. Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From r.waller at reading.ac.uk Thu Feb 11 00:09:47 2010 From: r.waller at reading.ac.uk (Rob Waller) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:09:47 +0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: Good luck. By coincidence a headline in the Independent newspaper in the UK today is "Decade of spending on health messages 'has had little effect'" "People are eating as badly as they were 10 years ago despite the spending of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer?s money on advertising campaigns on fruit and vegetables, saturated fat and other health issues, the Government?s food watchdog admitted yesterday..." http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html __________________________________ Rob Waller Department of Typography & Graphic Communication University of Reading On 10 Feb 2010, at 21:18, Deborah Taylor-Pearce wrote: > > I thought Caf? members might be interested in Michelle Obama's newest > initiative regarding children's health and nutrition. > > She was interviewed by Jim Lehrer of the _PBS HewsHour_ yesterday, 9 > Feb. 2010, with video and text transcript available online at the > _NewsHour_'s newly-styled website: > > http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june10/firstlady_02-09.html > > Obama mentioned redesigning only the labels for soft drinks in her > interview: > > "The beverage industry today just announced that they're > going to change their labels on soft drinks, not just the > ones in stores, but ones in vending machines. So you know, > the goal is to reach out to the industries that have a role > to play and have them come up with solutions that make sense." > > But I expect she -- as well as schools and companies and trade groups > looking to participate in the White House initiative -- might be > responsive to IDers with other creative ideas about how we remake food > product labels and related educational materials to "nudge" (in the > sense of _Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and > Happiness_, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein) families to change > behaviors and demand more healthy, community-based food alternatives > ... for everyone in the U.S., regardless of income or geographic > location. > > Deborah > _____ > > Deborah Taylor-Pearce > dtp at she-philosopher.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Use the following address to post a message to all subscribers: > infodesign-cafe at list.informationdesign.org > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your options, visit: > http://list.InformationDesign.org/mailman/listinfo/infodesign-cafe > > For all Information Design matters: > http://InformationDesign.org > > Problems? Write to: > InfoDesign-Cafe-Admin at list.InformationDesign.org > ___________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100210/a7c48434/attachment-0014.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Fri Feb 12 06:38:55 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:38:55 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labeling) In-Reply-To: References: <4B732288.20300@she-philosopher.com> Message-ID: <4B74E96F.4050209@she-philosopher.com> Hi, Rob -- >http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/decade-of-spending-on-health-messages-has-had-little-effect-1894551.html Very interesting piece. I've been thinking a lot about related issues of late, so I have a few comments.... ** re. raising "awareness" ** I agree that building "awareness" is not enough, as summarized in the photo caption, "Health awareness has risen but actual intake has hardly changed". Making people "aware" is not the same thing as *educating* them, and we need to do this latter kind of consciousness-raising -- and a great deal more, I think -- if we are serious about changing individual/group behavior. So I, too, am leery of approaches which assume that mass "awareness" will somehow lead eventually to the desired health outcomes, which is what I took away from the statement: "A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: 'One of the things we are encouraged by is that there?s much more awareness and 5 a day is onen of the best health mesasges out there and now the challenge is to convert that awareness into actual increases in intakes.'" It's going to take a whole lot more than simple "awareness" to get us to overcome our human propensity for "mindless eating" (from book of same name by food psychologist, Brian Wansink). ** re. limiting "junk food marketing" ** Not exactly sure what is meant by "obeseogenic culture": "Richard Watts of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming said: [...] 'Where the government has introduced tough rules, such as improving school food, genuine progress has been made but unless we really challenge our "obeseogenic" culture by doing things like introducing proper protections from junk food marketing, these worrying trends will continue.'" but here in the U.S., where obesity has yet to be regarded as "telegenic," I expect it would translate to things like the "Battle of the Big Burgers," begun by the fast food chain, Carl's Jr., back in 2001 (about which a male advertising executive is reputed to have crowed, "I'm lovin' it. Carl's Jr. always brings automatic weapons to a knife fight." ;-). Clearly, the "nanny state" doesn't stand a chance in this kind of street fight over how & where we spend our food dollars. Nor is there much appetite within the U.S. public (or the Roberts Supreme Court) for the recommended imposition of "proper protections from junk food marketing," whatever these might be. This leaves the health-conscious consumer -- and yes, some of us who consider ourselves "health-conscious" DO actually like convenience foods, and don't wish to have to give them up! -- with pretty limited options. But even so, there *are* options and trade-offs we can make ... which is where I think the need for better, more targeted information comes in. According to _Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter_ (some of which is posted online at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ although this particular article on the "Battle of the Big Burgers" is not), "Going into the 'burger battle' armed with information -- check the restaurant chains' websites for nutrition data -- is the smartest strategy. But if in doubt, do the opposite of what's touted in the eateries' ads: Think small." Of note, in this case, the facts are probably at odds with general "awareness," since "Burger King's Tendergrill Garden Salad ... has more calories (460) and saturated fat (7 grams) than its Whopper Jr. (370, 6 grams)." and "McDonald's regular burger actually has fewer calories than any other sandwich on the menu, and its 3.5 grams of saturated fat is the same as the grilled Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap, which has 10 more calories at 260." As one who does study the nutritional information given at the websites of fast-food chains I frequent, I know first-hand that the charts are often misleading (e.g., by breaking out condiments, etc. separately, and not always listing all of these, either), as well as sometimes difficult to navigate (e.g., broken up over multiple Web pages, making meaningful comparisons extremely difficult, or sporting online calculators that require you to plan an entire meal in order to retrieve numbers, thus making it impossible to comparison-shop one item against another). I could be wrong about this, but it's my suspicion that the nutritional information is deliberately designed to put people off and make it harder for us to uncover what it is we want/need to know. This, I would think, *could* be better regulated, and still leave Carl's Jr. -- where, for the record, I do NOT choose to eat, having been turned off long ago by their burgers, and more recently, by their he-man ads, which for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, are designed to disgust girly-men and women like me, and pretty much do (to the delight of their target audience, which can then bond & consume around this ;-) -- to exercise its unfettered rights to free speech in the marketplace. One other thought on this topic: improved nutritional labeling must be at least somewhat effective, because restaurants and the fast food industry are always quick to vigorously fight any regulation in this area (let alone "tough rules"), and to co-opt the design of nutritional messages at every opportunity. In May 2009, Tufts' _Health & Nutrition Letter_ ran an article on the multiple nutrition-scoring systems introduced by supermarkets in the U.S.: "NuVal," "Smart Choices," "Guiding Stars," "Overall Nutrition Quality Index," "Nutritional Quality Index," another "Nutritional Quality Index" modified by a researcher at Texas A&M University, "Nutrition IQ," and "Naturally-Nutrient Rich." Unfortunately, the Tufts article is not available online, but a brief update on the matter is at http://tuftshealthletter.com/ShowArticle.aspx?RowID=772 and is useful. What I draw from this long list of competing, confusing nutritional standards is that, in the U.S. at least, the science & art of "nutrient profiling, labeling and density" is, as the post-modernists like to say, highly contested terrain. ;-) There are many competing stakeholders when it comes to the design of a "fair" scoring system and visual standard, and it makes sense to me that IDers, with their different set of professional values, have something to contribute here, too. Plus, it's my understanding that the design of restaurant menus has already fallen prey to the desire for obfuscation over transparency, in at least one area. The following is from _Marketplace_'s interview of 1/22/2010 with William Poundstone, author of the recently-published _Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)_: "RYSSDAL: Context is everything. You have this great diagram of a menu, I think, from a New York City restaurant and you break down, you know, which price is where and why it's all set out. It's all about how the consumer perceives that data. "POUNDSTONE: Mmhmmm. Yeah, menus are an area where price consultants have had a huge effect. They've found that if they use center justification of the menu item, so the prices don't end up all in a straight column, you pay a little less attention to them. So you're more inclined to order what you really want, which often tends to be kind of expensive." (The full text transcript is at: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/01/22/pm-priceless-q/ ). So, if you're an intrepid Information Designer hoping to subvert the prevailing visual rhetoric concerning what & why we eat as we do, where do you start? Can you make your case for better information design to a restaurateur, without needing a government mandate requiring that they do as you say? ** re. "modifying the food supply" vs. modifying behavior ** Again, I don't think there is the political will in the U.S. for this sort of thing: "Professor Sanders said: 'All the sucecssful nutrition interventions have always been about modifying the food supply rather than changing individual?s behaviour.'" although if someone out there can prove me wrong in this, I would be delighted. ;-) That said, some of the specifics of Sanders's proposal could, and probably will, be implemented here, as long as they're not framed as government "interventions." "Tom Sanders, professor of human nutrition at King?s College, London [...] suggested the Government?s focus on the five-a-day campaign had been a mistake because evidence showed that making improvements to the offer of food rather than relying on individuals. Schools should, he said, increase the teaching of cooking; supermarkets end 'buy on get one free' offers; cafes, restaurants and other catering outlets stop suggesting larger or extra portions through upselling and manufacturers introduce the FSA?s traffic light labelling system with guideline daily amounts and calorie counts." For some time now, I have been collecting stories about schools in the U.S. planting/sponsoring community gardens and local farmers; integrating lessons about nutrition and food (not only where it comes from, but also how to prepare & serve it) into the curriculum; overhauling cafeteria menus and meal-plans with student input; getting vending machines off-campus; bringing local farmers' markets on to college campuses; etc. So these sorts of things are already going on, and I think Michelle Obama's White House garden, and recent children's health initiative -- building as it does on her own first-hand experience with making small and manageable "lifestyle overhauls" -- takes the right approach, and will galvanize even more schools and families around the issues ... especially given the pull of celebrity, which makes this popular First Lady and her children even more of a model and inspiration. But our obesity problem -- and its attendant diseases -- is about more than just food. And getting people in post-industrial economies to exercise (or "move," as re-branded by Obama) enough to counteract their excessive caloric intakes is perhaps even more of a challenge than selling us on a healthier diet. I think information designers can play a role here, too, because there's such a disconnect between our calculations of calories-in vs. calories-out. We need to make these sorts of calculations habitual to modern life, and yet, they are far from being any such thing. I personally would love to see a whole lot of simple charts about this, explaining how the body burns calories (even at rest) ... how the ratios change with age and the loss of muscle mass ... and how even daily chores, such as gardening and housework, can be effective forms of exercise. In my experience, the calculations over calories can get pretty complicated, and we're often working from inadequate or erroneous data to begin with (e.g., the "calories burned" counters on many exercise machines are about as reliable as the marketing claims concerning how many pages your inkjet cartridge will print). Plus, the numbers can be a real turn-off when you learn, say, that 300 minutes a week of moderate-to-high-intensity exercise is required "for controlling weight." For many of us, this is NOT a trivial number, and we need a comprehensive strategy and many creative tactics -- not more "awareness" -- in order to achieve it. I have seen a couple such charts promoting more mindful eating while educating us about the food trade-offs most of us need to make in publications like _Consumer Reports on Health_ and CSPI's _Nutrition Action_. The latter's "Can You Afford the Extras?" (from the Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of _Nutrition Action Healthletter_, vol. 35, no. 1, pg. 9), showing how much exercise a 150-pound person would have to do in order to burn off the calories consumed from eating a few popular foods, just barely scratches the surface, though. (I've temporarily posted a facsimile of this to my website at http://www.she-philosopher.com/home/temp/NAH2008-v31n1_p9.jpg for those following this discussion, and will leave it there while discussion is ongoing.) So to me, this is a whole subject area, about which few of us know enough, sorely in need of some innovative treatments. And FWIW, even *I* think this is a clear case where creative visual language can excel at delivering the information. ;-) ... As for me, I'm now off to use up about 5 minutes of a 30-min. session on my elliptical exerciser burning off that handful (only one-quarter cup!) of supposedly "healthy" trail mix -- almonds, peanuts, cranberries, raisins, & wasabi peas -- I snacked on earlier today, consuming 130+ calories in the process. (As usual, I didn't actually measure my serving size, and like to pretend that a heaping handful must be about 1/4 cup since my hands are so small. ;-) Deborah _____ Deborah Taylor-Pearce dtp at she-philosopher.com From alison at alisonblack.co.uk Fri Feb 12 10:49:17 2010 From: alison at alisonblack.co.uk (Alison Black) Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:49:17 -0000 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) Message-ID: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> There is some small evidence that nudge works (incidentally in the UK the Tory party has adopted Thaler's Nudge; the Labour party have adopted Robert Cialdini's Influence). I heard Thaler interviewed earlier this month and he was refreshingly realistic about the power of nudge, commenting on himself and co-author, Cass Sunstein: "We're just a couple of university professors who can only just keep our offices tidy." Regarding the opportunities for information design and changes in eating behaviour. Yes, nutrition information can be clarified but for that clarification to have real influence would require the complete reprioritising of all the messages surrounding food consumption (packaging, in-store, media, sponsorship etc). Looking back at old film footage (1940s and 50s, rarely a bulge in sight during and after war-time rationing) I think supply may be the only answer, and limited access to motorised transport. Alison -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.webtic.nl/pipermail/infodesign-cafe/attachments/20100212/898c625f/attachment-0012.htm From dtp at she-philosopher.com Sun Feb 14 01:29:27 2010 From: dtp at she-philosopher.com (Deborah Taylor-Pearce) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:29:27 -0800 Subject: InfoD-Cafe: Michelle Obama takes on childhood obesity (and product labelling) In-Reply-To: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> References: <000301caabc8$a57a3920$f06eab60$@co.uk> Message-ID: <4B7743E7.5010805@she-philosopher.com> Alison wrote: > (incidentally in the UK the > Tory party has adopted Thaler's > Nudge; t