The Infographics Bubble

The web is changing dramatically and web user’s habits are evolving extremely rapidly. In this era of “Big Data World” and diminishing attention span, it is no longer impressive & practical to research and churn out written information. As a result, web users are getting more attracted to infographics – clearly displayed visual or graphic representation of straight-forward and interesting data. They tend to draw users attention to a particular trend or possibility and help visitors quickly capture the major part of information.

Although their full potential is still in the exploration phase, infographics have started benefitting users, websites & the online community as a whole.

Attractive - People love to see images, graphics & animations on the page. They draw a lot of attention & discussion.

Snap shot – Infographics provide various levels of information in a single figure/graph which acts as a “snapshot” of the whole picture.

Easy - It is easier to interpret a graph or an image than a complex set of sentences & data. Also infographics are easily portable in comparison to loads of text material.

Time – Since they are easy to comprehend, infographics save a lot of time which in turn benefits the user.

Viral capabilities – Capacity of infographics to be shared on social networks and become viral is much higher than ordinary text content.

Increases Traffic – When users “share” and “click” a particular website, it drives traffic to the website which works great as an advertisement. Remember “The Kolaveri Di Phenomenon”.

Benefits Search Engine Optimisation – Any increased traffic will help search engines like Google to index a website higher due to Google’s “Page Rank” algorithm. This increases the importance that search engines place on a website.

The Specialist View- Good infographics display knowledge and position of a website as an expert on a category or topic. It both increases the brand awareness & reputation.

Innovation - Infographics are a marriage of creativity with information. It gives immense joy & satisfaction to both the designer & user to design/study a good infographic.

 

Here is an example of a simple infographic:

http://www.testking.com/techking/infographics/the-psychology-of-color-must-see-for-web-designers-infographic/

 

Today, Indian Infographics market is in an embryonic stage. There lies a lot of potential left to be exploited. Government, private firms, business houses & websites all need to display their information, performances, results & comparative indices in a good manner. Users & stakeholders expect them to be comfortable & easy. Colossal amount of information is generating every day which cannot be comprehended through writings & the ever increasing complexities of life will never permit the user to do so...there has to be a quick – fulfilling - handsome alternative – INFOGRAPHICS.

 

The earliest cave man started with the pictures & figures...

Is evolution cyclical???

Make Indian Websites Beautiful!

In my previous blog, I focused on the general ‘rampant’ state of ugliness in the Indian websites. Today, I suggest a 3 pronged strategy for the transformation & would like to term it as “Innovation Manifesto”…

MIRROR OH! MIRROR – Indian website appeal to a mass that are utterly involved making India the next superpower. They are very busy. They don’t have time & opportunity for adoration. They overlook ugliness. They lack taste. They lack feedback. How many of you have ever mailed a company regarding their aesthetics??? For us the only concern is the “hanging” of the websites. The latent-undiscovered-epistemological dimension of looking for “beauty & innovation” in websites has never been told to us. So we never seek it & since we don’t ask for beauty, ugliness is served.

I suggest for a Facebook campaign asking users to choose Best 5 Aesthetically Kept Indian Websites of the Year or Cheesecare, in association with a media house can initiate an award for the chosen bests.

OK! – Once the “sentiment” of beauty seeking masses is “communicated” to Indian websites, they’ll introspect. The whole globalized market is about “consumer/client preference” & “preferences” are like Australian forest fires, they accelerate rapidly. Remember Orkut! Also the highly competitive market culture will breed the “demand side innovation contagion”

BOOMERS! – Now is the time to “tap the market”. I strongly believe that every innovation is a delayed necessity. What we were terming as innovation in the first stage, is now a necessity in the third. Indian websites are now restlessly seeking beauty appeal among themselves.

Indian websites should acknowledge the importance of their “face & makeup” in market. Preferences of this net savvy generation are like shifting sands of Sahara. Gone were the days when Obama’s media campaign was an exotic concept, Akhliesh Yadav has done it with his “Umeed ki Cycle” – His Interface with 16% of Indian population through small clippings. If one of the most orthodox & sluggish field of politics is ready to adapt & innovate, why not we???

Why not you???

It is often attributed, that after “Instinct to Survive” the next most important is “Instinct to Adapt”…that is why human beings existed & that is why markets will!!!

Innovate or Perish….

Why Indian Websites are so ugly?

I read two posts on American car industry today. 

The first post, Driven off the Road by M.B.A.s, blames the problems plaguing the American car industry on the fact that the industry is led by MBAs and not the product guys. 


The second post by Paul Graham, talks about why American cars are so ugly. I am reproducing the content from graham's post lest you get lost in the rambilisiously long post:

A similar problem explains why American cars are so ugly. I call it the design paradox. You might think that you could make your products beautiful just by hiring a great designer to design them. But if you yourself don't have good taste, how are you going to recognize a good designer? By definition you can't tell from his portfolio. And you can't go by the awards he's won or the jobs he's had, because in design, as in most fields, those tend to be driven by fashion and schmoozing, with actual ability a distant third. There's no way around it: you can't manage a process intended to produce beautiful things without knowing what beautiful is. American cars are ugly because American car companies are run by people with bad taste.

The Indian websites suffer the same fate as the American cars, ugliness. Imagine tolerating Fluorescent Green for the sky instead of Blue. It is amazing to me how the websites, the sole existence of which is justified by their effectiveness in communicating with the user, fall so distorted, faceless and silent. Is the reason same as elicited by Graham? Do the web designers lack the required Aesthetic Quotient? Or is it that the companies earning 10 figure incomes don’t possess the taste buds for the web - chaat.

An ugly website or a website with a messed up UI not only wastes time but also makes the designer/owner look like a fool in the mind of the user, harming his credibility. It is like an envelope without an address on it.

With the country harvesting a crop of lakhs of Engineers every year, most of whom possessing at least miniscule design abilities, isn’t it an irony that the grading system doesn’t give a heck to the ‘design paradox’. The sad truth is we still talk about IQ and EQ. It is high time we roll our eyes on to AQ (Aesthetic Quotient) lest our websites will pinch pennies and waste opportunities to earn thousands.

Agneepath

Here is a famous poem by Harivansh Rai Bachchan. It is dedicated to those whose life is a tough struggle all the way, but whose resolve is superhuman - Rajiv Krishna Saxena (via http://www.geeta-kavita.com/hindi_sahitya.asp?id=93)

Story of startup world(?)