Beautifully Designed Data Encourages Connectivity

You've heard of Nicolas Felton by now: the designer who got curious about various data points of his life over the course of a year, compiled them and designed them into infographics for an annual report of his life. The New York Times wrote about him. Facebook hired him to design the new Timeline profile pages. And as a result, he has been sitting 15 feet away from Mark Zuckerberg for the last year working to improve interactions on Facebook:

"The biggest thing that's different is that Facebook is not about human-computer interaction," says Cox. Most designers in the computer industry have focused on helping humans interact with machines. But Facebook is about human-to-human interaction. "We don't want people to remember their interactions with Facebook," says director of design Kate Aronowitz. "We want them to remember their interactions with their friends and family." Cox calls this "social design." "It's more like designing a plaza or a restaurant," he explains. "The best building is one where the people inside get it and work together and are connected. That connectivity is created by how everything is arranged." ~ Fast Company

Data in social design. Brilliant and beautiful.