9. The Rise of Interactive Graphics

What makes something simple or complex? It’s not the number of dials or controls or how many features it has: It is whether the person using the device has a good conceptual model of how it operates.

Donald A. Norman, from Living With Complexity

In the summer of 1996, Don Wittekind, a visual journalist who picked up some programming skills in a technical position at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, got a phone call from Leavett Biles, the graphics director at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, one of the major newspapers in the state. Biles was spearheading a major transformation in the newsroom, which involved the production of more video, audio, and motion graphics content.

He told Wittekind, “I know about ...

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