David McCandless is justifiably famous for his work at Information is Beautiful but as his bio on the TED website says, his “genius is not so much in finding jazzy new ways to show data [...] but in finding fresh ways to combine datasets to let them ping and prod each other.”

With free tools such as Many Eyes and Tableau it’s becoming easier and easier to visualise data (though making it look beautiful is another matter).

The real challenge now is in finding and curating data to tell a new, compelling story.

“Great design is serious (not solemn),” says Paula Scher, a New York based partner at design firm Pentagram. She argues that you do your best work when you’re having fun, exploring and not pressured by expectations.

I find the key is finding somewhere in between: creative work needs a combination of space and freedom but also a clear problem to solve.

Need more Paula Scher? Hillman Curtis has a video discussing type as image that’s also worth watching.

The user is the director

Journey to the End of Coal is a new web-only documentary following two journalists speaking with workers in China’s coal industry which merges classic journalistic interviews with navigation and interaction approaches more commonly associated with first-person gaming.

As users watch the presentation it will frequently stop to offer them a range of options of how to continue. Stay here and speak with this person? Go somewhere else? The user is actively deciding on the path of the narrative, choosing locations to investigate, the people to speak with and which questions to ask.

It’s technically impressive as a project, using full-screen flash to present streaming video and still photography as an immersive environment.

Map showing locations, with current location (far left) marked in red.

Forcing the users to make decisions is at times more emotive, as you can choose the angle that’s pursued (within the limits of the questions recorded in the interviews). You feel like you’re interacting with the subjects, but that connection comes at a cost – it’s equally frustrating having to keep prompting people to reveal more rather than passively sitting back and watching a video or reading a story.

There’s also the nagging feeling that if you don’t ask every question presented you might miss the crucial answer or angle that drives home the documentary’s point. Making the user play the role of journalist and search for the answers by asking the right questions also makes it easy for them to miss them entirely.

Many ways to navigate

ABC Australia’s Gallipoli: The First Day documentary takes a series of video and audio sequences that would otherwise be viewed in a linear or menu-driven sequence, and has arranged them on a 3D map to put the documentary sequences in context of the locations they relate to.

Google Earth 3D map chapter view of the ABC's Gallipoli: The First Day multimedia

The map in this case is based on Google Earth’s technology, so they’ve also released a ‘layer’ file for the downloadable Google Earth desktop application, allowing users to view the documentary content from within the standard map application – and interesting extension to the idea that makes their content available outside the confines of the ABC’s website.

That in itself marks maybe the biggest shift in approach of the three.

As the reach of broadcast media shifts and users grow more accepting of mashups, you’ll reach more users with relevant information that’s available in digestible pieces wherever the user is, even if that’s outside the walls of your own website.

It is certainly a great way to embrace your users and hold their hand through what is large number of changes to the site. And by using the voice and face of someone that the listeners and users all know, I can imagine that they won’t be receiving a large backlash to the redesign.

Update

The new NPR.org redesign

The new NPR.org redesign has been launched and is a vast improvement on the previous site. Plus, the NPR blog has a series of posts from the redesign team discussing the changes to processes, tools, and changes that do and do not affect users.