A 3D graph can be deliberately subverted to skew the perception of the information it contains. By simply increasing the perspective, you can give artificial emphasis to a particular slice of the chart, to make that slice appear larger as it were.

Note how very different the perception of the size of the green slice is relative to the other slices on each of the charts …

I was looking for pictures of Bangkok’s newest Suvarnabhumi Airport. Naturally the airport’s website was a good start.

The homepage is severely out of date. Though it took a moment to confirm this given the lack of years in the copy.

The language use indicates that the airport has just opened. But the first date a reader encounters is March 25th 2007, which is related to a completely …

Software registration keys are a necessary evil these days for everyone who buys legitimate software (while the pirates continue to merrily steal their copies).

This post on Coding Horror provides some solid lessons on how a bit of sensible design can really make users lives easier.

Using letters and numbers that look similar, such as O and 0 or …

We all “know” the sea level is rising. But there is a difference between rationally “knowing” something and the gut-felt “knowing” that images like these bring to focus:

Images from a book by Greenpeace Spain and spotted on inhabitat.

More images on Greenpeace Spain’s website.

Spotted at St Leonards station. A new direction for CityRail publicity material - more youth-oriented, up-beat and informal; less stuffy bureaucratic:

One and off in the past, I hear people talk about the difference between educating customers and selling to them. The two are often presented as mutually exclusive. You can educate, or you can sell. Educate is a waste of time, while selling produces immediately bankable results. And so on.

There is a school of thought that says: don’t encourage your customer to think; tell them what to think. …

Spotted on a local chemist’s counter:

At a quick glance, the following information stood out:

Yes!
Contains Alcohol, Nicotine and Caffeine.

Hmmm…

Since buying the Thinkpad line of products from IBM a few years ago, Lenovo has been busy transitioning the product line branding.

The Same Product, Different Stickers blog post on Lenovo blogs provides an interesting insight into the transition process from a product badging viewpoint.

The lessons are:

Consistency is important, but not a blind rule to be followed.
Consistency goes beyond mere badges and logos.
Transitions must be given time …

A sign spotted in Perth recently:

Got this via email today (thanks Sandra!):

I can just see how this would have happened.

The brief comes into the graphic design studio. “We need a graphic that is X wide and Y high.”
The designers slave away for a while, working to the stated proportions. The designers may not know, or even care, what the display context of the graphic is. Hey, a graphic is a …