It begins in mid-September 2009, where I found myself armed with a nagging curiosity about the show Lost – a show I had never once watched. For various reasons, the idea of the show intrigued me greatly. Somehow, in all the many Lost conversations I had overheard in years prior, I strangely managed to remember practically nothing in the realm of spoilers. Time travel, something called the smoke monster, and that someone died in season 3: these were the only items of baggage I had accumulated. Not bad.

The final season was only months away from airing. I knew that I had better take action soon if I ever wanted to take part in the experience of watching it live. It was the discovery that the whole show was available on Netflix’s Watch Instantly which spurred me to action. One rainy Saturday later, I was five episodes in to Season 1 and not looking back. In the end, it took me quite a big longer than expected to get fully caught up – but I was able to do so less than two weeks after the premiere episode of Season 6. And tonight, February 17, 2009 – I shall tune in live to watch LOST, fully caught up, for the first time.

I should note that in doing my preparation for this infographic, I decided to extend far beyond the start of the “open era” (1968) entirely for the amount of data. A post-1968 graph would give me much less to work with.

Otherwise I feel I should pay respect to the accomplishments of Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg: both of these men had utterly remarkable runs (both earning 11 titles in less than a decade), but neither becoming the true front-runner within the constraints of this graph.

I hope you enjoy! If you find this interesting, also be sure to check out this comparison of Federer and Sampras in their race to 14 titles. Meanwhile, here’s to Federer’s hard work… let’s see how far he can take it.

Overall, I found this experience to be wholly satisfying. Putting key ideas into sketches required an interesting use of my attention span: in addition to listening intently to the ideas being communicated, I was simultaneously forced to employ creative sketching solutions that would properly embody the most important parts of the talks.

Upon returning home from the Roadshow, I was quite surprised to find these sketches spanning 5 full pages of my notebook. Upon scanning the notes and adding a bit of chronological organization, I’m left with a sort of visual map of the workshop (as I experienced it). I hope these notes might be of interest to others who attended.

As for adventures in sketchnoting? I look forward to continued exploration when the proper circumstances arise in the future.

I plan on using a similar technique to track my training in preparation for the Army 10 Miler in October, 2009. In that case, I plan on recording the time of each run as well, which will surely bump up the possibilities in how to present the graph.

The final product is available as follows.  For additional notes about the techniques used to create these graphs, keep on reading.

Here are some tips & techniques I employed to put this together.

Have Your Data Ready

Before diving into Illustrator (or whatever your tool of choice may be), spend the necessary time finding all of the data you will need for your graph.  Go the extra mile to arrange and label everything properly — you may return to the data at a much later time and will be glad you did yourself the favor.  Aside from reaping the benefits of good organization, this step is additionally helpful in keeping the grunt work of data-fetching separate from the creative requirements of the task.

Start with the Simplest Graph Possible

An elegant, attractive graph is seldom created from scratch.  There are usually a number of tried & tested variations that must be wrestled with before arriving at the final product.  With this in mind, a good first step is creating some bare-bones, stripped down graphs to get bird’s eye view of the data.  This phase is all about finding the approach that will best server your original vision.  Sketches work great in this stage.

What is the story you want to tell with your data?  This is an important question to keep in mind, as different visualization approaches will yield different results.  Play around with things.  See what looks good as well as which data comparisons are intuitive and interesting.  Seek feedback from friends or colleagues who might offer a valuable opinion.

Using the Grid

Before long, it will be time to create your final, finished product.  At this stage, the very most important thing you can do to keep things looking straight and orderly is use Illustrator’s grid feature.  You’ll want to make grids visible (CTRL/CMD + “), as well as enable “Snap to Grid” (CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + “).  Additionally, you may want to go into Illustrator’s preferences to customize the grid spacing and subdivision width (which you can modify at any point).

Another useful tip to keep in mind when using grids extensively is enabling Overprint Preview (CTRL/CMD + ALT + SHIFT + Y).  This will have the gridlines appear on top of all objects & paths, allowing you to eliminate any guessing that might otherwise be required in keeping things properly arranged.

Using Layers Wisely

Keeping your objects arranged in layers is a huge time-saver when dealing with moderately complex projects in Illustrator.  This was especially true in my case of creating four separate graphs, each of which contained separate groups of objects.  For example: if I wanted to modify the color of the Roger Federer graph plots, I’d only need to target the layer “Federer” and all plots (on each graph) would become active.

Layers can also be locked, combined, or temporarily hidden to make document management easier.

Go Forth and Visualize

And that’s it!  Combined with a simple bit of color and typography, you can transform any crude visualization into an attractive graph.  Keep in mind that data in itself can be rather inert; though when arranged in a conscientious manner it can tell an interesting story.  Hopefully the techniques above can be of use in recreating your own graphs of a similar nature.

By the end of the plane ride, things worked out great:

Throughout the remainder of the post, I’d like to share an overview of the approach I took and the Illustrator techniques used to make this happen.  The result is not merely a tutorial, but rather a broad look at some Illustrator skills any user might find helpful in such a situation.

Start With What You’ve Got

First step when resources are short?  Make the most of what you’ve already got.  While in a perfect world I’d have access to the font on which the Capitals logo is based, in this case I’d have to make due with the letters (or rather, shapes) that make up the source logo I was starting with.

Fortunately, “Capitals” and “@davidpots” have quite a few letters in common.  My first move was to ungroup the shapes in the “Capitals” logo and move all letters that matched into their proper placement in their “@davidpots” counterpart.

After this first step alone, about half of the letters are already in place.  What’s left?  Creating the “@”, “d”, “v”, and “o”.  Onward we go.

This Shape + That Shape

To create the remaining letters, I would have to create custom shapes based on the contours of existing elements. This would ensure the overall look & feel of the logo remained consistent.

Starting with the “d”, I saw that the base contours I’d need already existed in the “c” and the “l”.  Through combining these two objects, the resulting “d” would retain the general shape of these other letters.

So far so good.  While the remaining letters wouldn’t necesarily be as simple to create, the basic premise & approach would be the same.

Take This, Tweak That, and Drop the Rest

Next up is the letter “v”.  After a moment’s investigation, it seemed the best way to recreate the bottom point of the “v” (with existing elements of “Capitals”) is through the upper-right corner of the letter “p”.

Unlike the creation of the “d”, this would require a bit more work.  Instead of simply combining two separate letters to create a third, I would instead be transforming & tweaking part of a letter and then getting rid of the rest.  I did it like this:

First, rotate the “p” 180 degrees…

Second, use the direct select tool to increase the height of the left “arm”

Third, use the Pathfinder’s divide function to get rid of excess shape at the top

And that’s it! The “v” is ready to be inserted into its namesake.

The exact same approach was used to create the “o”.  Starting with the already-existant “p”, (1) the shape is divided, as to get rid of the unnecessary bottom stem.  (2) Next, the remaining “corner” is duplicated & rotated 180 degrees.  (3) Finally, the two remaining pieces are moved into place to form the “o”.  Voila!

Round the Corner(s) & Tie Up Loose Ends

The final and most challenging letter to create was the “@”, which would require the most alchemy of the bunch.  In summary, my plan would be to first (1) create the interior shape of the symbol, and second (2) use an external stroke to create the “wrap around” shape of the symbol — this would ensure the curves were 100% right-on. Here’s how I made it happen:

Creating the inner shape
The first step was creating the inner shape of the “@”.  Locating all I would need in the base of the “d” contour, I simply created a dividing line and used the Pathfinder’s divide tool to make a clean cut:

Rounding the Corners, Part 1
So far so good — but I realized that I would need to round out the corners on the right-hand side of the shape I created (lest the sharp/jagged run wild and free).  To make this happen, I first (1) spotted an existing corner “curve” in the “p”, (2) used the Pathfinder’s divide tool to isolate this corner, (3) and finally shifted this over into the contour of my original shape.

Rounding the Corners, Part 2
The previous “round the corner” approach was used one more time for the upper-right corner of the shape.  This time I used an existing corner from the “a” to make it happen.  Same basic steps:

Creating the Outer Wrapper
In order to create an outter wrapper for the “@”, I decided to use the object’s stroke.  This would ensure the curves remained consistent in both contour and width.  To make this happen, I first (1) gave an exterior stroke to my original object. Next, (2) an additional stroke of then wrapped around the shape again.  Finally, (3) after expanding the strokes into proper shapes (Object > Expand), I used the Pathfinder’s divide tool to get rid of the undesired middle “red” section.

Finishing Touches
The very last step involves tweaking the lower-right section of the shape to complete the “@” transition.  This involved (1) using the Pathfinder’s divide tool to once again get rid of the undesired portion of the outer wrapper.  (2) Next, I created a small curved shape to join the two shapes, which was (3) moved into place and combined with both shapes to complete the task.

And We’re All Done!

And there you have it!  All shapes have now been created.  I needed only to align the items as desired and save my final product (which I now proudly wear as my Twitter profile pic in support of the team).

Could this have been arrived at quicker if I had the original “Capitals” font to work with?  Of course!  But that is removed from the point: this was instead about the challenge of a self-imposed quickfire task which forced me to think quickly & make the most of the resources at hand.

In closing, I must of course bestow the Caps with all the good luck I can muster for game 7 against Pittsburgh.  It has been a truly epic series so far, and I trust Washington is going to bring it home to DC with their best performance of the series.  Let’s go Caps!

While the use of speech-to-text technologies is certainly one direction this conversation can go, I’m fascinated by the implementation of crowdsourcing to handle this problem.  To the point: let listeners & fans transcribe the audio content, as they desire, fueled simply by the joy of spreading the ideas and making the content more widely available.  A positive side-effect of this approach is the inevitable additions to the greater conversation; the ideas, thoughts, and insights added to the topic by those doing the trascriptions.

Accordingly, I offer my transcription of Mr. Boag’s latest AudioBoo:

Should Everything Be Accessible?
by boagworld, posted April 17, 2009 at 7:19 am EST

So, I’ve just made a smart-alec comment on Twitter about wondering how long it will take people to complain about these AudioBoos not being accessible.  Somebody said, does that mean everything has to be 100% accessible?  That’s a very good point, and I don’t know the answer to it.  On one hand, my gut-reaction & moral reaction is “hell yes, it does: we have an obligation to make the web as accessible as possible (as it was always intended to be as accessible as possible).” And and my pragmatic, business-hat says “No, not always: there is a limit to how much you can do; you have to justify return-on-investment.”  It’s about striking the balance.

I think the kind of way I’m coming to terms with it as far as these AudioBoos are concerned is: I write extensively on the blog; the podcast is transcribed; and nothing I’m saying in these AudioBoos is completely original — its either stuff I or other people have said elsewhere.  So, the content is available in accessible forms elsewhere, but not a transcript of exactly what I’m saying here.  Is that good enough?  I don’t know the answer.

Another thing that I think you need to take into account: different technologies are working in different ways; content is suitable in different forms.   When, for example, I transcribe the podcast: the interviews are transcribed word-for-word; but the rest of it isn’t — the rest of it is show-notes where I provide a written-version of the stuff that we cover, but it’s not a word-for-word transcript.  Does that mean that the podcast isn’t fully accessible? I’d argue not: I’m providing the same content, but I’m providing it in an alternative format.  And that’s quite an interesting conversation to have – as to whether or not that’s truly acceptable.  I think you have to take into account the format, and when you’re writing stuff that it’s okay if thats a bit different.

The original, audio version of this AudioBoo can be found through the widget below:

• “What’s the name of this sport, again?”
• “How exactly do the rules/scoring work?”
• “Is this a qualifying heat, or the final race?”
• “Which team would the winner of this match go on to play?”
• “Which star players on the court/field should I be keeping an eye on?”
• “What other related events will this athlete be competing in?”

While a viewer could answer any of these questions by visiting websites like NBCOlympics.com or Wikipedia, this equates to lousy user experience.  Most viewers aren’t going to want to get off the couch.  Even those armed with a laptop have to take their eyes off the TV, pull up a browser, and wade through the website to find their obscure answer.  Ugh.

But there’s good news!  I would wager that by the 2012 Olympic games, viewers will be able to find answers to all of the questions above (and more) simply by using their TV’s remote control.  How?  By using TV widgets.

In the case of the Olympics, the ideal implementation of TV widgets would allow the viewer to use his/her remote to pull up instant information about the event they’re watching.  Depending on what the viewer wants to know, they would be able to navigate through some straightforward menus and find out anything they wanted to know (including answers to all questions above).

Of course, things aren’t at this level quite yet… but they’re coming.  As media futurist Gerd Leonhard recently wrote (Soon: Widgets on your TV), Samsung just announced their first series of TVs that will be connected to the internet.

On one hand, this means we’ll be able to access the internet through our TVs, which is well and good.  But taken a step further, I’m guessing widgets will be pumped out to give users info relavant to whatever show they’re watching (not just the Olympics!).  A drama or sitcom, for instance, might one day present the viewer with widgets that answer:

• What show is this?  What is it about?
• Who are the major characters?  what are the on-going plot-lines?
• What happened in last week’s episode?
• Can I watch this episode with some director’s commentary?

The possibilities are endless, indeed.  To bring this back to the Olympics, I’d say that the 2012 games are the first big opportunity for this technology to showcase its true potential.   At that time, we’ll be able to put the laptop down, stay on the sofa, and hang on to the remote.  For it may be the only tool we’ll need to find the answers we’re looking for.

In the meantime, check out Gerd Leonhard’s article on TV widgets:

• Soon: Widgets on your TV (talk about Changes for the TV Business!)

Things seem quite different as an adult, especially one living in the early 21st century. The future no longer waits quietly over the horizon, but is instead standing at the doorstep. At times, peering ahead one or two decades seems somewhat unfathomable, as our lives change so much with each passing year. How to put it all into perspective?

The solution is simple: turn to a media futurist!

Particularly, I speak of media futurists Gerd Leonhard and Glen Hiemstra, the work of whom has left me recently fascinated. It isn’t that they talk about the things that will happen, but rather the things that are happening right now in the realm of media. That is, anything and everything pertaining to the web, music, video, technology, copyright, sharing and so forth.

Life in the information age will be quite fascinating, and it is great to have thinkers like Leonhard and Hiemstra working hard to help us make sense of it all. Curious to hear what they have to say? A great introduction to both Leonhard and Hiemstra can be found in the FutureTalks series of conversations. The pair share their ideas and thoughts on several different media-related topics, as listed below. I have included links to each conversation in both video or mp3 form.

Otherwise, the blogs of both Leonhard and Hiemstra are great places for regularly updated views and news. Do yourself a favor and check them out… you will not be disappointed!

The Future of Media (Hiemstra)
54 minutes | mp3 | video

The Future of Media (Leonhard)
53 minutes | mp3 | video

The Long Tail
11 minutes | mp3 | video

The Future of Communications
14 minutes | mp3 | video

The Future of Entertainment: Music and Media
12 minutes | mp3 | video

User Generated Content
13 minutes | mp3 | video

Commercial vs. Shared Culture
13 minutes | mp3 | video

The Future of Advertising
12 minutes | mp3 | video

Beyond Web 2.0
12 minutes | mp3 | video

Technology vs. Copyright
13 minutes | mp3 | video

Media Megatrends
12 minutes | mp3 | video

More coming soon.  For now, enjoy the video!