Data-ism and designing a better experience

ideas
thoughts from the interweb

Lessons from dadaism
I am a big fan of art. All kinds. My mind combines art history and theory into the design of data visualizations

I see parallels between the artistic movement--dadaism--and what I like to think of as data-ism.

Dada or Dadaism was a form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for the social, political and cultural values of the time. It embraced elements of art, music, poetry, theatre, dance and politics.

​Dada was not so much a style of art like Cubism or Fauvism; it was more a protest movement with an anti-establishment manifesto.--Dadaism

RAOUL HAUSMANN (1886-1971) 'ABCD' 1920 (collage)

Our big data culture can learn from the infusion of different media, perspectives, and industries.

​Create awareness around what we know, what we don't know, and what we don't know we don't know.

Define your audience
Think back to the first time you noticed little stickers on fruit.

As a kid they were less omnipresent. I only remember the blue banana stickers we would playfully afix to our foreheads. Now they are everywhere.

How aggrevating to peel them off with your fingernails and then attempt to release them from your fingertips into the garbage.

Fast forward and we now accept the aggravation. Perhaps we don't even notice the intrusion. See what happens? We become desensitized and go on with business as usual. 

Something as mindless as a sticker introduced to expedite check-out in supermarkets. A commercial solution with the consumer addressing the outcome. Who really gets the value here?

Think of the customer. Are you taking short-cuts designed for your expediency or bottom-line?

​It might be easier to "do what everyone else is doing" but you then risk creating what every one else is creating. 

"Linear ways of thinking rarely serve us well in the digital economy."

I hope that whatever seat on the titanic you have selected for our next healthcare "journey"--you look to other industries for insights.

I recently discovered Digitopoly: Competition in the Digital Age--an informative blog examining economic and business aspects of the digital world.

Paul Romer argues that macroeconomic theory, is in a bad equilibrium. He argues, that economic theory has become trivialized akin to a magic act or slight of hand. 

This article reminds me of statistical approaches in clinical research. Keep questioning answers!

In choosing to present the theory in less detail, they too may have responded to the expectations in the new equilibrium: empirical work is science; theory is entertainment. Presenting a model is like doing a card trick. Everybody knows that there will be some sleight of hand. There is no intent to deceive because no one takes it seriously. Perhaps our norms will soon be like those in professional magic; it will be impolite, perhaps even an ethical breach, to reveal how someone’s trick works.

Paul Romer, American Economist

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Are you going to be in the area? Attending ISPOR next week? Let's grab a coffee...