Nothing reminds me more about the power of what we can do with our data than this TED video of PatientsLikeMe’s Jamie Haywood, talking about how they change people’s lives with incredible data visualization tools:
Here he tells the story of his brother and how it inspired him to look into the data of 45,000 people who are reporting their daily status with the diseases, drugs, and treatments in their lives. The end result is a “time machine”-like report that helps understand what can really improve the quality of people’s lives. I loved the 1-page summary of their health that patients can take to their doctors, to show exactly what they’ve been doing and how it’s been working.
This video encapsulates exactly what Stephen Anderson talked about in his podcast, The Quest for Emotional Engagement. If we can find a connection between the data we have and what’s meaningful in people’s lives, we can really make a difference to them.
It’s no accident that we’re talking about this at this year’s Web App Masters Tour. I think this is a critical conversation we need to have about how we bring the most out of our designs. On this topic alone, I’m pleased that Stephen Anderson will explore this idea of emotional engagement, Noah Iliinsky will how us how to create great visualizations like the ones Jamie demonstrates, and Kate Brigham will share what it’s like leading PatientsLikeMe’s UX team — making all this a reality for their 45,000+ users.