EuroIA 2013, Edinburgh

1. EuroIA 2013 - Small Moments in Big Data
benholliday.com @benholliday

2. Hello

3. Information overload is a life problem.
It’s changed how we live and interact
with each other

4. Life isn't just information.
It’s everything that data doesn’t capture

6. A great experience is more than the sum of it’s parts

8. “The real value of a product consists of far
more than the product's components”
Don Norman

12. Measuring the Universe
Roman Ondak
flickr.com/photos/profzucker/

13. Measuring the Universe
Roman Ondak

14. flickr.com/photos/profzucker/
Measuring the Universe
Roman Ondak

15. Art has always been a great guide when
we’re trying to better understand who we are

16. Art has always been a great guide when
we’re trying to better understand who we are

17. “I rarely draw what I see – I draw what I
feel …touch, texture, size and scale,
hardness and warmth, evocation and
compulsion to move, live, and love”
Barbara Hepworth

18. flickr.com/photos/diorama_sky/
Rather than being a barrier to rationality, our emotions are an
essential part of how we can better understand the world

19. flickr.com/photos/88933162@N00/
If big data is an extension of the “bicycle for
the mind” then it needs stabilisers

20. “The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside”
Emily Dickinson (1830-86)

22. “The essence of being human, involves
asking questions, not answering them”
John Seely Brown (Computer Scientist)
“…asking questions is a creative act but
answering them need not be”
Bryan Appleyard
The Brain is Wider Than the Sky
Why Simple Solutions Don't Work in a Complex World - Bryan Appleyard

23. Information should inspire and challenge.
Most of all it should make us think

24. “Information becomes knowledge
only when it's placed in context”
Nate Silver

25. Empathy isn't something we see, but something
we see through. It determines the way we see,
what we see, and what we don't

26. …challenging our beliefs in order to become less
subjective, less irrational, and less wrong

27. Certainty comes from the stories we tell
each other. We believe something is certain
when there is enough shared understanding

28. flickr.com/photos/granmaitre/
Numbers have no way of speaking
for themselves. We speak for them
and give them meaning

30. “…we want to apply data to every decision
…to be a very data-driven company”
Mike Curtis, Airbnb Vice President of Engineering

32. “…working with data or statistics isn’t as
much of a science as you might think
…[it’s more a case of] we got an
answer to this confidence level and
we think that’s sufficient”
Dave Evans, FreeAgent Data Scientist

33. “Since when can weathermen predict
the weather, let alone the future?”
Marty McFly

34. In life we act upon the strongest
signals we can interpret

36. “Today’s leader doesn’t have all the
answers. Instead, today’s leader
knows what questions to ask”
Alistair Croll & Ben Yoskovitz (Lean Analytics)

37. We used to think about a taxonomy,
but we now have to think about horizontal and
vertical connections, across multiple channels

38. We can challenge our beliefs and increase
our understanding using design research

39. Context helps us deal with complication
and shape a more cohesive user experience

40. Design research shows you the strategies people have for
adapting your product or services to their own requirements

41. flickr.com/photos/dmourati/
Complexity Vs Complication
The difference between
complicated and complex
things is more obvious once
you look for it.

42. Mapping the user journey is the first step
to recognising complexity. Seeing it is the
first step to accepting it

43. We all need to get better at telling stories
…we’re shaped by those we collaborate and
share our stories with

44. Data is a fixed point in time. It can help us learn
from the past and form new ideas, but when
people are involved it’s never the whole story

45. Data is a fixed point in time. It can help us learn
from the past and form new ideas, but when
people are involved it’s never the whole story
Shift our focus from big data’s output to our own input
Add context using small moments and individual stories
Make connections and use data to challenge existing beliefs

46. Thank you
benholliday.com @benholliday