Monday, May 11, 2009

The future of news visualization: Still waiting

Since my recent post about the inadequacies in current means of presenting news, I've stumbled upon another news site that seemed worthy of mention: MSNBC's Spectra Visual Newsreader.

And sure, it's visually intriguing, and surprisingly easy to use. It lets the user select specific interest areas, and then surfaces related news with a combination of text and images.



But still... I'm not convinced that translating news into a vortex of color-coded flashcards qualifies as a significant advancement in the field. It looks nifty at first, but it's not innovative in any meaningful way.

So yeah: no.