The Future of Human Data Interaction

On the day of Tableau’s IPO, a company known for innovating in data visualization, I thought I would share the most impressive HCI concept I’ve seen in a long time.

In my view, Bret Victor is on the forefront of human computer interaction design. In the first two or three minutes of this video at Stanford, he demonstrates his home-built software that combines data analysis with visualization. It’s magnificent and really hard to describe because it’s so novel.

Drawing Dynamic Visualizations from Bret Victor on Vimeo.

Victor uses words to create and manipulate the drawing and it all seems so natural and fluid. The interaction with the software parallels a conversation between two designers over a piece of paper - which is exactly the kind of interaction that makes software seem human and natural. I hope we see an explosion of these types of tools in the future.

Have you seen other great examples of human computer interaction? Let me know on Twitter about them.