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Great Information Design
14 Jan 2003 by
Morningstar’s new Market Indexes Grid is an example of great information design. Clear, simple, informative and comparative at a glance. Click on a percentage and dig deeper into that segment. Great work.
9 comments so far (Post a Comment)
14 Jan 2003 | p8 said...
Have you seen http://www.smartmoney.com/marketmap/?
14 Jan 2003 | JF said...
I have, yeah, but it's a Java Applet and fairly messy. Conceptually it's nice, but I feel like it's overkill. But there's room for both approaches since they serve different needs. Morningstar's is more about viewing the market by capitalization and growth, SmartMoney's is more about sectors.
14 Jan 2003 | Derek said...
I don't understand either one of those, even if it is good information architecture... 'cause I don't know or care anything about the stock market.
14 Jan 2003 | steve said...
The grid makes a little more sense if you look at this list of Morningstar's indicies. I wasnt able to fully figure it out without reading the explanation and looking at the list. For me, the visual design doesnt encourage the eye to see the relationship between the horizontal and vertical labels.
14 Jan 2003 | Darrel said...
I stared blankly at it. Then again, I never took economics.
14 Jan 2003 | pb said...
Morningstar has traditionally had a pleasant look and feel and well-designed information presentation, beginning with their dead-tree products.
14 Jan 2003 | ~bc said...
Whereas I like the gradient of colors, I didn't feel like backflipping over it.
16 Jan 2003 | Mal Ross said...
I'm with the other economic dunces on this (no offence, chaps), but I wish they'd made the whole of the squares clickable, not just the text within them. Would be much easier to hit the link. Something to do with Fitts' Law, isn't it?
18 Jan 2003 | nicholas said...
morningstar has always valued design, from the paul rand logo, to the fact that they have had a consistent design staff. the charts are similar to the print versions in use for years, and while complex, are a signature morningstar product. it would be interesting to see the evolution of morningstar's information design! philip burton who teaches at uic is the design director.
