newly ancient

First of all, I would like to apologize for not continuing this series last week. Unfortunately, my mother needed me and family always takes precedence.

What we read is incredibly influential in how we think. For that reason, I find it very helpful to keep track of exactly what I am reading and be ready to present where I gained knowledge upon any one subject. This is one of the primary reasons I love RSS—it allows me to have a centralized location for everything I read. For instance, I usually read the paper in a hard copy format. However, I still subscribe to the RSS feed so that I can mark items as read. That way, when I look back I can track all of my reading.

Since I have all of my reading in a centralized location, lots of interesting possibilities can be found. Google Reader especially excels in this area, by coupling Google’s extensive search experience with savvy UI design. Trends are easily accessible and display a myriad of information upon the past year. What’s more, I can search everything I have read in RSS. Coupled with last.fm and Google Web History, I can effectively look up every article, song, or comic I have ever read or listened to. It’s like having the fastest detective and best statistician in the world on a commission, but free. Unfortunately, the presentation does have some flaws. As important as what I read is, I think this was the weakest chart in my report—it didn’t convey as much information as I would have liked it to. Still, if you would like to duplicate this imperfect attempt, by all means try and refine it.

1. Sign up for Google Reader and put every RSS feed you can in. Anything you consume, whether it be through Twitter, print media, or elsewhere should be your feed reader to achieve effective results.
2. Categorize your feeds with tags. Tag, tag, and tag some more. This step is crucial to figuring out trends in your reading.
3. Every 30 days, visit the Google Reader Trends page and take a screenshot.
4. At the end of the year, take a look at the data you have: how many items you read, percent of feeds you read, etc. See what information jumps out at you.
5. Compile that information into a spreadsheet, using your monthly screen shots of the trends page as the source.
6. Generate a graph of that information, using your spreadsheet application of choice. Do not have any labels or writing of any kind.
7. Copy the generated graph into your graphic design program of choice.
8. Add relevant labels and apply savvy design principles, particularly regarding color and typography.
9. Embellish as needed with additional trinkets and clarifying information.

Hopefully, you should now be looking at an accurate picture of your consumption habits over the past year. There should be a healthy mix of what you read and how much if it you did. Throughout, you should consider your thesis (objective): what do you want your audience to gain? Chances are it isn’t that you do most of your reading at 6 am. Rather, in most cases you want them to gain an understanding of the perspective you are coming from—communicating your reading habits can be highly effective at this, but only if you do it the right way. When choosing information design, don’t be afraid to experiment, but always keep your objective in mind.

By presenting your reading habits visually, you can also gain a lot of insight for yourself. This can be used to change what you subscribe to, or when you read it. For instance, I tend to do most of my reading in the morning. Since my school start time is getting earlier, I know I will have to be waking up earlier to stay on top of my feeds. I also noticed I am a little top heavy with education and technology. Armed with this information, I am spicing things up with more humor, as well as injection of politics and design. Graphing your reading habits gives others an insight into who you are and gives you an insight into how to modify your consumption habits.

Download an archive of my design file.

This is part 2 of a series upon how I produced my annual report. Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4.