On the heels of our post celebrating 4,383 days online (that’s 12 internet years!), I want to let everyone know that we’ll be importing key posts into Dachis Group’s Collaboratory blog, and we’ll continue publishing our thoughts and work on visual thinking there. In fact, my first post went up yesterday and other XPLANE alumnus have started blogging there as well.

We won’t be transferring all 8,333 xBlog posts. So many of them are outdated and linkrotted. But we will make sure key posts redirect to their new homes on the Collaboratory and all other posts don’t 404.

It has been a wonderful, amazing, enlightening ride here at xBlog, from hand-coding it starting in 1999, to embracing the first release of WordPress .7 in 2003, to today — a world where blogs are more than commonplace — they are ubiquitous. I don’t know that I could give a better rundown than I did for last year’s 11th anniversary, so if you want a trip down xBlog’s memory lane you can read it here.

Blogging has been core to me and XPLANE for a long time and we’re not going to stop. I truly hope XPLANE’s fans and xBlog’s readers will continue to follow our work as Dachis Group. We’ll still be doing that visual thinking thing, just as we have been for all these years, only now we’ll be bringing to it many more people and businesses.

So on behalf of xBlog… so long, and thanks for all the links.

See you at the Collaboratory.

Cheers,
Bill Keaggy
November 19, 2011

Below are the links of the case studies featured at XPLANE | Dachis Group’s November 17, 2011 presentation at AIGA Shift 7 in Portland.

1. EXPLORE INTEL
The community had concerns about the environmental impact of Intel’s Rio Ranchero, New Mexico plant. We worked with Intel to design a website that transparently communicates key environmental information (click this link to view). It’s updated hourly and there are videos, links and a webcam providing additional info about the facility and the data.

2. LEVI’S WATERTANK
To help Levi’s demonstrate its commitment to water savings and raise awareness of its new line of eco-friendly Water<Less products, we created a multi-channel Facebook, microsite, and in-store contest using simple, compelling game mechanics to educate and challenge fans to take small but meaningful actions to help the global water crisis. Each action was rewarded by Levi’s contribution of clean water to communities around the world.

• 450,000 active daily users
• Translated in 10 languages
• 4 million “Likes” in 2 months
• Levi’s donated over 200 million liters of clean water

3. IHG GREEN ENGAGE
This three-minute overview animation is being used to drive adoption and usage of IHG’s Green Engage program, which helps individual hotels analyze their energy usage and devise action plans to reduce their environmental impact.

About Dachis Group
Dachis Group has developed a framework for Social Business Design by addressing organizational change across business systems, process, and culture. Dachis Group provides professional management consulting and advisory services, process design, program management, information design, marketing, change communication, and technical implementation services.

Dachis Group acquired Portland, Oregon based XPLANE Corporation in April 2010, continuing the growth of the international firm with offices servicing clients in the North American, European and Asia/Pacific regions. As one of the world’s leading information design consultancies, the acquisition of XPLANE strengthens Dachis Group’s position as the world leader in Social Business Design. XPLANE brings critical process design and change communications capabilities to the group.

If you are interested in finding out how Dachis Group can help your business please contact: inquiries@dachisgroup.com.

For more resources: Stay on top of the most current thinking on Social Business Design in the Dachis Group Collaboratory.

Dachis Group is always looking for talented individuals and leaders. Contact us at: opportunities@dachisgroup.com.

For more information: www.dachisgroup.com.

Still going (but changes are coming).

The demand for water will increase 5 times by 2050 but the amount of fresh drinkable water on Earth always stays the same. Xylem finds ways to efficiently save, protect and control water. It’s what we do every day. It’s why we share a goal of solving the world’s water challenges…one drop at a time.

“We are extremely honored to be recognized by the Great Place to Work Institute as one of the best small businesses to work for in 2011,” said Aric Wood, former chief executive officer of XPLANE, now Dachis Group Chief Operating Officer. “We have placed a strong emphasis on creating a culture that fosters creativity, success and loyalty, and our employees are proof that the formula is working. I’m proud to work with such an amazing team that lives by a strong set of core values each day, making accomplishments like this one a reality.”

XPLANE | Dachis Group was selected among hundreds of companies vying for a place on the 2011 list. Applicant companies opt to participate in the selection process, which includes an employee survey and an in-depth questionnaire about their programs and company practices. Great Place to Work Institute then evaluates each application using its unique methodology based on five dimensions: credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie.

“The companies featured on this year’s list are truly extraordinary in their practices and achievements,” said Susan Lucas-Conwell, chief executive officer, Great Place to Work Institute. “Their leaders recognize the value of creating great workplaces and the competitive edge it provides them.”

Organizations named on the list see many benefits that include better financial performance, less employee turnover, higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, more innovative and creative thinking, higher productivity and enhanced public perception.

To see the full list visit www.entrepreneur.com/greatplaces.

What’s a Social Business? It’s a business alive with energy and big ideas. It’s collaborative, authentic, customer-centric, trusted, open and real-time.

Click to download the PDF.

And it’s about time. After decades of mechanistic, process-oriented management dogma, progressive organizations are waking up to the disturbing truth that they’ve squeezed all the creativity out of their business. But when companies embrace organic, passionate, socially-savvy initiatives, they blossom. That’s Social Business.

This XPLANATiON was produced in association with our colleagues at Dachis Group’s Social Business Council, a collection of practitioners from large businesses who are charting the course for Social Business. We interviewed Council members and turned their knowledge into a clean, clear visual that quickly helps everyone understand the benefits of Social Business.

You can view the XPLANATiON on Dachis Group’s Collaboratory blog or download a PDF here.

October 19, 2011: We posted a newer version today with updated artwork.

I’got some exciting news to share. I’m pleased to announce that XPLANE is now fully integrating into Dachis Group.

As you know, Dachis Group acquired XPLANE in April of 2010 as part of the company’s vision of building the world’s best social business design consultancy.

Over the past 18 months we’ve worked to integrate the value and heritage of the XPLANE services into the broader offerings of the Dachis Group as well as offer the Dachis Group value and services to XPLANE’s clients with the overall goal of delivering a unified approach and experience to all of our clients.

While the XPLANE name will be phased out over the coming months, rest assured the services, value and experience you know and trust with XPLANE will continue unaffected. All of the same team members, talent and world-class information design, visual thinking and communications services you rely on will continue as the Dachis Group. Plus, you will now have an even more seamless experience tapping into the broader social business design offerings of the greater company.

If you’re used to working or corresponding with us, please note that starting Monday, October 17, all XPLANE team members will have Dachis Group email addresses in the format of firstname.lastname@dachisgroup.com. All other contact information will remain the same.

If you have any questions about this news, or if you’d like to hear more about the broader offerings of the Dachis Group, please let me know.

Regards,
Parker Lee
Executive vice president, global business development
Dachis Group

This change prompted us at XPLANE | Dachis Group to take a look at a few other long-standing charts, graphics and diagrams and ask whether they could use a bit of sprucing up.

So, as we are wont to do, we turned to our monthly Visual Thinking School (VTS for short) and the public to see what kinds of new design thinking could be applied to some old standards.

To start with, we sought to explore the food plate further. Due to its simplicity, the new diagram doesn’t indicate which foods fall under what categories. To remedy this, we did some rapid concepting on a mobile app that would dig deeper into each food group. The group was broken into teams and each team chose a food group.

One team chose the Fruit food group and came up with an app called “Shoot the Fruit.” The app encouraged the user to take photos of fruit. Using the photo, the app would then generate tons of information on that specific fruit: info like preparation, food pairing, recipes, and nutritional information.

See more app concepts on our Flickr stream!
 

So, having gotten our hands dirty with the food plate it was time to take on something from scratch. Again, in groups, we looked at three different, existing graphics: airplane safety guides, food nutrition information labels and the periodic table.

Airplane Safety Guides
The group that worked on this graphic decided that a lot of the information on current safety guides is no longer relevant. This was most evident in the list of devices that are and aren’t allowed during flight. To remedy this, the group designed a new list, both updating the devices as well as distinguishing what is allowed before, during and after the flight.

Food Nutrition Information Labels
As the Food Nutrition Group concepted their design, they came to the decision that the current design doesn’t generate recognition of what the food consists of quickly enough. They set out to create visuals that would be recognizable, at a glance, and would indicate how much of particular component was in the food, and whether that amount was good or bad. An overall assessment of whether the food was healthy or unhealthy would also be given through color-coding on the right. (Think terror alerts, but for food)

Periodic Table
Two groups took on the Periodic Table and both came to the realization that it’s already a very functional design. The main issue was found to be its approachability. Each group tried to make the periodic table a little less imposing by focusing on specific aspects of the information.

One group created a prototype for a rotating periodic wheel, below (I stress the word prototype). The wheel is meant to reveal the information about the elements through an explorative experience. By choosing random attributes of elements, the wheel would eventually reveal what element you’re looking at.

The second group tried visualizing the elements in a comparative fashion, below. Their concept shows the each element represented by a circle the size of which represented its atomic mass.

One member of the group, Alex, went the extra mile after VTS and took the concept even further. Check it out:
The Periodic Table of the Solar System.

Overall, it was an interesting exercise. Reworking familiar design structures can be illuminating in different ways. You’re forced to decide what information seems superfluous and what is vital. A decision that is often informed by what current-day society deems important. Many of the decisions around information for the graphics we were redesigning were most likely made many years ago, when they were originally designed. But over time, the context around them has changed, and the need to reassess becomes evident when you take a good look at them in light of modern day values.
 

Special bonus do-overs:

• Take a look at this sales receipt redesign XPLANEr Susanne LeBlanc found: http://flowingdata.com/2011/07/05/sales-receipt-redesign/
• And Tara Pham of Eleven Magazine sent us a link to a food nutrition label redesign that is a lot like the one our group came up with: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1664668/infographic-of-the-day-a-food-label-that-actually-teaches-you-about-food.

The web’s full of it. And social has dramatically increased it because so much can be said so quickly and so easily, from anywhere, by almost anyone. But social connects us — and a lot of us think of it as a purely personal experience. Friend to friend, person to person, fame to fan, etc. As individuals we struggle to make sense of it all as we juggle Twitter, Facebook and Flickr accounts, friends, contacts, comments and feeds.

Can you imagine how big brands must feel?

It’s more than overwhelming.

The brave new world of immediate social connectivity has exploded and soon it will be impossible to survive as a business without making sense of it. Because all those friends and fans and random people are talking about the businesses they love and hate.

But that’s adding to the noise, isn’t it? And it’s difficult to keep up with, impossible to control, unbelievable in scope.

Signal.

In June Dachis Group launched the Social Business Index (SBI), but unless you were a social media practitioner, a brand owner, or a social strategy owner in one of the Indexed companies, there wasn’t a lot to see.

That changes today. Dachis Group has opened up a portion of the Social Business Index to the public.

The Index is not a white paper. It’s not a 500 page report. It’s not a ‘top 10 tips on social’ blog post. It’s not a set of survey results or prognostication on trends in social.

The Social Business Index is a dynamic, living, interactive lens into real-time social performance, covering over 26,000 brands from over 20,000 companies, including over 100 million social accounts worldwide.

It’s a big deal.

While XPLANE | Dachis Group was not involved in the design of SBI (another of Jeff Dachis’s companies, Bond Art & Science, took care of that), we’re really excited about how visual the presentation of the data is.

There’s a Periodic Table-like breakdown to the high-level ranking information, and simple but clear methods for visualizing business’s community and behavior. As more data is gathered and sorted, I can’t wait to see the new ways we come up with to order and present the information.

Dive in for yourself to see what we’re talking about. Public access is now available at www.socialbusinessindex.com — and brands can register for more in-depth access to the tool.

Intended as a forceful wake-up call for Iowa educators, the video stresses the importance of an educational approach that moves away from “low-level mental work” and towards stronger development in critical thinking and problem solving.

We knew we needed the look of “Iowa, Did You Know? to respect the serious tone of the content — and also create a sense of urgency. To do this, we minimized the color palette and illustrated in a simple, flat style. We found ourselves inspired by letterpress and silkscreen posters — they always seem to convey such personality and immediacy. This is true for both modern band posters and things like historic FSA and political posters.

To help strike a contrast between Iowa and the world, the Iowa scenes have an earth-toned color palette as well as a burlap texture. This makes them feel somewhat analog and vintage. Anything related to the outside world or new technologies received a brighter, cleaner color palette that is more vivid and energized. We used Thirstype’s Apex typeface to bring an academic feel and a look that meshes with IowaFuture.org’s branding.

XPLANE previously worked with Dr. McLeod and Karl Fisch on the educational “Did You Know? 2.0” video in 2007. We collaborated again in 2009, this time including The Economist, on “Did You Know? 4.0” which focused on media convergence and technology. These videos have more than 7 million views on YouTube.

The “Iowa, Did You Know” content was developed by Dr. McLeod, with all storyboarding, design, and animation by XPLANE | Dachis Group.

Tell us what you think!

Update, August 5, 2011: Here’s Scott McLeod’s blog post with more info about the piece and the series.