On February 23, AIGA NY hosted a discussion on data visualization with Hyperakt's own Julia and Deroy, as well as Martin Blinder of Tictrac. The conversation was moderated by Cliff Kuang, writer for GOOD, Wired, Popular Science, Nylon, Print, and a founding editor of Fast Company's Co.Design.

Julia and Deroy chatted about Hyperakt's design process for infographics. They focused on the studio's attention to design that benefits the community and has a real social impact, and discussed our responsibility as designers to provide ethical and truthful content. Displaying data in an unbiased fashion is particularly important for data visualization, as the graphics purport to convey hard numbers and factual information.

Martin Blinder, of Tictrac, was a valuable contributor to the discussion as well. His company, named Wired "Start-up of the Week," is a personal analytics platform that lets you track all your activities in one place. Tictrac helps you to "discover more about yourself" and plugs in with other apps like Foursquare, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and event trackers like Google Calendar. After summoning all this data, Tictrac calculates connections and creates visualizations that give you easy insight into your habits.

Cliff Kuang, meanwhile, with his deep experience in art, technology, and culture, was a great moderator. Adept at teasing out the controversy in infographics and the nuances of the field, he expertly led Deroy, Julia, and Martin in conversation.