Karl Gude

Dave's the tall one...!
May 2 (New York) and May 7, Chicago. Details at Vizthink.com

I invented the term "location challenged" yesterday. I needed to complain about the flabbergasting cab driver who became hopelessly lost looking for --and I kid you not-- the enormous University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where I was co-conducting an SND workshop on information graphics.

My driver boasted, in a distracted kind way that I began to find disheartening as our blue minivan shot down I-40 and he fumbled with his war-torn atlas, that he preferred good old paper maps to the costly GPS system his taxi company wanted him to get. With the alertness of an alarmed antelope that senses danger, I sat bolt-upright and forward in the back seat as I slid the atlas from his distracted fingers during one of the rare, and greatly appreciated instances when he had chosen to give the road a dim moment of his attention. I dictated directions without masking my irritation, which he accepted gratefully. I got the impression this happened with him lot.

As I spilled out of the cab into a crowd of UNC students, I suggested to my driver, with substantially more kindness than I was feeling, that he reconsider his cartographic priorities and get some help. There was no need to be so ineffective in his work and lost and stressed out all the time! I hinted that GPS stood for Get Places Sooner.

Like my driver (and I mean this loosely!) people who are "visually challenged" can get help, too. No, we don't teach you how to use GPS, just how to communicate using good old fashion drawings and other tools. Dave Gray, the founder of Xplane and I are putting on the first two of many workshops for people from all industries who need to communicate their ideas visually but lack the proper training to do so.