Data is boring, information is interesting! I’ve always used this statement whenever the issue of data is being discussed. No one is really interested in looking at a large number of data rows, or even a small one. As humans, we tend to better understand a particular issue when it is presented to us in a visual way, and in this roundup you will find 20 sites using data visualization that deliver information to the user in an effective and inspiring way.

– Singlefunction.com

From SingleFunction.com comes 20 Inspiring Uses of Data Visualization.

Well, in my own geeky kind of way, I think data, in iteself, is not necessarily boring, but I get the point. In fact, I live the point. Presenting complex data in a way that gives us information—actionable information—is, of course, the point.

The goal is to gain advantages in business by being able to more effectively process more and more data into intelligence that can be acted upon in intelligent way. And with great methods of visualizing complex datasets, we learn to live simply with complexity.

Seems like a fitting day to introduce a concept that has guided much of my thinking, something that is key to what I’m writing about on the Creatalytics blog.

Darwinian Marketing is the term I use for an approach that involves applying the framework of natural selection to systems that test website variations, ad copy variations, conversion scheme variations, and much more in a manner that allows an evolutionary process to occur and ensures that the strongest survive and an evolve.

On the very last page of The Origin of Species, Darwin writes:

“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers…from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.”

There is no simpler, yet more important concept, in understanding nature. And this concept can inform our understanding of many things far beyond natural science: complexity, emergence, economic systems, and yes, data-driven performance marketing.

It provides the key insights that allow us to bring analytics and creative thinking together in a way that propels  our online marketing efforts.

In my posts thus far, especially in my post “K.I.S.S., my ass,” I’ve started talking about how a savvy Internet marketer can and should feel confident embracing complexity, in building systems that allow them to learn lessons and take action based on lots of data.

I’ve written that “keeping it simple” in the sense of “less is more” is no longer necessary to get actionable knowledge out of data, because if you’re smart in building your systems, processes, approaches, and tools, you won’t need “fewer” to have simple.

Rather, if built correctly, simplicity—and elegance—will emerge from complexity.

For me, a key part of this approach is in understanding how the lessons of natural selection apply to this work. Creative iteration, copy fidelity, periodic mutation, and either a punctuated or gradual evolution. Conversion path optimization as ecosystem.  

Darwinian Marketing.

More to come on this concept. Stay tuned.

And with code, that meant making a clean plan for development and keeping the code organized, economical, and efficient.  The fewest and most straightforward instructions to accomplish the goal.  Elegance.

Wikipedia says:

“The KISS principle states that design simplicity should be a key goal and unnecessary complexity avoided.”

One of the main ideas that I’d like to impart in this blog is that simplicity and complexity are not mutally exclusive. The key to the above definition is the word “unnecessary.” And as data capture becomes easier and analytics becomes more sophisticated and manageable, one is able to maintain simplicity with greater levels of complexity.

So on this blog, I will speak to this issue frequently. I want to explain how I’ve come to embrace complexity in data-driven marketing, and how I believe this approach has been a major contributor to business successes.

I want to be clear: I’m not against “simple.” I just know a different kind of simple than the one I hear about frequently. For me, it’s taken on new meaning, one which does not equate “simple” with “less.”

My kind of simplicity is about being smarter and more effective with more.

It’s about taking whatever limited insights, experience, and intelligence we may possess, and using data analytics and smartly designed organic systems and processes to leverage our way to greater heights.

And for anyone out there, trying to succeed in competitive online business verticals, I hope to show you how you too can Live Simply with Complexity.

More to come…