Intro Chapter1

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Introduction

Infographics andVisualization

The remarkable mechanisms by which the senses understand the environ-

ment are all but identical with the operations described by the psychology

of thinking.

Rudolf Arnheim, from Visual Thinking

Excerpted from The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization by Alberto Cairo.Copyright 2012. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and New Riders.


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The partnership of presentation

and exploration

I you asked me o choose one mysery ha has ascinaed me hrough he years,

i would be our brains abiliy o creae and undersand visual represenaions

wih differen degrees o absracion: graphics ha encode daa, conceps, con-

necions, and geographical locaions. How is i possible ha he brain, a wrinkled

chunk o mea and a squeezed ino a caviy oo small or is size, can accomplish

such challenging asks? Tis book is my personal atemp o answer ha quesion.

Te human brain has dozens o regions relaed o visual percepion: densely iner-

conneced groups o neurons devoed o he processing and filering o inorma-

ion ha we collec hrough our eyes. Evoluion designed us such ha no oheraciviy demands more menal resources han visual percepion and cogniion.

Tis ac permeaes everyhing we do, and impacs he way we express ourselves.

Go ahead and explain a difficul concep o a riend. In he momen she ges wha

you mean, she will exclaim, wih a sparkle o relie and happiness in her eyes:

Isee!

Her expression makes complee sense, because deep inside our minds, to seeand

to understand are inerwined processes. We undersand because we see. Tis

causal relaionship is also rue he oher way around. As I will explain laer, wesee because we have previous undersanding o cerain hings. Seeing precedes

undersanding, and his undersanding precedes a beter, deeper seeing down

he road.

We are a visual species. We are also a symbolicspecies, i we ollow errence W.Deacons amous definiion.1Everyhing our senses gaher is ransormed, deep

inside our minds, ino simple, manageable represenaions, or symbols. Some o

hose symbols are verbal or exual, encoded wih one o he housands o lan-

guages and dialecs humaniy has devised. Tey can also be expressed hroughwha Harvard psychologis Seven Pinker called mentalese, he inner languagehe mind uses o alk o isel.2

1 erence W. Deacon, Te Symbolic Species: Te Co-Evoluion o Language and he Brain (New York:W.W. Noron & Company, 1998).

2 Seven Pinker, Te Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language(New York: Harper CollinsPublishers, Inc., 1994). Pinker builds on Noam Chomskys hypohesis o an innae universal grammar.

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Bu no all symbols are verbal. Te brain doesnt just process information that

comes though the eyes. It also creates mental visual images that allow us

to reason and plan actions that facilitate survival.Imagine a bus. Picure i

in your head. Now, examine i: Is i yellow, or blue, or red? Does i have a license

plae? Is i a plae o he sae you live in? Tas i. Tas a menal image. Under-sanding he mechanisms involved in hese brain processes can help you become

a beter communicaor, visual or oherwise.

Tis is he firs heme o he book you have in your hands.

Te second heme is he common naure o inographics and inormaion visu-

alizaion. Some proessionals and academics have ereced a sharp disincion

beween he wo disciplines. According o hem, inographics presen inormaion

by means o saisical chars, maps, and diagrams, while inormaion visualiza-

ion offers visual ools ha an audience can use o explore and analyze daa ses.

Ta is, where inographics ell sories designed by communicaors, inormaion

visualizaion helps readers discover sories by hemselves.

In he ollowing pages, I ake an unorhodox approach. Infographics and visu-

alization exist on a continuum.Le me explain.

Imagine wo sraigh, black parallel lines. On he op line, pu he word Ino-

graphics on he lef ip and Visualizaion on he righ. On he line a he bo-

om, wrie presenaion on he lef, and exploraion on he righ. All graphics

presen daa and allow a cerain degree o exploraion o hose same daa. Some

graphics are almos all presenaion, so hey allow jus a limied amoun o

exploraion; hence we can say hey are more inographics han visualizaion

(Figure 1), whereas ohers are mosly abou leting readers play wih wha is

being shown (Figure 2), iling more o he visualizaion side o our linear scale.Bu every inographic and every visualizaion has a presentationand an explora-

tioncomponen: hey presen, bu hey also aciliae he analysis o wha hey

show, o differen degrees.

An excellen example: Te beauy o Seanie Posavecs Literary Organismis based

on is organic appearance and careul selecion o ypeaces and colors, and also

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2007

6%

4%

2%

0%

2008 2009 2010

Figure 1 Unemployment rate in an imaginary country.

on he muliple readings you can exrac rom i. Each subdivision o his ree-like graphic represens a deeper, more granular level o organizaion in he book:chapers, paragraphs, senences, and words. Colors correspond o he mos com-mon hemes o he novel: ravel, music, paries, sex, and so on.

Afer spending some ime ahoming i, paterns emerge and convey a differenmessage o each viewer. While he uniniiaed in Kerouacs oeuvre will ideniya big picure o he main opics he book discusses, he specialis or lierary criicwill be able o use his work o ar as a ool o es hypoheses and inuiions. Is

sex a prevalen heme in On the Road, or insance? Wha abou he chapers hacombine paragraphs abou sex wih paragraphs abou work and survival?

A char o mine in Figure 3also illusraes he complemenariy beween presen-ing and exploring. Each poin o he color line represens a year beween 1981and 2010 in he hisory o Brazil. Te posiion o a poin on he horizonal axisis equivalen o he Gross Domesic Produc, measured in billions o dollars. Te

posiion on he verical axis is equivalen o he inequaliy level measured wihhe GINI index, developed by he UN. Te arher o he righ a poin is, he big-ger he GDP (adjused or inflaion and or purchase power pariy); he higherhe poin is on he verical scale, he higher he inequaliy in ha paricular year.

In oher words, he graphic represens he covariaion o economic developmenand social jusice. Te headline summarizes is cenral message: When he GDP

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Figure 2 Stefanie Posavec Literary Organism: a Visualization of Part I of On the Road, by JackKerouac(www.itsbeenreal.co.uk). Reproduced with permission.

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When the Brazilian Economy Improves, Inequality Doesnt Drop

The graphic below shows the correlation between Brazilian GDP (horizontal axis) and inequality (vertical axis)

between 1981 and 2010. The position of the points, each representing a year, depends on how high GDP and

inequality were. You can notice, for instance, that the economy grew between 1986 and 1989 because the

line tends to move to the right, but inequality also grew, as the point representing 1989 is much higher than

the ones before. You can also see that, during Lula da Silvas government, the economy expanded almost as much

as during the terms of the other presidents who preceded him combined.

500 750 1,000 1,250 1,500 1,750 2,000 2,225

500 750 1,250 1,500 1,750 2,000 2,225

The higher the value, the higher the inequality

FIGUEIREDO

COLLOR

ITAMAR

SARNEY

FHC

LULA

1981

1984

1986

1983

1982

1985 1987

1992

1991

1990

1988

1993

1994

1995 1996

1997

1999

1998

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

1989

64

62

60

58

56

54

53

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT, BILLIONS OF DOLLARS

1,000

GINI INEQUALITY INDEX

Each color on the linerepresents a presidency

Sources: World Bank, IMF, IBGE Graphic by Alberto Cairo

The 1980s are known as the Lost Decade in

Brazil for a reason: the GDP was stagnant and

inequality reached its highest point in 1989,

under Jos Sarneyspresidency. It was a time

of hyperinflation that affected mostly the

poorest, who didnt have access to investments

and bank accounts. Fernando Collorsand

Itamar Francospresidencies registered

modest GDP improvements, but inequality

varied widely: sometimes it dropped and the

next year, for no apparent reason, it increased

again. Only during Fernando HenriqueCardosos (FHC)and Lula da Silvas

governments does the curve tend to stabilize:

the economy starts growing at a steady pace

and inequality decreases with no interruption.

Figure 3 pocamagazine. The co-variation of inequality and economic growth (Translated from PortugueseReproduced with permission.

grows, inequaliy does no necessarily drop. Is one o he disgraces o recenBrazilian hisory ha improvemens in he economy don always lead o a beterliving sandard or everybody. In some years, paricularly on he firs hal o heline, he opposie is rue.

When I finished designing his projec, I showed i o some middle-aged colleaguesa poca, a weekly news magazine I worked or beween 2010 and 2011. Teirresponse was unanimous and encouraging. Alhough hey were wriers raherhan designers or ariss, all o hem undersood he graphic wih a minimum o

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effor. I confirmed or hem acs ha every Brazilian older han 40 remembers:he consan and sable economic growh he counry wen hrough during Lulasadminisraion (20032011), when he governmen promoed several income dis-ribuion programs; he insabiliy o Jos Sarneys and Fernando Collors years,

when he GDP barely improved bu inequaliy varied erraically; he sabilizaionorced by Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), who ook Brazil ou o he blackhole o inflaion; and so on.

Some o hem even old me ha he mulicolored line was hisory-making, be-cause i revealed he correlaion beween he wo variables, which had neverbeen shown beore. Te line looks wildly erraic beween 1981 and 1992 (he chaosyears); i smoohs beween 1993 and 2002 (he sabilizaion period); and i becomesperecly sraigh afer 2003, revealing an almos perec relaionship beweenbeter economic oupu and more equaliy in Brazil. o see sel-proclaimed non-

visual people in he process o unraveling such an uncommon graphic orm, andgeting saisacory messages rom i, was eye-opening or me.

Te surprise reacion o my ex colleagues as hey read he graphic, raher hanmerely looked a i, has deep roos. Tis is he hird heme o Te Functional Art:Graphics, charts, and maps arent just tools to be seen, but to be read and

scrutinized.Te firs goal o an inographic is no o be beauiul jus or he

sake o eye appeal, bu, above all, o be undersandable firs, and beauiul aferha; or o be beauiul hanks o is exquisie uncionaliy.

I you are among hose journaliss, designers, and ariss who hink ha ino-graphics and visualizaion consis o a bunch o daa shaped ino a specacularand innovaive orm, keep reading. I hope I will be able o make you orge hasimplisic idea. As Ben Shneiderman wroe once, Te purpose o visualizaion isinsigh, no picures.3Images are he vocabulary o a language. Tey are means,no ends. You will never hear a wriing journalis say ha her goal is o sriveor a good lierary syle by using elegan senences and sophisicaed srucures.

Her syle is jus a ool o aciliae comprehension and o wake up emoions inreaders minds so heyll absorb difficul ideas wih ease. Aesheics do mater,bu aesheics wihou a solid backbone made o good conen is jus arifice.

3 Suar Card, Jock Mackinlay and Ben Shneiderman, Readings in Information Visualization: UsingVision to Tink(London: Academic Press, 1999).

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In his book, you will see ha I wrie quie a bi abou visual journalism. Tasbecause I am a journalis, and I am convinced ha many o he challenges news

media ace in using graphics are common o oher proessions ha also use hemon a regular basis, such as markeing, adverising, business inelligence, daaanalysis, and so on.

In newspapers and magazines, inographics have radiionally been creaedwihin ar deparmens. In all o hose Im amiliar wih, he inographics direc-or is subordinae o he ar direcor, who is usually a graphic designer. Tis isno a misake per se, bu i can lead o damaging misundersandings. In Brazil,he counry where I lived while wriing par o his book, journaliss and design-ers call graphics ar. Tey would say, wih ha charming musicaliy o Souh

American Poruguese, Vamos azer uma are! (Les make a piece o ar!)Tinking o graphics as ar leads many o pu bells and whisles over subsanceand o conound inographics wih mere illusraions.

Tis error is a leas in par he resul o a cenuries-long radiion in which visualcommunicaion has no been as inellecually elevaed as wriing. For oo manyradiional journaliss, inographics are mere ornamens o make he page lookligher and more atracive or audiences who grow more impaien wih long-ormsories every day. Inographics are reaed no as devices ha expand he scope oour percepion and cogniion, bu as decoraion. As Rudol Arnheim wroe, his

radiion goes back o ancien Wesern philosophy, whose Greek hinkers suchas Parmenides and Plao misrused he senses deeply.4Unorunaely oday, 40years afer Arnheims maserul Visual Tinkingwas published, he philosophyis sill in very good healh.

Te ourh heme o he book, hereore, is the relationship between visualiza-tion and art, which is similar to the linkage of journalism and literature. A journalis can borrow ools and echniques rom lieraure, and be inspiredby grea ficion wriing, bu she will never allow her sories o becomelieraure.Ta noion applies o visualizaion, which is, above all, a uncional ar.

Les ge sared.

Miami, Florida. June 2012

4 Rudol Arnheim,Visual Tinking(Berkeley: Universiy o Caliornia Press, 1969).

xxintroduction: infographics and visualization



9/30Excerpted from The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization by Alberto Cairo.

Copyright 2012. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and New Riders.


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PART I

foundations



11/30Excerpted from The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization by Alberto Cairo.

Copyright 2012. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and New Riders.


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1

Why Visualize: FromInformation to Wisdom

My expertise has always been my ignorance, my admission and acceptance

of not knowing. When you can admit that you dont know, you are more

likely to ask the questions that will enable you to learn.

Richard Saul Wurman, from Information Anxiety 2

Recenly someone asked me wha personaliy rai bes characerizes hose in-

eresed in a career in visualizaion and inographics. My answer: An insaiable,

childish curiosiy.

Curiosiy, combined wih a endency o ry o explain everyhing using reason,

led me o a career in journalism and, laer, o specialize in inormaion graphics.

I is no possible o be a good communicaor i you have no developed a keenineres in almos everyhing as well as an urge o learn as much as you can abou

he sranges, mos varied, unrelaed opics. Te life of a visual communicator

should be one of sysemaic and exciing inellecual chaos.In my case, i

consiss o regular shifs beween journalism, cogniive psychology, inernaional



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poliics, and hisory. In your case, i migh be spors, music, archiecure, or jusabou anyhing else.

Le me give you an example o how ar healhy curiosiy can ake you.

Rational OptimismMy original plan or his chaper was o open i wih a ew ormal definiions orinormaion visualizaion, inormaion design, and inographics. Bu somehingchanged my mind. While randomly navigaing Te New York imeswebsie, Isumbled on a review o a book called Te Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves,by Briish science essayis Mat Ridley (2010).

Te review1was mosly criical, bu he hypoheses Ridley proposed sounded in-riguing. Te book honored is ile, making a case or opimism abou our uureas a species. I had read oher Ridley books in he pas and had loved his Genome:Te Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters(2006), so I was posiively biased.

My curiosiy ignied, I grabbed my Kindle and purchased he book. One minuelaer, i had finished downloading. For he res o he day, I raded book wriingor reading. (Noe o my edior: I did i o make his chaper beter, I promise!)Te book is so well writen ha i was difficul o pu down beore he end.

One chaper abou he eriliy rae, or he average number o children born o

women in each counry, caugh my eye. You may have heard or read he sorieso Malhusian doomsayers who claim ha rising eriliy in poor regions is hereason he Earh has o suppor 7 billion people, wih a orecas o 9 billion wodecades rom now, and even more in he ar uure.

Oher doomsayers ocus on he aging populaions o developed counries whereeriliy raes are below 2.1 children per woman, a number ha is known as he

replacemen rae. I he replacemen rae in a counry is significanly below 2.1,he populaion will shrink over ime. I is much higher han 2.1, youll have amuch younger populaion down he road, which can cause problems. Younger

populaions, or example, show greaer raes o violence and crime.Ridley conradics boh kinds o apocalypic hinking by discussing wo ineres-ing rends. On average, eriliy in rich counries is very low, bu in he pas ewyears i has rended slighly upward. On he oher hand, poor counries show adecreasein average eriliy. Conrary o convenional wisdom, in many counries

1 William Easerly, A High-Five or he Invisible Hand, Te New York imes, June 11, 2010.

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ha verge on becoming firs-world economies, such as Brazil, he drop is dra-maic: he eriliy rae has rended rom more han six children per woman in1950 o less han wo in 2010.

Ridley suggess ha, due o hese wo complemenary rends, eriliy raes ev-

erywhere will converge around 2.1 in a ew decades, and he world populaionwill sabilize a 9 billion people. Is counerinuiive, isn i?

Ridleys case is compelling and suppored by prospecive daa rom reliablesources, such as he Unied Naions (UN) and Te World Bank.2Bu somehingmade me uncomorable as I read his argumens. I ook me a while o figure ouwha i was. Ridley wries abou curves and lines and rends, bu he chaper oneriliy and populaion includes jus one graphic, similar o he one in Figure 1.1.

Percentage increase in world population2.5%

1950

-195

5

1955

-196

0

1960

-196

5

1965

-197

0

1970

-197

5

1975

-198

0

1980

-198

5

1985

-199

0

1990

-199

5

1995

-200

0

2000

-200

5

2.0%

1.5%

1.0%

0.5%

0.0%

Figure 1.1 How much world population increases compared with the previous year.

Te graphic is simple and clear, bu also insufficien o suppor he claims Ridleymakes. All i shows is ha when you plo populaion change as a ime-series char,he rend is negaive. Te closer we ge o he presen, he lower he worldwidepopulaion growh. Te fac ha he graphic is an aggregae of he daa ofall counries in he world impedes our abiliy o see he muliple paterns

2 Mat Ridley, Te Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves(New York: Harper Collins).

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Ridley discusses. Where are hose rich counries whose eriliy rae is slowlyrecovering? Where is he evidence or he asserion ha developing counriessuch as Brazil, China, and India are sabilizing heir populaions?

I old you beore ha I am curious. I didn jus ake a day off o read Te Rational

Optimist. I also looked or he daa Ridley used or he chaper on populaion. Wihha daa, would I be able o prove his hypoheses?

Low-Tech Visualization to the Rescue

Te firs hing I did was go o he Unied Naions websie. I you search or UNdaa, you will quickly find htp://daa.un.org/, which is a kind o paradise i youlike o dig ino huge daabases on populaion, educaion, economics, and socialdevelopmen. Wihin he UN sie, I searched or he eriliy rae daa. Te UNs

figures begin in 1950; he projecions exend as ar as 2100.

I decided o exclude he years afer 2010, playing wih acual daa (a ha ime)raher han orecass. Using he filers he sie offers, I asked or a able haincluded he more han 150 counries on which he UN has complee research.Figure 1.2shows a screensho o wha I obained.

Figure 1.2 UN data table.

I downloaded he able and decided o ry a low-ech visualizaion exercise oshow my sudensmosly journaliss wih no echnology backgroundhalearning o creae inormaion graphics is no all ha difficul.

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Using OpenOffice (an open source sofware suie ha includes a spreadshee

program), I reorganized he daa and cleaned up he able a litle. Some cells were

missing, so he process involved a bi o manual weakingno big deal. Figure 1.3

shows an excerp o he resul.

Figure 1.3 My UN data table after tweaking.

Sill wih me? Now he un begins. We have he able in he compuer. Is i possible

o make sense o i? Hardly. Exracing meaning rom a able is ough. Can you

see any ineresing rends jus by reading he figures? I you can, congraulaions.

You have an exraordinary memory. Mos o us morals have brains ha didn

evolve o deal wih large amouns o daa. Le me prove i o you: Look a Figure

1.3 again and ell me in wha years beween 1950 and 1975 did he difference be-

ween he eriliy raes o Spain and Sweden grow, and in wha years did i drop?Tis apparenly simple ask orces you o do somehing exremely difficul: look

up a number, memorize i, read anoher one, memorize i and compare i wih he

previous one, and so orh unil you ge o he end o he series. I wouldn boher.

Bu wha i I designed a simple char wih he daa in he spreadshee? Te re-

sul (Figure 1.4) is a visual ool ha helps answer my quesion. Te message in

ha graphic is clear: Spain sared 1950 wih an average number o children per

woman higher han Swedens. Bu hen eriliy in Spain ell drasically afer 1970

and only recovered parially in he las five years o he series. On he oher hand,Swedens eriliy rae has remained prety sable over he las 60 years, alhough

i is well below he replacemen level o 2.1 children per woman.

By giving numbers a proper shape, by visually encoding hem, he graphic has

saved you ime and energy ha you would oherwise wase i you had o use a

able ha was no designed o aid your mind. Te firs and main goal of any

1 why visualize: from information to wisdom



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0

1

2

3

2.57

2.211.87

1.43

1950-55

Source: UN

1960-65 1970-75 1980-85 1990-95 2005-2010

SPAIN

A Comparison of Spains and Swedens Fertility RatesAverage number of children per woman over her lifetime

SWEDENReplacement

level: average of

2.1 children per woman

Figure 1.4 So much for Spanish pride.

graphic and visualization is to be a tool for your eyes and brain to perceive

wha lies beyond heir naural reach.3

However, presening daa or wo counries is ar simpler han presening daaor one hundred o hem, which is wha we may need o do in order o pu someo Mat Ridleys ideas o he es. Once we represen he lines or all counries inour daa se, we ge somehing similar o Figure 1.5. Tis colorul spagheti dishmay look ineresing, bu is oally useless or our purposes. Tis is wha youge when you le a sofware program do he hard work or you.

Remember, wha we wan o reveal is he projeced confluence o he lines orich counries (rending slighly up in recen years) and hose o poor counries(rending down) around he 2.1 children per woman line. I you look a Figure 1.5long enough, you may be able o ell he lines apar, bu is more likely you will

jus give up.

Te way o solve his problem is o add some visual hierarchy o he mix. Obviouslyi makes no sense or all lines o be equally visible. In informaion graphics,wha you show can be as imporan as wha you hide.I pu he char gener-

aed in OpenOffice ino Adobe Illusraor, where I highlighed a ew rich counriesand a ew developing and poor counries.

I made oher counries lines ligh gray, so hey remain on he scene bu donobscure he message. Why no ge rid o hem? Because hey provide conex o

3 Tis idea has inspired some o he bes books ou here, including hose o Edward ufe, WilliamCleveland, Sephen Few, and Sephen Kosslyn, among ohers. See he Bibliography or reerences.

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1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1950-1955 1960-1965 1970-1975 1980-1985 1990-1995 2005-2010

Fertility RateAverage number of children per woman over her lifetime

Showing all countries for which complete data is available

Figure 1.5 Too many lines obscure the message.

he cases ha I highligh. While changing all he background lines o one color

makes i impossible o see hem as independen eniies, collecively hey show an

overall downward rend in he daayou can see ha many lines begin beween

he 6.0 and 8.0 children per woman poin in 1950, bu jus a handul o hem re-

main a ha heigh in he verical axis when hey reach 2010. Te final skech in

Figure 1.6looks much more user-riendly han he previous one.

Excied by wha I was revealing, I explored oher asserions made in Te Rational

Optimist. Ridley argues ha a sudden drop in a counrys eriliy rae is usually

precipiaed by several acors: an increase in average per capia income, women

geting beter access o educaion, and he shrinking o inan moraliy figures.

Te acs ha more children survive heir firs years o lie and ha women arespending more ime in school are posiively correlaed o beter amily planning.

On he economic side, Ridley explains ha in rich counries, leisure opions are

everywhere, and hey are cheap and accessible; he disracions o he modern

world ree us, albei parially, o our primary impulse o reproduce wih no conrol.

We can explain his phenomenon in bogus academic jargon: he average number

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1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

8.5

1950-1955 1955-1960 1960-1965 1965-1970 1970-1975 1975-1980 1980-1985 1985-1990 1990-1995 1995-2000 2000-2005 2005-2010

Italy

Spain

FranceNorway

Brazil

UnitedKingdom

Sweden

Germany

Japan

India

Worldaverage

2.6

4.3

Fertilityrate (childrenper woman)

China

Yemen

Niger

Each line representsthe evolution of the

average number of childrenper woman in a country

Replacementlevel: average of2.1 children per woman

Figure 1.6 Highlighting the relevant, keeping the secondary in the background.




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o children per couple is inversely proporional o he average amoun o hours

each member o ha couple spends in ron o any kind o screen. No kidding.

o prove he correlaion beween eriliy, income, and womens schooling, I

designed wo small scater-plos in he same spreadshee sofware I used beore.

In Figure 1.7, each litle circle represens a counry. Te posiion o each counry

on he horizonal axis is proporional o is eriliy rae. Te posiion on he

verical axis equals average income per person (firs char) and he percenage

o sudens in middle school who are emale (second char).

0

40

80

120

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Vertical axis:Income per capita

(thousandsof dollars a year,

2008)

Horizontal axis:Fertility rate(2010)

Each dotrepresentsa country

Luxembourg

Norway

US

Niger

Niger

Afghanistan

0

40%

20%

60%

80%

81 2 3 4 5 6 7

Vertical axis:% of women among

middle school students(2004-2009)

Horizontal axis:Fertility rate(2010)

Each dotrepresentsa country

US

Per capita incomeand fertility rate

Percentage of middle school studentswho are women and fertility rate

Figure 1.7 The more educated and rich you are, the fewer children youll have.

Te black line running beween he dos is called a trend lineor regression line:

he closer he dos are o his line, he sronger he correlaion beween he wo

variables represened. You can see ha he dos are prety close o he line, so he

variables are relaed. On average, he richer people are, he ewer children hey

end o have; and he ewer girls who atend middle school, he more children

on average hey have in ha paricular counry.

Heres he lesson I learned rom his exercise: In jus hree or our hours o work,

I compleed a personal projec ha allowed me o see he evidence supporingMat Ridleys discussion on he evoluion o eriliy. His hypoheses seem o have

some basis afer all. But if you dont present your data to readers so they can

see it, read it, explore it, and analyze it, why would they trust you?Tis is a

quesion many journaliss, paricularly hose who wrie opinion columns, should

ask hemselves more ofen.




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Drowning in Data? Only If You Dont Know How to Swim

Te example I jus gave you was no chosen randomly. I helps us delve ino op-ics ha are essenial o undersanding he presen sae o graphics as a orm ocommunicaion. Isn i amazing ha we can read graphics a all, and use hemo discover realiies oherwise invisible o he bare eye? In he pas wo or hreedecades, psychology has unveiled many o he brain mechanisms involved in hiskind o undersanding. Anoher hough: Did you noice ha he daa I manipu-laed is available on he Inerne for free? And isn i wonderul ha he ools Iused o prove Mat Ridleys asserions are also broadly available o anyone andcan be learned in a mater o hours?

Tose hree rends have converged o pu visualizaion in he mainsream. Tedesign o graphics is no jus more democraic han i was a decade ago, when

daa was sparse and sofware expensive and difficul o use. We also have hepoenial o use graphics more inelligenly because he principles inormingheir design have never been clearer.

Embracing graphics and visualizaion is no rivial endeavor. Ciing research byInernaional Daa Corp (IDC), Te Economistrepored ha he inormaion gener-aed in 2010 alone reached 1,200 exabyes,4an amoun equivalen o housands obillions o issues o he venerable Briish magazine. Te sory added ha he oalamoun o exan digial inormaion oals several zetabyes. Heres a simpleexplanaion o help you grasp he challenge were dealing wih:

1 bi, or binary digi, is he basic uni o inormaion in compuing. I rep-resens eiher 0 or 1.

1 bye(he amoun o inormaion necessary o encode a leter or a number)= 8 bis

1 kilobye= 1,000 byes

1 megabye= 1,000 kilobyes or 1,000,000 byes (106)

1 gigabye= 1,000 megabyes or 1,000,000,000 byes (109)

1 erabye= 1,000 gigabyes or 1,000,000,000,000 byes (10 12)

1 peabye= 1,000 erabyes or 1,000,000,000,000,000 byes (1015

)1 exabye= 1,000 peabyes or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 byes (1018)

1 zetabye= 1,000 exabyes or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 byes (1021)

1 yotabye= 1,000 zetabyes or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 byes(1024)

4 All oo much: monsrous amouns o daa. Te Economist, Feb. 25, 2010.




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Conused? Don worry. Youre no alone. A yotabye o inormaion is such a hugenumber ha i is impossible o imagine. In Augus 2010, Erich Schmid, ormerCEO o Google, announced in a conerence ha beween he beginning o imeand 2003, humaniy generaed roughly five exabyes o daa, whereas we now

produce he same volume o bis every two days.Te inormaion explosion is so prooundly larger han anyone ever hough,said Schmid. Five exabyes is more han 200,000 years o DVD-qualiy video.5

o be air, no all ha inormaion is wha you would call inormaion in a col-loquial conversaion. Mos o i is he produc o auomaed processes and com-municaions beween compuers, mobile phones, and oher devicesnohingha a human brain can undersand. Bu sill.

Les cach our breah here and move on.

From Information to Wisdom

In he 1970s, years beore access o he Inerne was universal, Richard SaulWurman, hen a proessor o archiecure in Norh Carolina, prediced ha heoncoming inormaion explosion would require he inervenion o a new breedo proessionals rained in organizing daa and making sense o i. According oWurman, he bigges challenge our species was abou o ace was o learn how onavigae he upcoming sunami o bis ha was cresing he horizon.

Wurman called hese people information architects. Teir discipline, informationarchitecture, has been defined by ohers as:

Te srucural design o shared inormaion environmens;

Te combinaion o organizaion, labeling, search, and navigaion sysemswihin websies and inranes;

Te ar and science o shaping inormaion producs and experiences osuppor usabiliy and findabiliy;

An emerging discipline and communiy o pracice ocused on bringing

principles o design and archiecure o he digial landscape.Wurman suggess ha one o he main goals o inormaion archiecure is o helpusers avoid information anxiety, he black hole beween daa and knowledge.

People sill have anxiey abou how o assimilae a body o knowledge hais expanding by he nanosecond. Inormaion anxiey is produced by he

5 Google Amosphere 2010 conerence.




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ever-widening gap beween wha we undersand and wha we hink we

should undersand.6

Te gap is beter represened hrough he diagram in Figure 1.8, which shows

he seps separaing he wo exremes o Wurmans maxim. I is based on several

models known as DIKW Hierarchies (Daa, Inormaion, Knowledge, Wisdom).Alhough he models have been criicized as simplisic and vague,7hey are useul

or explaining wha visualizaions and graphics are abou.

Unstructuredinformation

Structuredinformation Knowledge WisdomData

Gathering and filteringFirst level of encoding

Audiences decodewhat is presented using

memories and experiences

Second levelof encoding

Communicators

AudienceOuter world

In-depth understandingand memorization

Figure 1.8 From reality to peoples brains.

In he diagram, unstructured informationmeans reality, he world ou here

in all is glorious complexiy. Every phenomenon ha can be perceived or mea-

sured can be described as inormaion.

Dataare records o observaions. Daa can be encoded as symbols (numbers and

words) ha describe and represen realiy. In beween unsrucured inormaion

and daa, you can see a first level of encoding. Imagine a researcher sudying he

eriliy rae. Te daa would be he records he researcher makes in a spreadshee,

or insance: 2, 5, 6, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 4, 3, 3 (and so on) children per woman.

Te second level of encodingakes us rom daa o srucured informaion.

Tis happens when a communicaor (a researcher, a journalis, or whomever)

represens daa in a meaningul way, using ex, visuals, or oher means. We

can also say ha his communicaor has given shape o daa, so ha relevan

paterns become visible.

6 Wurman, p. 14.

7 David Weinberg, Te Problem wih he Daa-Inormaion-Knowledge-Wisdom Hierarchy,HarvardBusiness Review, February 2010.




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Inormaion consumpion can lead o higher knowledgeon he par o he audi-ence, i is members are able o perceive he paterns or meaning o daa. I isno a passive process; our brains are no hard drives ha sore suff uncriically.When people see, read, or lisen, hey assimilae conen by relaing i o heir

memories and experiences.We reach wisdomwhen we achieve a deep undersanding o acquired knowl-edge, when we no only ge i, bu when new inormaion blends wih priorexperience so compleely ha i makes us beter a knowing wha o do in ohersiuaions, even i hey are only loosely relaed o he inormaion rom whichour original knowledge came. Jus as no all he inormaion we absorb leads oknowledge, no all o he knowledge we acquire leads o wisdom.

Every sep in our diagram implies higher order. When we see he world, weunconsciously impose organizaion on he unsrucured inormaion ha our

eyes gaher and ransmi o he brain. We creae hierarchies. We don perceiveeveryhing in ron o us a once, as well see laer in his book. A moving eniy,or insance, atracs our atenion more han a saic one, because movemen maysugges an approaching hrea. We hereore process he posiion and ideniyo he moving objec beore paying atenion o anyhing else. Our brain givesmeaningo he objec, even i we are no aware o he reason why.

In he words o Kevin Kelly, a amous philosopher o echnology, in his book Whatechnology Wants (2010):

Minds are highly evolved ways o srucuring he bis o inormaion haorm realiy. Ta is wha we mean when we say a mind undersands; igeneraes order.

So, wihou conscious effor, he brain always ries o close he disance beweenobserved phenomena and knowledge or wisdom ha can help us survive. Tis iswha cogniion means. Te role of an information architect is to anticipate thisprocess and generae order before peoples brains ry o do i on heir own.

Making Reality Visible

oday, information architectreers broadly o proessions wih very differen seso ools and heoreical radiions. Ouside academic circles, an inormaion ar-chiec can be someone who wries echnical handbooks, a sofware engineer, aweb developer, a wayfinding designer (yes, has a proession; who do you hinkcreaes public spaces ha can be navigaed wih ease?), and ha nerdy guy whomakes chars on eriliy jus or he un o i.




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All o hose proessions share he goal o making he world easier or audiences

and users, bu has oo broad a goal o pu hem all in he same bag. For my pur-

poses in his book, inormaion graphics and visualizaion is a orm o inorma-

ion archiecure. Bu how can we be more precise in describing he relaionship

beween he branch and he runk?Look a Figure 1.9and imagine inormaion archiecure as a big circle. Inside

is he se o disciplines devoed o dealing wih inormaion. Among he mos

relevan disciplines is information design, defined by Sanord Universiys Rober

E. Horn as he ar and science o preparing inormaion so ha i can be used

by human beings wih efficiency and effeciveness.8Te goal o he inormaion

designer is o prepare documens (boh analog and digial) and spaces so hey

can be navigaed efforlessly.

InformationArchitecture

InformationDesign

VisualizationInformation Graphics Figure 1.9 Information

graphics is a form of infor-mation design. Informationdesign branches from infor-

mation architecture.

A significan par o inormaion design is inormaion graphics and visualizaion.

Academic lieraure someimes separaes inographics rom visualizaion and

defines he later as he use o compuer-suppored, ineracive, visual repre-

senaions o daa o ampliy cogniion,9bu I preer he more sraighorward

ake o Joan Cosa, a amous Spanish proessor o design: o visualize is o make

cerain phenomena and porions o realiy visible and undersandable; many o

hese phenomena are no naurally accessible o he bare eye, and many o hem

are no even o visual naure.10

8 Rober Jacobson, ed. Information Design, (Cambridge: MI Press, 2000).

9 Card, Suar, Jock, Mackinlay, and Ben Shneiderman. 1999.Readings Information Visualization: UsingVision to Tink. San Francisco: Morgan Kauffmann.

10 Joan Cosa, La esquemtica: visualizar la informacin (Barcelona: Ediorial Paids, Coleccin PaidsEsica 26, 1998). One o he bes books Ive read on he visual represenaion o inormaion. NoEnglish version available, unorunaely.




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Why does Cosa add ha second par abou no being necessarily o visual na-ure? Because graphical displays can be eiher figuraive or non-figuraive. oundersand figuraive displays, hink o a map as a scaled porrai o a geographi-cal area, or a manual ha explains hrough illusraions how o use your new

washing machine, or a news inographic on a caasrophic plane crash, like heone in Figure 1.10(pages 20 and 21), a superb projec by Pblico, a medium-sizedSpanish newspaper wih a small bu exremely alened graphics desk.

Oher graphics ha display absrac phenomena are non-figuraive. In hese,here is no mimeic correspondence beween wha is being represened and isrepresenaion. Te relaionship beween hose wo eniies is conventional, nonaural (see Figure 1.11). Te unemploymen rae doesn really resemble a grido mulicolored recangles, does i?

Figure 1.11 The Wall Street Journal. Web chart U.S. Unemployment: A Historical View.(Reprinted with permission of Te Wall Street Journal, Copyright 2010 Dow Jones &Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.)

Visualization as a TechnologyLe me inroduce an idea crucial o he premise o his book: Visualization shouldbe seen as a technology.Ta may sound odd. When someone menions echnol-ogy in a rouine conversaion, we usually hink o machines: MP3 players, cars,rerigeraors, elecric oohbrushes, lawn mowers, compuers. Bu wha do allhose devices have in common? I don mean physically, bu in heir very essence:




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Figure 1.10 Pblico(Spain). Plane crash in Barajas airport, Madrid, August 21, 2008.Infographic by Chiqui Esteban, Mnica Serrano, lvaro Valio.




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1. Tey are exensions of ourselves. Canadian media hinker MarshallMcLuhan was he firs o advance his noion hal a cenury ago. A lawnmower helps us keep our garden nea wihou having o use our bare hands.An elecric oohbrush reaches small spaces in beween our eeh ha would

be impossible o reach wih a oohpickwhich is also a echnology, byhe way. An MP3 player is no jus a player, bu also a device ha helps usremember he songs ha define he bes and wors momens o our lives.

2. Tey are means o reach goals.Someimes is jus one goala reezerkeeps ood reshbu i can be several. Tink o a compuer, whose unc-ionaliy depends on oher echnologies such as sofware ha we insall.echnologies can harbor oher echnologies.

Visualizaion as echnology has hese same rais. Also, he word technologyhasvarious meanings and is poenially open o inerpreaion. I use i here wihhe sense given by W. Brian Arhur in his oundaional Te Nature of echnology(2009). According o Arhur, we can use he word technologyin hree differensenses, illusraed in Figure 1.12: echnologies-singular, echnologies-plural,and echnology-general.

Technologies-pluralTechnology-general Technologies-singular

Figure 1.12 The three kinds of technology: general, plural, and singular.

Wha Arhur means is ha echnology can be, firs, any objec, process, or mehoddevised o aid in a ask, a means o ulfill a human purpose. Tis can be calledtechnology-singular. Te rerigeraor and oher devices described above are examples.

Te algorihms ha run a sofware program as well as he leters, senences, and




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paragraphs ha help me communicae wih you are also echnologies-singular.Even a humble nail is a echnology.

echnologies-pluraldescribe assemblages o pracices and componens. In oherwords, hey are groups o echnology-singular iems ha, when pu ogeher,

make somehing new emerge. Elecronics, biochemisry, and he varieies oengineering are all echnologies-plural. Arhur also reers o echnology-pluralgroups as bodies o echnology.

Te hird meaning o echnology is he enire collecion o devices and engineer-ing pracices available o a culure, or technology-general.

How is his relevan or inormaion graphics and visualizaion? Firs, as emerg-ing disciplines, hey are sill a ormaive hodge-podges o conceps, mehods,and procedures borrowed rom many areas: he principles o map design (romcarography); guidelines on how o beter display daa on a char (rom saisics);

rules on bes pracices or he use o ype, layou, and color paletes (rom graphicdesign); principles o wriing syle (rom journalism); and more, including a widearray o sofware ools.

Second, and more imporan, individual informaion graphics are also ech-nologies, means to fulfill purposes, devices whose aim is to help an audience

complete certain tasks. Tis apparen no-brainer will have consequences laer on.I you accep ha a visualizaion is, above all, a tool, you are implicily accepingha he discipline i belongs o is no jus ar, bu functionalart, somehing haachieves beauy no hrough he subjecive, reely wandering sel-expression

o he painer or sculpor, bu hrough he careul and resrained inkering ohe engineer.


Documents

Intro Chapter1