This documentary was an interesting look into the merger of data overload and design. Data visualization is a great way to make large collections of data communicate a story to the public that would otherwise be overlooked or too difficult to digest.
Some controversy exists over whether the trend to include a lot of data is leading to graphics that look nice but are entirely incomprehensible. The response to this argument is that, just like anything else, data visualization can be done well or it can be done poorly.
Richard Koci Hernandez describes this period in the industry as data visualization meeting motion graphics meeting narrative. This is a very apt description and shows how the industry is pulling together unlikely groups to produce a good product. Statisticians are working with designers and coders to come up with the best data visualizations.
The ‘live data’ concept is an interesting one. The fact that the data visualization can update in real time adds a new level of awe to the product. I also found it interesting that most major producers of these kinds of data graphics have a whole store of template designs on which they can build new data visualizations as they come up. After having worked with Flash, this makes a whole lot of sense.
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