In the short film, Journalism In the Age of Data, Fernanda Viegas, an IBM researcher, says:
“Half of our brain is hardwired for vision. Vision is the biggest bandwidth that we have in terms of sensory information to the outside world. So what visualization is doing is that its just taking advantage of the fact that we are so paramed to understand the world around us in terms of what we see.”
This quote is dynamic and captures the power of visualization. People would rather look at something presented through a cleverly orchestrated chart then to read through lines, and lines, of the same information. Data is best when it captures the attention of it’s audience visually, and presents accurate information that shows its importance.
There is an art of taking basic, mundane information and making it more appealing. Reading a long document compacted with different statistics and data can be boring compared to a creative infographic that displays the same information. It is almost a guarantee that a viewer would retain more information from this method, especially when people are becoming accustomed to instant gratification that our society has built. Visualizations put data in context in a quicker, straight-to-the-point, way
Today there is unlimited access to information especially since agencies and governments are becoming “transparent” by sharing all of its data. Being able to take it, analyze it, and illustrate it visual is something that will become increasingly important in times to come. It is evident in the popularity of infographics. Even now you can do a Google search of infographics and tons of creatively crafted data visualizations pop up. Before attending graduate school, I had no idea what an infographic was. In fact I had never head of one. However, the fact that we had two projects that required us to create interactive infographics tells me that this area is important. I believe that it is the next phase of infographics. More and more people will start creating interactive versions which encourage audience participation as opposed to print infographics that are met to just be looked at.
However, it is important to remember, pretty designs dosen’t mean great communication of information. Infographics need to have a focus or perspective. Simply creating an illustration or chart in Illustrator doesn’t automatically transform the information into something interesting. There still has to be a story behind it, a narrative that keeps the viewer’s interest, and clear outlines that display the purpose of the information. In the end, it has to present an overall picture that puts the information in context. Otherwise you’ll just have a pretty illustration.