The visualization of data makes it much more accessible to people who struggle to read numbers. I’ve never been a numbers person. As much as my dad always told me that I needed to take accounting and statistics while in college, I never did. Infographics have become very trendy in the past few years, but I’ve noticed that I’m more likely to read through visual information rather than simply charts and data in the old format.
I loved the graphic designer who made visual report of his year. It is daunting that he was able to keep track of all that information on a day by day basis, but he was committed to the project, and the result was an extensive page by page report. The video made the point that his personal information isn’t necessarily important, who cares how many taxi rides he too, but rather it offers an entirely new way for a person to visualize their lives. I found it interesting how the journalism field is evolving to build stories around visual data. Each of the large newspapers said they are looking to hire statisticians that can help contribute to the presentation of data visually in journalism.
I think that this field is going to continue to evolve as those who consume news become more expectant of the visual presentation to hold their interest. I have a hard time seeing our society go backwards in that sense. While we are getting an education in all things interactive, I still don’t have any skills in statistics, which may make it more difficult for me to successfully build interactive information graphics.