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Design 3: Visual Organization and Information Design |
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Visual Explanations and Information GraphicsInformation graphics reveal the hidden, explain the complex and illuminate the obscure. Constructing visual representation of information is not mere translation of what can be read to what can be seen. It entails filtering the information, establishing relationships, discerning patterns and representing them in a manner that enables a consumer of that information construct meaningful knowledge. In the attention scarce world of today, information graphics (or infographics) have taken the media and communications industries by storm. From simple instructions on how to assemble your table, to explaining how a conjoined set of twins were surgically separated, to understanding what went wrong in the Challenger Shuttle disaster - designers, educators, journalists, and communicators in general have embraced infographics to help audience understand their intent in a swifter and smarter way. What is an Infographic?Infographics are traditionally viewed as visual elements such as charts, maps, or diagrams that aid comprehension of a given text-based content. Thus, a newspaper infographic on a breaking news accident is expected to faithfully record, using visuals, what has been explained in the accompanying text. Visual representation of information can be more than just the manner in which we are able to record what has been discovered by other means. They have the potential to become the process by which we can discern new meaning and discover new knowledge. A classic example of an infographic that not merely illustrates the content but interprets it in a manner that was not possible otherwise, was produced by Dr. John Snow to identify the cause of cholera epidemic in Central London. By plotting (fig.1) the two available sets of data about number of deaths and their corresponding locations, Snow was able to pinpoint the notorious contaminated pump well.
Infographics have wide ranging applications beyond news dissemination, in several other domains such as, scientific visualization, product design, education, information technology, business communication and entertainment. The ceramic measuring bowls (fig.2) from the design studio Panepinto is a fine example of product that displays unambiguous information in a vivid manner.
Visual Thinking and RepresentationRepresentation (literally, to present again) provides the basis for all communication. We can convey ideas about things that are not materially in our presence only by calling forth an appropriate mental representation. These mental representations are stored in categories and are characterized by a degree of abstraction. Recent studies have revealed that we categorize even before we identify things. For example when we look at a chair, a closet, and a table, we process them as a broader class of objects (“furniture”) rather than as individual instances of the class. Furthermore, the mental imagery associated with each of the furniture is likely to have the essential characters of the class (“chairness”) rather than literal characters of a specific instance (“recliner”). Thus, we think in terms of categories, and relationships among categories. This capacity to generalize, to form associations, to detect relationships, and to seek comfort in organization is the cornerstone of our communication system. While words and sentences are part of the verbal communication system, images and graphical representations form the visual communication system. The visual-verbal dichotomy is well illustrated in the example of Rene Magritte’s The Treachery of Images (fig.3). When serving as representation of concrete, real-world objects, images make identification easy. When word and image collide, as in this case, the image dominates perception and it is impossible to read the caption (“this is not a pipe”) without first recognizing the pipe. The representational style - a highly realistic rendering of the pipe - is a conscious choice of expression by the painter to underscore the contradiction between word and image. Pictorial representations cross social and linguistic boundaries with ease. However they are also dependant upon the culture in which their meaning is established. Magritte’s painting can be recognized as a pipe by anyone, but only a Francophone will appreciate the full meaning of the work. Communication therefore is always affected by the context in which it occurs. Infographics, because they use a combination of images, words, and numbers, operate in a hybrid system of both the verbal and the visual. Consequently they offer us the greatest opportunity to increase the effectiveness of our communication. A given representation can be characterized by its degree of abstraction. The ease of interpretation varies with the level of abstraction of the representation.
As highly concrete, realistic representations are simplified, they become easier to interpret – up to a point, beyond which further abstraction begins to obscure its meaning. We get best results by eliminating non-characteristic details and exaggerating defining features. Representations that successfully manage to communicate are easily visible, simple, immediate, cohesive and general in nature. Some good examples of information design
Henry Beck’s Map of London Underground: The London underground rail system was getting complex in the 1930’s and the map designers were having a hard time fitting all the stations into the standard issue card folder (fig.5). Un-intimidated by cartographic convention, an out-of-work engineering draughtsman called Henry Beck plotted the underground as if he was sketching an electrical circuit board.
He used only vertical, horizontal, or 45 degrees angled colored lines; located the stations according to available space; and evened out the distances between stations. The resulting “map” although geographically inaccurate, provided a coherent overview of a complex system (fig.6). The map was an instant success and for Londoners it became the organizing image of their city. “The map organized London, rather than London organizing the map”, remarks Tufte.
There was an interesting and unwitting fallout from Beck’s map. The map telescoped scale, and brought the suburbs closer to central London. Suddenly, Watford was no further from Paddington than Liverpool Street. The map lubricated the exodus of London's inner-city dwellers as nearly half a million people were enticed out to the suburbs, where they found themselves captive customers of their local tube station. Beck’s map is by far the most successful infographic as it continues to accommodate the ever expanding rail network and inspires design of countless other route maps world-wide. This success is due to 2 design strategies that the map employs. First, the map places importance on function over precise geography. A commuter is interested in how to go from one station to another. All he needs to know are: which line to take, where to change lines, and what are the preceding stations. The map fulfills this need by simple lines (which ensure an uncluttered layout), color (which differentiates the lines), clear typography (which makes text easy to read), and symbols (which differentiate stations from interchanges). Second, the map capitalizes on the fact that the system operates underground and therefore the commuters need not be burdened with the confusing topography above ground. The only surface feature to survive was the River Thames. The map makes complex information simple by eliminating all extraneous details. Infographic Design: A FrameworkThere are 3 major challenges in designing a successful infographic. 1. To clearly understand what type of information it is trying to communicate – whether spatial, chronological, quantitative or, as is usually the case, a combination of all three. 2. To conceive a suitable representation for that information as a cohesive whole – a whole that is more than the sum of its constituent parts such as, charts, diagrams, maps, timelines etc. 3. To choose an appropriate medium for presentation – static (paper or computer screen), motion (animation or video), or interactive (increasingly web or other electronic device-based, but could be something as simple as a paper-based pregnancy wheel). Despite the difficulty in creating a design framework, it would be useful to have one, in order to understand the overall picture of the infographic design process. The following diagram depicts one such a framework:
Look at this example of a complex information graphic.This design tells the story of Lance Armstrong's last tour. It includes spatial information on the map in the lower left corner, it includes chronological information in the charts below, and quantitative information in both the charts and the diagram to the right.It includes all three infographic devices (diagrams, maps, and charts) and it endeavors to include a diagram which eludes to motion on a static printed document. There are also layers of information within the graphic of Lance which adds levels of detail to the design. All of this is done successfully on a modular grid.
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AssignmentSerendipity Information Map DesignObjectivesNow that you have completed your tour through the library, you are going to take that experience and map it out so that others can follow your journey. What is a map?Maps inhabit the realm of fact, although not exclusively. They are figurative representations of dimensions, attributes and relations of things in the physical or logical world, reproduced as a scale smaller than life-size. What can be mapped?Anything can be mapped, and most things are: places, businesses, galaxies, histories, bodies, philosophies, devices and databases. The subject matter of a map is measured, named and ordered (captured!) by the mapmaker who, armed with carefully verified data and a language of pictorial description, puts everything in its proper place with its proper name as he or she sees it. Why make maps?Maps give their makers the power to define the territory in their terms and write a singular vision onto the landscape. You encounter maps on a regular basis to help orient yourself within a certain body of information. In this mapping project, the information to be presented will be your journey through the library. It is not just marking the exact points you visited, but the order in which they were visited and the information you received at each point. How can you convey to someone what you encountered at what point? How can this map then communicate beyond your travel from point A to point B ? Think about the perspective from which you view the information, both editorially and visually. What connections can you use to make this map a more cohesive whole when you are dealing with such disparate subject matter. Be careful of cliches. If you find yourself stuck there, how can you distill that idea down to another iteration? You may use the library floorplan as a reference point or accompanying visual ONLY, it is not to be the main navigational devise in your piece. The form is up to you, although the concept should justify the form and the final size is up to you. If you find yourself struggling with the form, default to a poster. Work within your strengths here. Just know that you have options should you need them. Requirements
Come to our next class with the following:Bring in a first draft of the design, printed in color, along with your first round sketches Bring in 3 different map examples that you have collected |
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Andrew Cornell Robinson acrStudio © 2007 * text from Mapping: An Illustrated Guide to Mapping Navigational Systems ***Infographics seminar handout, 10 Oct 2005 by Venhatesh Rajamanickam |
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