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inroducon
Infographics andVisualization
the remarkable mechansms by whch he senses undersand he envron-
men are all bu dencal wh he operaons descrbed by he psychology
of hnkng.
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 dieren 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 lering 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 difcul 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:
I see!
Her expression makes complee sense, because deep inside our minds, to see and
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 symbolic species, i we ollow errence W.Deacons amous deniion.1 Everyhing 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.
xintroduction: infographics and visualization
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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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 rs 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 oers 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 le ip and Visualizaion on he righ. On he line a he bo-
om, wrie presenaion on he le, 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 presentation and an explora-
tion componen: hey presen, bu hey also aciliae he analysis o wha hey
show, o dieren degrees.
An excellen example: Te beauy o Seanie Posavecs Literary Organism is based
on is organic appearance and careul selecion o ypeaces and colors, and also
the functional artxvi
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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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.
Aer spending some ime ahoming i, paterns emerge and convey a dierenmessage 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 3 also 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 infaion 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
xvintroduction: infographics and visualization
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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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 Sarneys presidency. It was a time
of hyperinflation that aected mostly the
poorest, who didnt have access to investments
and bank accounts. Fernando Collors and
Itamar Francos presidencies 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 poca magazine. 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 rs hal o heline, he opposie is rue.
When I nished 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
xintroduction: infographics and visualization
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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eor. I conrmed 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 infaion; 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 aer 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 oTe Functional Art:Graphics, charts, and maps arent just tools to be seen, but to be read and
scrutinized. Te rs goal o an inographic is no o be beauiul jus or he
sake o eye appeal, bu, above all, o be undersandable rs, and beauiul aerha; 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.3 Images 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 dicul ideas wih ease. Aesheics do mater,bu aesheics wihou a solid backbone made o good conen is jus arice.
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.4 Unorunaely oday, 40years aer Arnheims maserul Visual Tinking was 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 cion wriing, bu she will never allow her sories o become lieraure.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
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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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
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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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
lkely o sk he quesons h wll enble you o len.
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 lie o a visual communicator
should be one o sysemaic and exciing inellecual chaos. In my case, i
consiss o regular shis beween journalism, cogniive psychology, inernaional
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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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 deniions orinormaion visualizaion, inormaion design, and inographics. Bu somehingchanged my mind. While randomly navigaing Te New York imes websie, Isumbled on a review o a book called Te Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves,by Briish science essayis Mat Ridley (2010).
Te review1 was 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 nished 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 dicul 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 signicanly 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 adecrease in 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.
the functional art6
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ha verge on becoming rs-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.2 Bu somehingmade me uncomorable as I read his argumens. I ook me a while o gure 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 insucien 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 ac ha he graphic is an aggregae o he daa oall 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).
1 why visualize: from information to wisdom
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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 o 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 rs hing I did was go o he Unied Naions websie. I you search or UNdaa, you will quickly nd 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
gures begin in 1950; he projecions exend as ar as 2100.
I decided o exclude he years aer 2010, playing wih acual daa (a ha ime)raher han orecass. Using he lers he sie oers, I asked or a able haincluded he more han 150 counries on which he UN has complee research.Figure 1.2 shows 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 dicul.
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Using OpenOce (an open source soware 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 gures? 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 dierence 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 dicul: 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 aer 1970
and only recovered parially in he las ve 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 frs and main goal o any
1 why visualize: from information to wisdom
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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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 or 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 soware program do he hard work or you.
Remember, wha we wan o reveal is he projeced confuence 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 inormaion graphics,wha you show can be as imporan as wha you hide. I pu he char gener-
aed in OpenOce 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 ue, 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 nal skech in
Figure 1.6 looks 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 gures.
Te acs ha more children survive heir rs 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 soware 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 (rs 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 line or 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 aer all. But i 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 oen.
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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 soware expensive and dicul 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 Economist repored ha he inormaion gener-aed in 2010 alone reached 1,200 exabyes,4 an 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 (1012)
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 (10 18)
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 ve 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 dened 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 ndabiliy;
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,7 hey 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 inormation means reality, he world ou here
in all is glorious complexiy. Every phenomenon ha can be perceived or mea-
sured can be described as inormaion.
Data are 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 frst level o 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 o encodingakes us rom daa o srucured inormaion.
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 knowledge on 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 su uncriically.When people see, read, or lisen, hey assimilae conen by relaing i o heir
memories and experiences.We reach wisdom when 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 efor, 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 o an inormation architect is to anticipate thisprocess and generae order beore peoples brains ry o do i on heir own.
Making Reality Visible
oday, information architect reers broadly o proessions wih very diferen seso ools and heoreical radiions. Ouside academic circles, an inormaion ar-chiec can be someone who wries echnical handbooks, a soware engineer, aweb developer, a waynding 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 1.9 and 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, dened by Sanord Universiys Rober
E. Horn as he ar and science o preparing inormaion so ha i can be used
by human beings wih eciency and efeciveness.8 Te goal o he inormaion
designer is o prepare documens (boh analog and digial) and spaces so hey
can be navigaed eorlessly.
InformationArchitecture
InformationDesign
VisualizationInformation Graphics Figure 1.9 Information
graphics is a form of infor-mation design. Informationdesign branches from infor-
mation architecture.
A signican par o inormaion design is inormaion graphics and visualizaion.
Academic lieraure someimes separaes inographics rom visualizaion and
denes he later as he use o compuer-suppored, ineracive, visual repre-
senaions o daa o ampliy cogniion,9 bu 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 Kaumann.
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 guraive or non-guraive. oundersand guraive 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-fguraive. 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 ofTe 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 o ourselves. Canadian media hinker MarshallMcLuhan was he rs 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 dene 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 soware ha we insall.echnologies can harbor oher echnologies.
Visualizaion as echnology has hese same rais. Also, he word technology hasvarious 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 technology in hree dierensenses, 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, rs, any objec, process, or mehoddevised o aid in a ask, a means o ulll a human purpose. Tis can be calledtechnology-singular. Te rerigeraor and oher devices described above are examples.
Te algorihms ha run a soware 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-plural describe 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 soware ools.
Second, and more imporan, individual inormaion graphics are also ech-nologies, means to ulfll 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.
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