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31 Comments
- kfconme, on 05/10/2009, -2/+13"As design work shifts to... problem solving..."
uhm... hasn't design and infographics always been a form of problem solving?
and how do you figure "sexy" infographics are by any means new? They have been around well before most of us have been alive - take the original London Underground map created by Harry C. Beck in the 1930's. What about the "word cloud?" The basic arrangement of type, using nothing more than color and hierarchy, is pulled straight from the Dada movement of the early 1900's.
The next frontier! ::yawn:: - er1chu, on 05/10/2009, -3/+10I'm not sure about using "shifting to infrastructure and problem solving" in the article description.
Design has always been about problem solving, especially in giving content or data a visual form. Even the designers making the goofy shirts for your local band is still technically solving a presented problem of such nature. Information design is the same thing, just on a larger scale, and perhaps done in a more objective fashion, but at the end of the day, it has always been a part of visual communication. It's just nice to see that's noticed and wanted more. - VerticalEvent, on 05/10/2009, -0/+5This article makes me happy - I'm doing my Masters thesis on Information Visualization (Software Visualization, to be more precise). To see people taking an interest in this field is amazing.
Though, people talking like Information Visualization and Infographics as being one and the same infuriates me. Infographics are static images, that offer to no interaction or changes, and Information Visualization allows for streaming data or allows a user to interact and explore the data. - stubear, on 05/10/2009, -1/+5Ummmm...design has ALWAYS been about information visualization.
- Kyan, on 05/10/2009, -1/+5I don't know why people are digging you down. I wholeheartedly agree.
Designers -
Please, do give me nice graphics, but if you want to claim they are useful and not mere decorations, then present them in an intelligent manner.
For example, the Internet as a subway system... Exactly what am I supposed to take away from that? So they stuck the news sites on one line and social networks somewhere else. That one in particular did nothing to shine light on anything. It's more confusing than anything. Pretty, yes. But confusing. - wild, on 05/10/2009, -1/+4Well, you're never going to make it (I mean really make it) as a designer with that attitude.
Design uses "problem solving" as a way to talk about its purpose versus art. If there is not a problem to solve, then the design has no reason to exist. It becomes art for art's sake.
Your client has a problem. They need to communicate their new marketing scheme to their customers, or create a web hub for their sales team to learn about new data. Your job, as a designer, is to communicate a solution to that problem in a visual way. Hence the reason our field is called "visual communication design."
We are not artists. We're problem solvers in a visual medium. - yocouchdigga, on 05/10/2009, -0/+3Gotta love this guy.
- RealJimShady, on 05/10/2009, -1/+4Nothing new about the subject of data visualization + information visualization, but it certainly is a science and art. We studied it for a while at school and I'm constantly amazed by the way some people have the ability to create these mechanisms for manipulating information in a visual way, yet make it look easier than it actually was.
- xtructure, on 05/10/2009, -0/+3Two of the examples featured in the article ought to be taught as examples of what NOT to do in visualizing information. The swine flu map would have you believe that virtually all of Mexico is infected, while the internet 'subway' map adds nothing to one's understanding of the relationship between 'stops' except that the author thought they were related in some vague sequential fashion. Both use a visual gimmick that not only does not enlighten but actively misleads the viewer. Tufte would be appalled.
- franklymister, on 05/10/2009, -0/+2If you think design is about "making pretty graphics," then you don't understand what design actually is.
Since you're a non-designer who is (hopefully) interested in what designers actually do, I highly recommend you watch the films "Helvetica" and "Objectified." - waxdart, on 05/10/2009, -1/+3*facepalm*
No, design has always been about the visual communication of information. That often includes numerical data.
Sexy infographics just happen to be the thing that non-designers currently seem to be all hot for. - digitalArtform, on 05/10/2009, -0/+2Analog wristwatches and speedometers visualize data better than numerical readouts do. Watch hands are essentially pie charts, and speedometer needles are basically bar graphs.
- CaptainLando, on 05/10/2009, -0/+2I second your statement that people calling Infographics and Infovis the same thing is frustrating. Good luck on the thesis!
- 1st year PhD Student (Visual Analytics) - headortails, on 05/10/2009, -0/+1When individuals such as yourself consider websites that are already visual like Google's logo, you can see the difference of color in each letter. This will of course visually display information.*****
- franklymister, on 05/10/2009, -0/+1"Infographics" are not the same thing as information design.
Good information design finds a way to communicate complex data in an understandable way. "Sexy infographics" are just eye candy. - inactive, on 05/10/2009, -0/+1Lefts is getting dugg down because he dare disparage the sanctity of art. There is nothing more useless than design for it's own sake. If it's not usable or useful, then it is just a hindrance to end user. Good design is both aesthetically pleasing as well as user accessible. If it's just pretty to look at, then it's not good design, it's just decoration.
- fauxjebus, on 05/10/2009, -0/+1I totally agree. The only interesting part of this article was where they touched on personalized infographics, but they completely neglect to mention the work of Nicholas Feltron at http://feltron.com
- moothemagiccow, on 05/11/2009, -0/+1Information Visualization IS design, dumbass
- franklymister, on 05/10/2009, -0/+1Tell that to David Carson.
- CaptainLando, on 05/10/2009, -1/+1As the amount of information and data in the world rises, we have more trouble in making sense of it. Information visualization is just one field of study dedicated to this task (a few others are scientific visualization and visual analytics).
http://infosthetics.com/ may be a decent place to start exploring this area of study. - yocouchdigga, on 05/10/2009, -1/+1"You might think of visualization as the antithesis of Power Point, which sometimes seems to make us dumber."
... yeah. - fooXXX, on 05/12/2009, -0/+0wonderful thank you for sharing. and caring. love you.
- necuz, on 05/10/2009, -1/+1"Infographics" suck.
- Visarga, on 05/10/2009, -1/+1No. It's not going to happen. Information is often too multi-dimensional to represent on a screen, no matter how clever you are. There have been many honorable attempts at smart visualizations but none caught on.
- spiritflare1, on 05/10/2009, -3/+1nah, you'll be able to buy them all as a graphing add-on to Excel
- djangoxl, on 05/10/2009, -5/+2Information Visualization is timeless.....
- damingo, on 05/10/2009, -3/+0Due to the constant, rapid growth of information available, information visualization will have it's increasing important part in making information fast to absorb. Google Maps is a good example...
- shadeofgreen, on 05/10/2009, -7/+3Problem solving? I agree that designers have problems they solve in the context of their work (as do waitresses, and bell boys, and CEOs, and literally every single task on earth), but every time I hear a designer say 'problem solving' it always has some context of being truly helpful to mankind or something. I'm an illustrator and designer myself, but I have no illusions that the work i do is 'important'. Its simply a means by which I can live my life on my terms. I've had jobs working on 'important' stuff, but its always to 'raise awareness', and quite frankly, people don't give a *****. If you want to solve a problem, become and engineer, or a doctor or something. Making pretty graphics is nice and all, but its not that serious, sorry, but its true.
- Lefts, on 05/10/2009, -9/+3In some cases, it's a big waste of time.
If I want to see which words are used how many times in a speech, ***** tell me. You know, with numbers next to each word. And in order too.
Sure, they can be creative in some cases. But they don't get their point across as easily most of the time. - tomejuan, on 05/10/2009, -8/+1Yes it is
- syntaxgs, on 05/10/2009, -10/+2when u ppl consider that web sights are all ready VISUAL ,,for example,,,,,,color on web sight,,, like google logo have different color so it,s visual,, the answer woud be ,,YES,, of course it,s visual lee displays information
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