The New Arts of Persuasion: Contemporary Media, Communications, and Rhetoric

Visualizing Information:
Using Graphic Design Principles
to Present Complex Data



   Seeing is our standard metaphor for understanding. ("I see your point," we often say in conversation when a concept we have been struggling to grasp finally crystallizes in our mind.) Clarity, insight, illumination, ken, the mind's eye are just a few of the figures of speech we use to relate the sudden comprehension of an abstract or complicated idea to a moment of vision. (In this respect, note that metaphor itself is essentially a device for presenting difficult material in more concrete, visualizable terms--which is why Aristotle considered it a vital tool for effective verbal communication.)

    Today, when the sheer bulk of technical data seems overwhelming and its degree of complexity head-spinning, the need for ways of presenting abstract or quantitative information in comparatively easy-to-grasp visual formats has never been greater. This need is particularly urgent in innovative and highly technical areas of science and engineering (e.g., biomedical research, theories of chaos and complexity, computer science, higher math and physics) where it is often hard for experts--let alone novices--to latch onto theoretical concepts and hold them clearly in mind.

    Fortunately, at a time when the visual representation of complex data (via charts, diagrams, graphs, etc.) has become a practical necessity, the good news is: many effective tools are already available, and new and exciting improvements are being introduced every day. The bad news is: these same tools are frequently abused, handled clumsily, or misapplied. All too often, for example, graphic illustrations are used merely for appearance's sake--i.e., thrown in like so much specious "eye-candy," "chartjunk," and window dressing simply to add a look of professionalism and high-tech sophistication to an otherwise plain document. Even professional communicators, seduced by the eye-grabbing, razzle-dazzle effects of  electronic multimedia, often end up using graphic elements for show instead of substance. Perversely, they wind up sacrificing accuracy of information and true functional beauy to fashion and vanity.

    Principles of Visual Data Presentation

    The principles of effective information design are as old as classical rhetoric. Indeed, in the words of Edward Tufte, the great sage and prophet of visual data presentation, "they are universal--like mathematics--and are not tied to unique features of a particular language or culture." In essence, they are the very principles that underlie all successful communication, namely:

    Design Techniques and Strategies

    No matter what the visual format or medium--from simple black-and-white schematics, organization charts, and flow diagrams to richly detailed and colorful electronic maps, graphics, and animated simulators--optimal communication designs will usually be found to embody a few tried-and-true design strategies and themes. In Edward Tufte's terms, these include:


    For further reading on information design, students are referred to the following outstanding texts by the principle theorist on the subject, Edward R. Tufte:

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 1983.
Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 1990.
Visual Explanations. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press, 1997.

For further examples and discussion of this topic, click here.
For additional commercial and academic sites relating to the visual display of information, visit http://www.ixacta.com/ and http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigchi/chi95/proceedings/papers/il_bdy.htm .
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