'Visual metaphors are a powerful aid to human thinking. From Sanskrit through hieroglyphics to the modern alphabet, we have used ciphers, objects, and illustrations to share meaning with other people, thus enabling collective and collaborative thought. As our experience of the world has become more complex and nuanced, the demands to our thinking aids have increased proportionally. Diagrams, data graphics, and visual confections have become the language we resort to in this abstract and complex world. They help us understand, create, and completely experience reality.'
As more and more aspects of our lives become connected in the webbed environment of urban landscapes, the information that we generates and consume collects into massive databases. As Daniel and Joris from Catalogtree put it, 'By just going about our daily routines, we become part of a large and unseen ornament'. But this ornament is unformed and mutable, subject to the imagination and intent of the data designer. By giving shape to data, we not only provide access and insight to the hidden patterns of meaning it could reveal; we also give shape to the potential for creative collaboration between individuals. We live in a world where every idea has been thought of before, and it becomes too easy simply to use the Microsoft template for presenting our data. The visual form we adopt becomes driven by the tool or the topic we are presenting, rather than the usefulness of the data or the insight it gives us. 'This is business data, so it must be a bar chart' may be an easy way to approach the subject of presenting information, but it is a far less satisfying and provocative route for the designer of human thinking and intent.
The visual form we adopt becomes driven by the tool or the topic we are presenting.
Patterns of Intent - Design has been described as 'patterns with intent'. The information designers shapes an experience, or view, of the data with a particular aim in mind. To clarify, confuse, inspire, redress, and connect - all of these are legitimate intents for design, towards which the chosen visual presentation can be directed. A pinpoint in space spreads out to become a sphere of meaning. A structure space is manoeuvred to reveal connection, energy, hierarchy, and context. As multiple data points spread out to occupy coordinates in a matrix, we see a network of contextual values that derive sense from their relationship with each other. We travel through semiotic and scientific landscapes that communicate through colour, shape, patterns, and emotion.
The information designer shapes an experience, or view, of the data with a particular aim in mind.
-Data Flow