What’s the future of data visualization? And how is this new form of aesthetic and analytical information portrayal changing the way we process and understand information today?
We spoke with David McCandless, a London-based information designer and occasional creator of data visualizations for GE. He is the author of The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide To The World’s Most Consequential Trivia and you can see a good number of his visualizations at his site, www.InformationIsBeautiful.net. (As part of our coverage of the giant Consumer Electronics Show about to kick off in Las Vegas, we’ll be featuring another one of David’s data visualizations later this week.)
 His TED talk: Click the image above to watch David McCandless’ talk at TED from July 2010 entitled, “The Beauty of Data Visualization.” |
GEReports: How would you define data visualization?
DM: Visualization is simply the act of making ephemeral data, ideas, or conceptual notions into an image in which anyone can see a more revealing pattern or a shape, using graphic design or sometimes using computational techniques.
GER: Why do you think people are so drawn to data visualization?
DM: I think it’s cool, for one thing. I think it’s a relief from the millions of pages of text that we have to process through. And I think there’s something a bit more relaxing about taking in information visually. I think people are a little bit “nerdier” than we used to be — the inner geek in us resonates with data viz, or is touched with just the idea it.
GER: What impact does this affinity for visualizing data have on technology, and the kind of development that GE does?
DM: I think all businesses, and all domains that communicate on some level, can benefit. Whether it’s from issuing reports for advertising or just the front panel on an appliance, or the manual for a domestic gadget, any point where there is a communication between technology information and humans can benefit from information design and visualization.
GER: What trends are you seeing in the field?
DM: It’s beginning to cross boundaries and becoming more of a field and a form in itself. We’re seeing these techniques applied to all kinds of domains, from education to pop culture and the Internet, newspapers. More traditional outlets are ramping up their use of it. And one of the very big trends is in government, tied with the rise of open data and transparency.
GER: What’s been driving the big changes?
DM: I don’t know, to be honest. My theory is related to the Internet. The Internet is basically an information design medium. We are getting used to seeing our information in this way. Information and visual representation go hand-in-hand, and people are looking at the Internet every day.
GER: What can we look forward to in data visualization over the next few years?
DM: I’ve been seeing quite a lot of it in physical space, perhaps even using buildings or lighting. That’s on the artsy side, but there’s also a sense that it can be used as a material in any medium. I’m beginning to see a lot more moving-image, animation, and storytelling using data as a landscape or as a realm to explore documentary. The hooking-in of live data has been around for a while, but some of the live data that we are able to generate now, such as stuff from Facebook, is really personal and interesting, and relates to all of us because we’re all on Facebook.
GER: What are the limitations then?
DM: I think the strongest limitation is that visualizations have quite a lot of power and there is a deep responsibility to make sure that the data is absolutely as solid as you can make it, and that everything is linked back. This is where transparency comes in. Whenever I release an image, I always release the data. I explain my methodology where it’s necessary, and I try to give as much background information as possible. I know that transparency might be a challenge for corporations, to open up or release their data, but I have a strong belief that the two have to go hand-in-hand in some way.
GER: What do you look forward to doing with this for GE?
DM: GE has been amazingly quick and effective in seeing the potential for visualization. I’m not seeing anyone else really go for it in a way that GE has been, in ecomagination and healthymagination. They’re ahead of the curve. Given the scope of GE’s business, and the world and the realms that it inhabits, there could be all kinds of things around the corner, and there’s an opportunity for those fields to overlay and interface in unexpected ways, and that’s very exciting.
Evidence in perspective: Click the image to see David’s full data viz, “Snake Oil,” from his website www.InformationIsBeautiful.net. To see the interactive version of the data viz, which looks at the scientific evidence for popular health supplements, click here.
* Learn more about David McCandless
* Visit David’s blog
* See David’s healthymagination data viz, “Fit to Perform,” and ecomagination’s “Memorial Day CO2 Emissions”
* See more data visualizations on GE Reports
* Visit GE’s data viz website
* Visit the GE-sponsored open collaboration data viz site, www.visualizing.org
