A Word About Maps
As many of us who work with data in its different forms, I am fascinated by the possibilities of stellar, crystal clear data visualization. I took my first data visualization class in graduate school where, for the first time, I learned how to communicate with data, numbers, maps, colors, and graphics. Sarah Williams was an incredible teacher, and someone whose portfolio continues to inspire me. It has become evident that while good research depends on the tried-and-true rigor of asking pertinent questions, quality data, and methodology, it is equally important how we communicate the information we eventually uncover. After all, we are being paid to make sense of information. What does it mean for our client or our community?
I came across this simple, but poignant interview with data visualization designer Salvatore Iaconesi at Visualizing.org. Iaconesi talks about the existing and future possibilities of visualization:
“The most interesting thing that happened this year is probably that we’ve almost gotten to the point at which we will be able to abandon statistics in favor of anthropology. This year more than ever we saw more and more systems avoiding simplification of the data: people, after all, are not percentages. It is progressively more true that the organic, systemic, complex features of the visualizations we can create now are so powerful and expressive that we can often place incredibly granular data side by side with overall percentages, generating entire new visions of the realities which we are analyzing.
This possibility is a game-changer, specifically important for the issues of marginality, multi-cultural societies, markets, social networks, and politics, which are completely changing … Something policy makers should really learn how to leverage.”
For example, a team of researchers at MIT, Harvard and Northeastern University gathered static multi-year spreadsheets of Human Development Index numbers and developed an interactive tool that allows the reader to compare basic stats between two countries.
Charts via UNDP website