Infographic

Information graphics or infographics are visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics are used anywhere where information needs to be explained quickly or simply, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education. They are also used extensively as tools by computer scientists, mathematicians, and statisticians to ease the process of developing and communicating conceptual information. They are applied in all aspects of scientific visualization.

History

Early experiments

In prehistory, early humans created the first information graphics: cave paintings and later maps. Map-making began several millennia before writing, and map at Çatalhöyük dates from around 7500 BCE. Later icons were used to keep record of cattle and stock. The Indians of Mesoamerica used imagery to depict the journeys of past generations. Illegible on their own, they served as a supportive element to memory and storytelling.

In 1626 Christopher Scheiner published the Rosa Ursina sive Sol which used a variety of graphics to reveal his astronomical research on the sun. He used a series of images to explain the rotation of the sun over time (by tracking sunspots).

In 1786, William Playfair published the first data graphs in his book The Commercial and Political Atlas. The book is filled with statistical graphs that represent the economy of 18th century England using bar charts and histograms. In 1801 Playfair introduced the first area chart in Statistical Breviary.

James Joseph Sylvester introduced the term "graph" in 1878 and published a set of diagrams showing the relationship between chemical bonds and mathematical properties. These were also the first mathematic graphs.

Charles Minard's information graphic of Napoleon's March

1861 saw the release of a seminal information graphic on the subject of Napoleon's disastrous march on Moscow. The creator, Charles Joseph Minard, captured four different changing variables that contributed to the failure, in a single two-dimensional image: the army's direction as they traveled, the location the troops passed through, the size of the army as troops died from hunger and wounds, and the freezing temperatures they experienced.

The development of a visual language in the 20th century

In 1936 Otto Neurath introduced a system of pictographs intended to function as an international visual or picture language. Isotype included a set of stylized human figures which were the basis for the ubiquitous modern stick figures.

In 1942 Isidore Isou published the Lettrist manifesto.

The 1972 Munich Olympics were the venue for Otl Aicher to introduce a new set of pictograms that proved to be extremely popular, and influenced the ubiquitous modern stick figures used in public signs.

Also in 1972 the Pioneer Plaque was launched into space with the Pioneer 10 probe. Inscribed into the plaque was an information graphic intended as a kind of interstellar message in a bottle, designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake. The message is unique in that it is intended to be understood by extraterrestrial beings who would share no common language with humans. It depicts a picture of a man and a woman standing in front of a simplified silhouette of the probe in order to give a sense of scale. It also contains a map locating the sun relative to a number of pulsars, and a simplified depiction of the solar system, with the probe's path from earth into outer space shown with an arrow.

Modern uses

Today information graphics surround us in the media, in published works both pedestrian and scientific, in road signs and manuals. They illustrate information that would be unwieldy in text form, and act as a visual shorthand for everyday concepts such as stop and go.

In newspapers, infographics are commonly used to show the weather, as well as maps and site plans for newsworthy events, and graphs for statistical data. Some books are almost entirely made up of information graphics, such as David Macaulay's The Way Things Work. Although they are used heavily in children's books, they are also common in scientific literature, where they illustrate physical systems, especially ones that cannot be photographed (such as cutaway diagrams, astronomical diagrams, and images of microscopic or sub-microscopic systems).

Modern maps, especially route maps for transit systems, use infographic techniques to integrate a variety of information, such as the conceptual layout of the transit network, transfer points, and local landmarks.

Traffic signs and other public signs rely heavily on information graphics, such as stylized human figures (the ubiquitous stick figure), icons and emblems to represent concepts such as yield, caution, and the direction of traffic. Public places such as transit terminals usually have some sort of integrated "signage system" with standardized icons and stylized maps.

Technical manuals make extensive use of diagrams and also common icons to highlight warnings, dangers, and standards certifications.

Elements of information graphics

The basic material of an information graphic is the data, information, or knowledge that the graphic presents. In the case of data, the creator may make use of automated tools such as graphing software to represent the data in the form of lines, boxes, arrows, and various symbols and pictograms. The information graphic might also feature a key which defines the visual elements in plain English. A scale and labels are also common.

Modern practitioners

A statistician and sculptor, Edward Tufte has written a series of highly regarded books on the subject of information graphics. Tufte also delivers lectures and workshops on a regular basis. He describes the process of incorporating many dimensions of information into a two-dimensional image as 'escaping flatland' (alluding to the 2-dimensional world of the Victorian novella Flatland).

The work done by Peter Sullivan for The Sunday Times in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, was one of the key factors in encouraging newspapers to use more graphics. Sullivan is also one of the few authors who have written about information graphics in newspapers.

Nigel Holmes is an established commercial creator of what he calls "explanation graphics". His works deal not only with the visual display of information but also of knowledge - how to do things. He created graphics for Time magazine for 16 years, and is the author of several books on the subject.

Close and strongly related to the field of information graphics, is information design. Actually, making infographics is a certain discipline within the information design world.

For their song Remind Me (2002) the two Norwegian musicians of Röyksopp issued a music video completely made from animated infographics. Likewise, another band, The Longcut has an inforgraphic video for A Tried And Tested Method.

In a 2004 television commercial, the French energy company Areva uses animated infographics similar to that used in the Röyksopp music video.

Both Röyksopp and Areva videos were produced by the French motion & graphic design company Machine Molle

Interpreting information graphics

Many information graphics are specialised forms of depiction that represent their content in sophisticated and often abstract ways. In order to interpret the meaning of these graphics appropriately, the viewer requires a suitable level of graphicacy. In many cases, the required graphicacy involves comprehension skills that are learned rather than innate. At a fundamental level, the skills of decoding individual graphic signs and symbols must be acquired before sense can be made of an information graphic as a whole. However, knowledge of the conventions for distributing and arranging these individual components is also necessary for the building of understanding.

References

Tukey, John Wilder (1977). Exploratory Data Analysis. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0201076160.
Tufte, Edward R. (2001) [1983]. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (2nd Edition ed.). Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press. ISBN 0961392142. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
Cleveland, William S. (1994) [1985]. The Elements of Graphing Data (2nd Edition ed.). Summit, NJ: Hobart Press. ISBN 0963488414. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
Tufte, Edward R. (1990). Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press. ISBN 0961392118.
Cleveland, William S. (1993). Visualizing Data. Summit, NJ: Hobart Press. ISBN 0961392126.
Meyer, Eric K. (1997). Designing Infographics. Hayden Books. ISBN 1568303394.
Tufte, Edward R. (1997). Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press. ISBN 0961392126.
Blood, Dirt, and Nomograms: A Particular History of Graphs, Thomas L. Hankins, University of Chicago Press (1999, 90: 50-80).
Harris, Robert L. (1999). Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195135326.
Tufte, Edward R. (2006). Beautiful Evidence. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press. ISBN 0961392177.

External links

information aesthetics
Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography, Statistical Graphics and Data Visualization
NSF Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge
Society for Newsdesign
The Budget Graph: A large scale infographic of the 2007 federal discretionary budget data. (Example)