The wood and the trees - The Visualization of Spatial Social Structure - page 240

and so have to be carefully assigned to variables. Cartographic preferences move
along a continuum, from personal likes and dislikes of certain colours in maps,
to individuals' reactions to cartoon faces. Visualization, at a higher level, is all
about engaging our imaginations and emotions.

8.7 Information overload

Undoubtedly, the faces give a more attractive gestalt impression than
the other symbols; people like to look at them.
(Kleiner and Hartigan, 1981, p. 261)

A serious criticism of the use of glyphs is that they can overload the viewer
with information. Too much is being asked of the eyes and the mind. 15 In
this chapter an illustration has been included of badly designed symbols, rings
of unemployment rates, that are impossible to decipher spatially. It has also
been suggested that well-thought-out images can help the viewer form higher
level structures out of the simple pictures of collections of places. A most effi-
cient way to achieve this is to use arrows, but these require direction to have
some meaning (such as political left and right) and can show only a few other
related features.
The creation of crowds of faces is certainly the most ambitious use of sym-
bols. This may well be the first time they have been used so extensively in this
way - pictures of people's faces on paper, drawn to show information about peo-
ple in places. In hindsight it is obviously an interesting idea. Cartograms where
every place is given the space of a circle make the idea realisable.
Whether these glyphs work spectacularly, or not at all, one thing is for certain:
they get people's attention and make them think. 16 That might partly be because
viewers are confused by the amount of factors to consider, but it can also be
because they understand it, and begin to see so much more. The use of symbols
that bear some relation to the subject being studied is an asset. How better to
show differences in the sizes and quality of houses than by a collage of images of
those houses? How better to show factory closure and growth than with pictures
of industries being born and dying?

15 ' ... maps portraying more than one aspect (variable) of a phenomenon are being published in
increasing numbers and ... the comprehension and understanding of these maps is likely related to
some basic structural characteristics of the maps' (White, 1984, p. 45).
16 We are, however, used to seeing and understanding initially confusing situations: 'Under natural
conditions, vision has to cope with more than one or two objects at a time. More often than not,
the visual field is overcrowded and does not submit to an integrated organization of the whole. In
a typical life situation, a person concentrates on some selected areas and items or on some overall
features while the structure of the remainder is sketchy and loose. Under such circumstances, shape
perception operates partially' (Arnheim, 1970, p. 35).