Visualization: The Medium - Data Points: Visualization That Means Something - page 63

media and explore the data themselves (and resume the story when they're
done interacting).

Visualization not only lends itself well to narratives but also communicating
and clarifying ideas. Maybe you just want to get a quick point across—data
vignettes, so to speak. After all, one of the main selling points of visualization
is that it helps you digest a lot of information at once.

Flowcharts, for example, are straightforward ways to communicate process
and decision making. You start in a state and then move to adjacent states
as you answer questions. Eventually, you end up in a state that helps you
make a decision. For example, So You Need a Typeface by Julian Hansen, as
shown in Figure 2-16 helps you choose the right typography based on task
and preference.

Sometimes you want to see an entire process, such as Michael Niggel's flow-
chart that maps all possible outcomes to Choose Your Own Adventure #2: Journey
Under the Sea . If you're unfamiliar, the Choose Your Adventure topics are divided
into sections, and at the end of each section, the author provides choices for
where to go next. The goal is to stay alive, so it's kind of like a game. As a
whole, the lowchart, shown in Figure 2-17, represents the topic's complete
storyline. FYI: Most likely you'll die.

Information graphics can also cover topics close to the heart. As shown in
Figure 2-18, What Love Looks Like by Louise Ma is a chart series that concep-
tualizes what love looks like. Love is a complicated feeling that can be hard
to describe in words, but Ma's charts are beautifully poetic in describing the
emotion's many facets, focusing both inward and outward.

Notice that Ma doesn't use actual data. Rather, she uses abstract trends and
patterns to illustrate miniature stories. Matthew Might uses this to great
effect in The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D . shown in Figure 2-19. It was made
directed toward graduate students (and of course struck a chord with me
right away), but it applies to everyone who's learning and wants to push
their field forward, regardless of whether you're in an academic setting,
office, or at home.

FIGUR E 2-16 (following page)
So You Need a Typeface (2010)
by Julian Hansen,
http://julianhansen.com