Brief Review
Data Flow is nicely produced and shows Information/ Data Visualisation from the more decorative part of the spectrum.
Reading it is less instructional than a rigorous Tufte tome but if it makes others think of this area as a place they would like to work then that cannot be bad.
And It is important to balance one's rigour with some vigour - and this book supplies alot of energy and enthusiasm.
Let me tell you why - Longer Review
Initially was a bit unsure of this book but I have come round to it. Having thought about why that is, I have realised that this book sums up quite alot about my career as a designer.
My past was at BBC News, where we had a definite purpose and the brand values called for a no-nonsense approach to the interaction and information design problems at hand.
We were also a team learning about this as we went along. Matt had got us off to a cracking start - both product-wise and in the ideals of a design team and we continued the task of user-centred approaches that frequently clashed with the editorial and technical teams. These clashes gradually became constructive conversations and we developed an excellent culture together.
During that time, in the industry there was a discussion going on about Usability and Desirability. Can a website look nice and serve it's purpose? A millenial Form and Function debate etc etc.
Most designers we interviewed would be either side of that fence - either really tight and task focussed UI-people and pretty un-visually minded - or vice versa.
I think I started to judge this book with a Tufte/ Nielsen dogma (an excellent voice to have in the room by the way). I was initially annoyed at it's lack of critical faculty - but on closer inspection, It does some sound things.
It does include work that is pure in it's pursuit of pure communication of the information and the best of this does so in some new and good ways.
There is also some work that plays with the concepts of both the form of data graphics. This book favours the experimental over the mainstream.
It has some which look towards data vis being an art form in itself. I suppose that no-one said it always needs to communicate information only.
I initially bristled at the thought of information as art - but if it is good enough for the Dadaists. . .
For any of us working in the media/ mainstream markets with our visual information work, we need to remember that visual interest is an important consideration.
It is perhaps a little easy to embrace an 'information only' scowl that excludes any consideration of aesthetics beyond a grudging simplicity. Yes, the data can be beautiful in it's pure composition and synthesis of meaning - but also, we are human and there is an irrational need for fun, visual wit and emotion - depending on the subject and audience.
But having said that I do think there is some work in here which is a bit scribbly. I think that some people are just using data as this months style filter. But I'll save that for a post when I'm feeling more acidic.
I personally would like to see some examples from the mainstream - NYT (or BBC!) but these may have blunted this books cutting edge credentials (like graduates who don't want to do 'corporate stuff' ).
If anything that could have shown newcomers of the mass market value of this work done well. It's a missed chance but not the end of the world.
A good example is the featured piece by Stamen - their fab taxi work. I wonder if they would have included their transport work - one of my favourite pieces of online info vis ever. simple and useful - but for this book - again - maybe not 'cool' enough?
final thoughts . . .
I'm not really into the page architecture design - seems to attract too much attention - but I would say that. It is nicely printed - the resolution supports lots of the intricacy of the work and it doesn't have a dust jacket - I'm very down on them at this moment.
This is a good audit in book form of the 2008, Planet Earth state of Data Visualisation.
if you don't want to buy one, there are websites at the side that deal with this stuff.
I guess I kind of oscillate between tuftian orthodoxy and enthusiasm for doing stuff just because its flashy and technically possible. I don't think there's ever going to be a fixed point on that spectrum that I'm totally happy with and I think if I ever reach did reach that stasis it might be a bit boring and maybe signal time to do something else. One thing I do find is that the more you move away from information only position the more spin you tend to be putting on the information, you can end up persuading rather than reporting. Obviously there's a place for this kind of approach with a long and distinguished history in the field (i'm thinking those Florence Nightingale circular charts) that lives on in that excellent Amnesty campaign you've posted snaps of but doing news stuff it's something I'm always wary of.
Also, those Stamen travel time maps are really great aren't they? The implementation is really inventive from a technical point of view too (hooray for open source!).
Posted by: Tom P | November 23, 2008 at 09:14 PM
i think those stamen things rock - I am really glad that a company seen (rightly) as cutting edge has that stuff as part of it's portfolio
Posted by: maxgadney | November 23, 2008 at 11:15 PM