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Comparisons - The Diagram Group

Visual information is often about comparison. Comparing levels of a graph. Comparing distances on a map. Comparing colours on a heat map. 

We see by comparing one piece of stimuli with another to decide what is in front, behind, moving.

I recently found  a book I used to have when I was young. It is called Comparisons and is by The Diagram Group. It uses different methods to compare different things, weights, people, buildings, units.

I have photographed some of the spreads for discussion here.

The first set are what I would call Scaled Comparisons. They ask you compare two visual properties drawn to scale on the page. 

They may be objects that are not typically associated with one another - but they only require us to understand one in order to reflect on the other. 

It helps if the one that we start with is familiar to us. A man, a cat, a pen, something we know and can use as a measuring device.

The above spread uses Central Park, NYC,  to show the distances runners cover - a nice idea if every one was familiar with central park - although the park/joggers association  is nice

World Rivers stretched across the US works - even more striking is the juxtaposition of the Nile across Europe, below 

It is a shame that the vehicles are not to scale with the people that fit in them - the London Taxi may be - but the planes and boats aren't - the graphic is torn in two ways - showing capacity of passengers and scale of vehicles - I think both are interesting and both would be possible (just don't show the whole boat?)

Life-size scale illustrations have a visceral power and accessibility - the ruler is a sound touch to remind us of this. Maybe bringing in a domestic or schoolroom tool such as a ruler, these 'escaped' insects seem even scarier - the object that you are comparing it to can bring an emotional meaning as well as a quantitative scale - it's why lazy journalism that compares everything with buses or elephants seems glib - people don't just compare the scale - they look for an association between the meaning of compared objects

The next set are what I would call Stepped Comparisons. They ask the reader to understand one concept of measurement and then apply it, often in many steps to the concept. It is a lot harder to get these to work. I imagine that many people can understand the scaling of a matchbox to a box of cereal, then to a car, a room, to a house and possibly to a street, but when the steps are too many or leave the realm of the known, then people can get lost.

This discusses distance - not unlike The Powers of Ten. I think the Powers of Ten film is more impressive for two things - animation smooths the stepping of scales and the voice-over that keeps us paying attention and referencing previous steps.

This spread and many of the stepped ones lose me after a few steps.

This one looks at volumes, again, starting slow, we are ok, but soon lose our way. I wonder if the latter steps, dealing with the larger quantities need to retain some of the visual cues and reminders of the smaller state/ known quantities 

This last one deals with historical events - I am not such a fan of this - i think the spiral is an interesting motif - but unrelated events can be associated by proximity as they pass each other on the spiral. It does of course make a time-line easier to fit into a book, but we are in the business of explanation, not fitting things in.

I would argue that many designers duck this responsibility to explain comparative amounts.

It is why there are so many duff credit crunch graphics - we cannot imagine the numbers - and we are not being given any decent ways to visualise them.

I think that each comparison of large numbers should start with something known as the basic unit and move in enough followable steps to the actual amount. Towards the larger steps, aspects of the known, smaller quantities need to be referred back to for orientation in these new harder-to-fathom amounts. 

It's a challenge. I'll be writing more on this.

More examples of comparisons from current media can be found at Chiqui Esteban's blog - Infographics News.

Data Flow - Book Review

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.

Infoaesthetics is a good one for  a rounded view of this area.

 

NEWS - for another review of this see the DRB Designers Review of Books  - and I might be doing them a review or two soon also.

Miscellanies - book proposal fleshed out a little

(Apparently pronounced with emphasis on the - Cell - thanks Bob)

Book Proposal

I have chosen Visual Miscellany as the working title of my book proposal.

It cover many bases and could be read as vague but I think the mass audience is getting used to the idea of what a miscellany is.

Here are some reasons:

There are already enough excellent encyclopedias and histories of WWII.

My book will present certain ideas that best communicated visually. This is the main reason for their collection.

Swollen Market

The military history book market place is so full that the only selling points are to have something new (many do not) or claim to be more concise and authoritative than the last person (Now Includes More Words!).

My book will show things as they haven't been shown and collected together before. That is a grand claim. The main theme at the moment is not weapons or tactics etc -  but the idea that there is a lot of different visual information there. A Visual Miscellany. It was actually Julia who came up with the M word)

Schott's Miscellanies

I recently got stuck on a train in the June '07 floods. I was reading the Times and came across a one-page Miscellany of British Prime Ministers. It was done by Ben Schott who has cornered the Miscellany market.

My first idea was that this information would have been much better presented more visually instead of the rather dry table. But I thought some more and decided that most of this info was best as a table (and it followed the Schott style guide -  so it looked good).

Well managed serendipity

I then thought about miscellanies more and realised that they are actually very well managed serendipitous journeys.  (Have they been rediscovered by a book industry confused at the new power of the web to connect the seemingly unrelated?)

They seem to be random lists, chaotic and unordered but actually they have underlying structure and foreshadowing. They let the reader build up a body of knowledge around a subject for themselves.

Not to negate narrative

The reader feels free in their wonderings and certainly not bogged down in an A to B journey. (Do not get me wrong - there is nothing wrong with good narrative but it was a revelation to think that a Miscellany can (and should?) have a structure - albeit a looser one - more open to interpretation by each of it's readers.

It's more about curating and presenting a bunch of stuff rather than being too strict with the overall strcuture. I am trying to make each page coherent though. It is just when to stop with that.

The spectrum of organisation

I am figuring out where on the spectrum of organisation my subject matter needs to be - rigourously ordered - purposeful argument - editted version - curated facts information - seemingly random facts - a big mess? (maybe not the last one)

At the moment I am settling on three main themes - tactics, technology and turning points. I hope that each of the spreads play chords that start some common themes throughout and between these alliterative lables.

Accessibility

I am still working through this - but I think there is an accessibility to a Miscellany and I would like to reach many with this book. They are sometimes overtly playful when the randomness is amped up and I think I will try to keep some order.

Comments welcome. (But do not ask why I am currently capitalising the M in Miscellany. I am not sure.)

Book List - WWII Summer Holiday Reading

In researching the magazine graphics and book proposal I have come across a fair few books on WWII. Below are some that do not contain some of the exact detail featured in the graphics but do paint different pictures of the war.

I have not included some of the better known books - John Keegan's are all excellent, especially 'Soldiers' - as are Anthony Beevor's 'Stalingrad' and 'Berlin'. A bigger list will appear at a later date.

Anyway,I have read these and they are excellent books. I have listed them in no particular order - although the first one reads most like a story:

The Forgotten Soldier
Guy Sajer
Sajer's journey takes him from basic training to the Russian front and back. This view of the war from a German soldier is beautifully written by someone in all the worst places at all the wrong times. (longish read)

The Boys' Crusade
Paul Fussell
Fussell was a soldier too, but this book is broader than a memoir. He is critical of much of the way the war was fought and shows us the undersides of stones often left uncovered by military history books on this subject. (shortish read)

The Battle of Hamburg
Martin Middlebrook
The perfect balance between military logistic detail and personal stories of all involved. Fantastic detail on bombing raids, air defence etc. He explains how this controversial episode came to pass and what it was like to experience it from all sides. (longish read)

Guns, Germs and Steel
Jared Diamond
Not about WWII - instead about Pissarro's conquest of the Incas. A fantastic account of how technologies come to being and their evolution and implications. Chapter 13 is the best writing on technology I have ever read.(longish read) Certainly read this if you work with technology.

Leave a comment of there is something you think I should read.

A Visual Miscellany of World War 2 - book proposal

<<UPDATE 27_3_2009 ...The Book Proposal angle has taken a back seat to just concentrating on getting the magazine article graphics as good at they can be. I'm building up some good ideas and material - for other projects too - but it's too early to commit to the shape of the thing. If anything, I am seeing that taking some more time is allowing me to craft something a lot more focussed and propositional. I think it's going to be a slow burner - but do read the below for my initial thinking...>>

As well as working with World War II magazine, I am putting together a proposal for a book about World War II.

The Visual Miscellany of World War 2 differs from all other books on the subject in that it is illustrated purely in information graphics and reveals new insights in ways not possible with prose or photography. The book will be full colour and approximately 100-150 pages.

The sub-title is Tactics, Technology and Turning Points. These topics are particularly conducive to analysis and explanation by information graphics.

• 'Technology' is not just weaponry, but all man made tools that helped or hindered either side. My objective here is to show them all as tools designed for a purpose that fitted into a timeline of development and met a need for those who used them. An example of this is the story of the development of shaped-charge weaponry, featured in the July issue of World War II.

• 'Tactics' crosses over a lot with the above as all technologies need to be put to use in an organised manner. 'Tactics' refers to the organised orchestration of many technologies by the forces to meet their objectives. An example of this may be 'German Nightfighter tactics'.

• 'Turning Points' looks at larger events and seeks to explain them or at least show them in a new light by the use of information design. Turning points will look at what happens on a larger scale when specific tactics are employed. An example of this would be analysis of Hitler's stretching of resources after the invasion of Russia.

I will be posting various pieces about the progress of the book. Or if you would like to know more, please mail me at

maxgadney@googlemail.com

WW2 or WWII ?

You may see some inconsistency in my approach to the labelling of the 20th century's second major conflagration. Generally the US calls it 'World War Two' and the UK calls it 'The Second World War'.

The magazine is called 'World War II'. I presume this use of numerals is a typographic convention alluding to  history. The numerals 'II' seem a little grander than '2'.

That is the reason the working title for the book is World War '2' - it seems more accessible than 'II' or the UK version. It is my view that unless there are specific people you need to exclude, accessiblity is a good thing. Some may bring up the 'simplicity vs simplistic' point - 'why dumb down when you can raise standards?' but I believe the treatment of the subject matter is the serious matter, not the title.

Discussions about the visual articulation of information frequently drift to issues of treatment, detail and tone and we will discuss them elsewhere. My '2' can sit near their 'II' and somebody else's 'Second' - I am sure there is room for all.