Making Sense of a Digital World: The Visualisation of Data

I recently saw one of the IBM Smarter Planet ads that has the catchy title: Data Energy - Analysing Data from Energy Sources.

The core message of the ad was about harnessing data generated from energy sources to help increase organisational efficiency and seek alternative energy sources. All good stuff.

However, what particularly intrigued me was the beautiful opening shot of the ad, which showcase a feast of colour, with the voiceover announcing:

"This Is Data"

 

The ability to visualise data was a theme that I covered in a recent presentation. I was invited by those nice people at Hyper-Island to be a Guest Speaker at one of their Master Classes, and speak about 'The Anthropology of Digital'.

So after I had looked up the word anthropology, I decided to frame my talk around its four pillars - the Cultural, the Physical, Archaeology, and Linguistics. Next step was to take a swim amongst the inspirational stories, insights and threads that I could access digitally.

But where do I start? There is so much inspirational and insightful stuff out there, how can I process all the information and inspiration to help me shape my story?

Sometimes, it feels like a huge struggle to keep our heads above the deluge of data, rather than a relaxing swim. When jumping in, we soon realise it's the deep end we've jumped into, not the shallow end.

 

Which is where the visual superiority effect comes into play.

 

Visuals help convey complex issues rapidly, as this example from 1924 does:

 

One favourite of mine is the genius in the simplicity of the London Underground Map. Here is a little video I filmed at the London Transport Museum, of how the London Underground grew over the years. Fantastic.

 

 

So it makes sense that we are seeing a rise in utilisation of data visualisation to help us make sense of the world, thanks in part to the celebrated Edward Tufte and his book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.

 

 

One recent example that highlighted this trend towards Data Visualisation was the brilliant Sea Levels piece by the equally brilliant David McCandless (found in his engrossing book/blog: Information is Beautiful)

 

I am not suggesting that we give up the written word and just draw. It is that we are faced with a rising tide of data.

The visualisation of that data can be a powerful force to make us sit up and take notice...before we all drown.