The Functional Art (Intro, Ch1 & Ch2) - MariaAguilarV/JMM-622-Infographics-and-Data-Visualization GitHub Wiki

After reading “The Truthful Art”, I continued reading the second book published by Cairo called “The Functional Art”. In this book, the author answers one of the questions that I’ve been asking myself since I started getting deeper into the world of data visualization which is: “Does this discipline belongs just to art?” And the answer is certainly not. In the first chapter, Cairo introduces the term “Information Architecture” and defines it as a discipline aimed at filling the black hole between data and knowledge. This concept comes from the model known as DIKW (Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom) which implies transforming unstructured information into data (the first level of encoding happens here), then the second level of encoding comes when experts transform this data into structured information in a meaningful way and it is delivered to the audience to generate knowledge. Furthermore, Information Architecture includes other disciplines devoted to dealing with information such as Information Design which uses information graphics and visualizations. Thus, Information graphics can also be seen as technologies as they are meant to fulfill certain purposes. This is how, then, he explains that visualization is a tool that involves other disciplines as engineering, cartography, psychology, among others. In the second chapter, Cairo continues the explanation of information graphics illustrating how infographics or visualization seek for objectivity, precision, functionality, and beauty. This is what differentiates information graphic from fine art, this is the functional art. Analyzing the phrase “The function constraints the form” leads us to one of the most important principles of the infographic: the shapes should be chosen according to intended goals. The process of making infographics should always start by thinking what users are likely to try to do with our tool. According to the author, a well-done graphic must present several variables, it should allow comparisons, it should help the reader to organize the content and it should make correlations or relationships evident to the user.

Cairo gives an example of a Brazilian map where they were trying to compare the army forces with its neighbor countries. After following the rule of asking if this map accomplish the 4 previous aspects and thinking about the function of the shapes, Cairo explains how this visualization is not accomplishing its goal and how it could be enhanced, by using bar charts, to allow the readers to really understand the situation and compare information with other countries. After reading this example, I remembered about a blog that I read recently where they talk about a tool called “Datashader”, that helps to work with extremely large datasets and we can obtain graphics similar to the shown below. As we can see in these images, we can’t find specific quantities about the cities; however, it is very useful if we just want to see the zones where there are the oldest business, or if we just want to compare the zones where there are most food services vs Real state business. This is a clear example of choosing graphics thinking on its function and how some of them could be really useful in some situations but not in others.