Manuel Lima is a designer, researcher, teacher and ‘information visualizer’ whom Creativity Magazine has described as “the Edward Tufte of the 21st Century”. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, founder of VisualComplexity.com and works for Google as Design Lead. Information visualization becoming a critical foundation in the bridge between information and knowledge is one of the main reasons that keep me going. Because it represents a new golden age of exploration— similar to what happened with cartography—where we are uncovering a variety of hidden patterns about ourselves and the world around us by analyzing a gripping amount of collected data. I’m a big advocate of the “Knowledge Pyramid”, or “Wisdom Hierarchy”, an old model that tries to establish an explicit relationship between Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. I’m particularly interested in what’s arguably the most challenging stage in this sequence: the transformation of information into knowledge, the transition from the sphere of producers to the sphere of consumers, from a global to a local context.
WHO IS HE?
“Form doesn’t follow data. Data is incongruent by nature. Form follows a purpose, and in the case of Information Visualization, Form follows Revelation.”
ONE
Manuel Lima's conversation for the Scratching the Surface podcast made me really have to think about the intersectionality of design with other aspects of life. Which I think is one of the key ways that design is so important. When design can relate to other elements that we are interested about, I think we gain a bigger understanding of its value and its importance. Much like Lima's journey, I believe that most designers use design to try to "make sense of the world" by using design to show their interpretations of what is happening. His comments on design being about "creating coherences" made me wonder if everything in design was really about just trying to make things logical.
some thoughts.
Even though in my own practice I do think that it's essential to think of the logical, I don’t know if design's fundamental core is about creating coherences. I understand that there's a certain need for human nature to comprehend and group things together, but I don’t think that it's what is necessary for the development of design to be rooted in its core value of having to make sense of other things. There is a space in the design world for those designers whose works seem as if they don’t make sense, and confuse people. I think that without both of these extreme versions of designs, those that seek necessary use of purpose as the driving force of their design and those who don’t care about what message is being derived from their work.
“Form doesn’t follow data. Data is
incongruent by nature. Form follow
ws a purpose, and in the case of
Information Visualization, Form follows
Revelation.�
“Simply conveying data in a vis on the portrayed subject, or eve only be consid
Another aspect that struck me the most about this interview was the concept of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the focus on design that follows function. I truly love the concept of utilitarianism because it gives reason behind design. It’s about expanding the ways that design can improve and assist in the function of an object. Although he quickly mentioned his work with data visualization, I didn’t get a complete sense of what he does through data visualization that captivated so many people. Through research, I discovered one of the roles of design that he believes in which is the frustration towards “eye candy” approach to design. This deals the movement against aesthetics that entice instead of inform function and aspire knowledge.
some more thoughts.
sual form, without shedding light en making it more complex, can dered a failure�
I had to keep thinking about what this meant in terms of how it would affect a designer. Would that mean that form should not be driven by the content and data that we are trying to show but what the overall message and purpose of the content is striving to get at? Lima seems very glued to the utilitarian aspect of design as demonstrated in the last chapter of his book that notes that by “Simply conveying data in a visual form, without shedding light on the portrayed subject, or even making it more complex, can only be considered a failure.� Data needs to be just shown through visual form, designers must strive to do more with data by inviting the user to understand a new insight in the subject.
TWO
THREE Lima’s comment on the insight into the user really touched me because of how it relates to consumer insight and the importance of seeing things from the user’s point of view. I ultimately want to make things that have an emotional impact on the viewer/user because its how you assure that your design is causing a change in the way people see things or experience things.
I agreed with most of what Lima comments on, especially concerning the plurality of design and how crucial it is to merge different passions because in reality I think design can stem from any field and any subject. That’s what’s so enticing about the power of design as it can be molded and transformed to help talk and experience any subject. When talking about the importance of an audience, Lima notes the importance of his work or any work to be able to be accessed by more than one certain domain. That it is able to be touched by all different kinds of minds, more than just designers.
that was interesting.
By understanding the effect of design in a bigger spectrum, designers can more easily appreciate the immense impact that design can have in the awareness and ultimately take-away from the project. By building empathy with the user, a designer can understand and change its own technique as they learn more in-depth about how the design is affected by the circumstances, situations and problems facing the user.