Note: all the (figures) mentioned in the text are found at the end of the essay.
INTRODUCTION “The design of statistical graphics is a universal matter like mathematics and is not tied to the unique features of a particular language” It has passed around 28 years since the above mentioned line saw light in the publication of Edward Tufte, an American statistician and information design expert among many other things at the Yale University. Even though the “statistics” being represented is only a micro‐ portion of the whole deal, today this universal language surrounds us in everyday life, the quantity of information that flows around is exponentially expending, and the presence of the figure of a person organizing this information the so called “Information designer” is inevitable and crucial. Today not only we are evolving into beings with multitasking capabilities, but we have mastered the ability to look into an information world of many dimensions, thanks to the representation of this information that it itself has evolved from simple letters to containers with time and spatial dimensions. We owe our capabilities to important historic figures like, Playfair, Minard, Snow (fig. 1,2,3) and many others, those who were responsible of putting the first keystones. When searching of what information design is all about, most of the texts, manuals, and online resources define it as the action of making the communication of complex information as clear, precise, and as efficient as possible. It’s not only about clarity, precision or efficiency, but another important factor or outcome of designed information is that the visual and graphic appearance of information reveals patterns that might not be as apparent as they would in any other format. (fig. 4) Today, as the ICT horizons are widened, information designers are gaining new tools to better organize and represent the info. Cosmos. Examples that can be made are infinite in number, but it’s required only few to demonstrate certain concepts.
REAL‐TIME INFORMATION DESIGN Talking about Real time information design, writing this essay I have my Smartphone besides me, it’s quite simple and quite cheap, but it’s an outstanding tool. While a decade ago real time information was only reserved to higher governmental and military organizations today most of us carry in our pocket devices that can communicate us real time information. A very Page | 1
simple yet remarkable example is “Google Maps” (fig. 5) it’s enough for me to have internet access to check real time traffic status on the road, just hooking it up with the GPS I am able to calculate real‐time which road I have to take to avoid traffic and get to work as early as possible, or better my phone will automatically do all that for me. Another interesting example would be “Real Time Rome”, I just wanted to make a comparison the info. Design of the 1970’s and that of today (fig. 6), let’s take an Urban and Rural population distribution in the united states map of 1970’s and compare it of what’s possible today. Even though we can log‐on via internet services and have the same map which is updated real‐time, “Real Time Rome” (fig. 7) was a similar project but at a micro‐ scale. Done in 2006 in the Venice Biennale in Italy with MIT and the Telecom company, the project aggregated data from cell phones (Obtained using Telecom Italia’s innovative Lochness platforms), buses and taxis in Rome to better understand urban dynamics real time. As we see it in the (fig. 8,9) during certain events it was possible to see cluster of people present at this major events. Even if it was only an experiment, it’s a matter of years when we will be able to tap on with our phone and check real‐time where are the major events happening through cell‐phone mapping. Before concluding this section I just received an sms from the municipality of Venice of all the details that I need about the upcoming “acqua‐alta” information. It couldn’t get any real‐timely better than that.
INTERACTIVE INFORMATION DESIGN While Real‐Time information design is all about fresh and updated information by the minute and there way of representation (interface, device, method ecc.) another important factor regarding information design is the way that we interact with the information. Talking about the “interaction” element, these interaction can be either Human‐ Machine, or it can occur within the information Machine – Machine or Software – Software. Again the examples here are infinite, I want to take a personal experience to show how the environment of interacting with information is changing. Couple of months ago I was at the Marco‐Polo airport in Venice waiting for someone, and I noticed a slick quite big screen on a certain angle, not too far from the international doors where people came out. It was called “Vicky” (fig. 10, 11) and it is a project led by the “Regional tourism department”. What’s more interesting about it and I would sound absurd of saying it but no‐one was near the screen, nowhere near public places was a similar interactive devices was found, and some people just passed by observing it as if it was an advertisement screen like any other, but it sure wasn’t. Geared up with new ultrasonic and infra‐red sensors, you would just go near, point out your finger without touching the screen, and it gave you all the information you needed as a tourist, from nearest hotel to restaurants, taxis and so on. This example and many similar ones appearing all around us are a proof of how the way we interact with the information world is changing, and changing so fast that we need time to learn, adapt and accept them. The above mentioned example is important because it’s a very “primitive” and naive step towards unimaginable ways of interacting with the world around us, as time goes by devices are evolving from getting to small to vanishing completely, what we will witness in the near Page | 2
future is the total absence of devices that permit us to interact with the info. Cosmos, from advanced censors, to brain‐machine interfaces (fig. 12). Another interesting and revolutionary example Human‐Machine interface is Microsoft’s’ Project Natal. A new controller initially destined for their gaming platform the XBOX 360 and soon for general use, it’s an special camera‐sensor that can detect 48 body joints (fig. 13), and it has also voice and facial recognition features. It’s not too far where virtual realties will get almost physical realties, simple objects that surround us will act based on how we physically move or command. Off course the interaction examples that I gave were all Human‐Machine ones, another interaction is noted between machine and machine, or more accurately software‐software and the way that they interact to communicate us information in a dynamic way, an interesting web example can be that of Moma’s “Design and the Elastic Mind” exhibition website (fig. 14), at the moment you get into the site you can see different subjects written with a spherical icon on top, at a certain point animated lines start to emerge and connect and link all the information that has certain elements in common, the same when you go to the search section and type a certain keyword, a line will bounce off the box and connect all the subjects that contain the keyword that you were searching for. And for concluding, another example is the “Thinking Machine 4” (fig. 15)online interactive chess game, programmed with java, at the moment that I make my move, colorful lines start to emerge from both ends, showing every single possible move, off course it’s almost impossible to follow these lines and to make a move based on them, but who knows, if today we have developed abilities to read multi‐dimensional information, maybe one day will be able to follow complex itineraries like the one mentioned here.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Books EMERSON. J., Visualizing Information for Advocacy – An Introduction to Information Design, Tactical Tech, India 2008. NORMAN. D., La Caffettiera del Masochista – psicopatologia degli oggetti quotidiani, Giunti Editore, Prato 2009. TUFTE. E., The Visual Display of Quantitative Informatio – SECOND EDITION,Graphics Press LLC, Connecticurt 2007.
Internet Sources http://lifehacker.com/240397/google‐maps‐traffic‐information http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/# http://senseable.mit.edu/realtimerome/ http://80.86.159.20/index.php?page=viki http://www.gizmag.com/honda‐asimo‐brain‐machine‐interface‐mind‐control/11379/ http://www.xbox.com/en‐US/live/projectnatal/ http://www.turbulence.org/spotlight/thinking/chess.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_design http://www.cf.ac.uk/psych/contactsandpeople/lecturing/wright‐patricia‐prof‐overview_new.html http://jamesnsears.com/applets/spies/
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fig.1
William Playfair Chart showing at one view The price of the quarter of Wheat, & wages of labour By the week from the year 1565 > to 1821.
fig.2 Charles Joseph Minard Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l'Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812‐1813
fig.3 A map drawn by Dr. John Snow (1813‐1858), a British physician, showing cases of cholera in the London epidemics of 1854, clustered around the locations of water pumps. fig.4 Rewiring the Spy is about whether blogs and wikis could be used by agencies like the C.I.A. and F.B.I. to combat terrorism. The visualizations create a three‐dimensional space in which the physical relationship of actors, weapons and targets suggest their level of connection in an attack.
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fig.5 Google Maps, a version of the map showing real‐time traffic status in Los Angeles. fig.6 Population distribution in urban and rural areas in the united states 1970.
fig.7 Real Time Rome Movements of mobile phone users during important events in Rome: fig.8 Real Time Rome Density of people using mobile phones at different historic attractions in Rome.
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fig.9 Real Time Rome Changing positions of Atac buses, indicated by yellow points, and the relative densities of mobile phone users, represented by the red areas. fig.10 Viky An interactive Tourist guide system at Venice Marco Polo Airport. fig.11 Viky An interactive Tourist guide system at Venice Marco Polo Airport fig.12 Honda Their new brain‐ machine interface letting the user control the robots movement by thought.
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fig.13 Project Natal A new 3d camera letting users interact with machine using their whole body as input.
fig.14 Moma’s Website Design & the Elastic Mind, where subjects are interactively connected by animated lines. fig.15 Thinking Machine 4 is an online chess game where once you make your move the game will elaborate and show all the possible future moves of you and your opponent.
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INFORMATION DESIGN IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Left Real-time “acqua-alta” alert system through sms. Right Maps, Transport & Various information touch system. Napoli
Left Siena - Train Digital Time Table of Buses. Siena Right Viky An interactive Tourist guide system at Venice Marco Polo Airport
ACTV Vaporetto Transport lines map Venice
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INFORMATION DESIGN IN SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES
fig. 21 (Geography) The Remotest place on Earth combined a series of maps showing the most interconnected and remote places on earth..
fig. 22 (Enology) The Italian Wine System This map is the representation of the Italian wine system in 2005, from production to consumption.
fig. 23 (Geology) EarthQuake 3D simple and easy to use desktop display of the world's last 20 significant earthquakes.
fig. 25 (Music) visual i/zer find how different lyrics intersect with each other. fig. 26 (Music) reactable collaborative interactive electronic music instrument. fig. 27 (Biology) Left Metabolic Pathways metabolic research in many life science fields fig. 28 (Biology) Right unified and integrated numeric index of all known drugs.
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INFORMATION DESIGN BY AUTHOR 1
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fig. 30 (Abraham Moles) Iconicity scale of Abaraham Moles
fig. 31 (Abraham Moles) Epistemologic field of Abraham Moles
fig. 32 (Jacques Bertin) "vibratory effect"
fig. 33 (Jacques Bertin) Variables used in maps
fig. 34, 35, 36 (Otto Neurath) Many of his works from De moderne mensch ontstaat Een reportage van vreugde en vrees Work, free time, sleep: divisions War economy: coal, oil, iron, copper, cotton, wheat and rice; each picture represents 10% of world production." [p.85] "Birth statistics in a Central European town." [p.46]
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fig. 37, 38 (Otto Neurath) Work, free time, sleep: divisions. Economic scheme: -usage of natural resources; -semi manufactured articles; -finished manufactured articles; -distribution and services; each figure represents 500 inhabitants: youth; people who work inside the economic scheme; housewives, students, etc; -older people. [p.65]
fig. 39 (Edward Tufte) Edward Tufte’s data visualization, “The Movable Feat: New York’s 25th Marathon”
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