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- Volume 25, Issue 1, 2019
Information Design Journal - Volume 25, Issue 1, 2019
Volume 25, Issue 1, 2019
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Dendrochronology of U.S. immigration
Author(s): Pedro Cruz, John Wihbey, Avni Ghael, Felipe Shibuya and Stephen Costapp.: 6–20 (15)More LessAbstractImmigrants are central to the identity of the United States, the population of which has grown in number and diversity as a function of new arrivals from around the globe. This article describes a visualization project that uses the visual metaphor of tree rings to explore the contribution of immigrants to the country’s population. Immigrants and native-born persons are represented and differentiated as cells in trees, with layered annual rings capturing patterns of population growth. These rings register, in their shape and color, certain environmental conditions. In order to mimic the natural process by which growth rings are formed, we devised a computational system that simulates the growth of trees as if cells were data-units. Dendrochronology involves dating certain events by analyzing patterns of growth in trees. Analogously, in our visualizations the rings can be counted and dated, showing the chronological evolution of the population. The dendrochronology theme is a poetic take on the data, yet it is also a functional and conceptual space that is used to construct language and rationales on that data. The tree-growth process not only inspires the appearance of the visualizations but also informs the rules of the computational system that creates them.
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Who wants to be a self-driving car?
Author(s): Joey Lee, Benedikt Groß and Raphael Reimannpp.: 21–27 (7)More LessAbstractSelf-driving cars and autonomous transportation systems are projected to create radical societal changes, yet public understanding and trust of self-driving cars and autonomous systems is limited. The authors present a new mixed-reality experience designed to provide its users with insights into the ways that self-driving cars operate. A single-person vehicle equipped with sensors provides its users with data driven visual feedback in a virtual reality headset to navigate in physical space. The authors explore how immersive experiences might provide ‘conceptual affordances’ that lower the entry barrier for diverse audiences to discuss complex topics.
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Design as externalization
Author(s): Stephen Boyd Davis and Olivia Vanepp.: 28–42 (15)More LessAbstractThe article is concerned with a central contribution of designing to information visualization in the digital humanities. The activity is characterized as one of externalization, instantiation in visible or tangible form of ideas. A spectrum of different interpretations of this process in the existing literature is discussed. The arguments are illustrated with recent practical examples from the authors’ own work in designing with a range of cultural organizations. The article concludes with reflections on how projects may best benefit from this work of design, empowering the designer as a co-researcher, alongside the historian, curator or other humanities scholar.
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Belief at first sight
Author(s): Doris Kosminsky, Jagoda Walny, Jo Vermeulen, Søren Knudsen, Wesley Willett and Sheelagh Carpendalepp.: 43–55 (13)More LessAbstractData visualizations are often represented in public discourse as objective proof of facts. However, a visualization is only a single translation of reality, just like any other media, representation devices, or modes of representation. If we wish to encourage thoughtful, informed, and literate consumption of data visualizations, it is crucial that we consider why they are often presented and interpreted as objective. We reflect theoretically on data visualization as a system of representation historically anchored in science, rationalism, and notions of objectivity. It establishes itself within a lineage of conventions for visual representations which extends from the Renaissance to the present and includes perspective drawing, photography, cinema and television, as well as computer graphics. By examining our tendency to see credibility in data visualizations and grounding that predisposition in a historical context, we hope to encourage more critical and nuanced production and interpretation of data visualizations in the public discourse.
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Gaps between the digits
Author(s): Romi Ron Morrisonpp.: 56–70 (15)More LessAbstractArtificially intelligent systems (ai) are increasingly becoming the ubiquitous, unseen arbiters of our social, civic and familial lives. Ever increasing computational power, combined with almost limitless data, has led to a turning point in the way artificial intelligence assists, judges, and cares for humans. In the wake of such power we must ask ourselves what it is that we are making inherently unknowable as the world becomes more predictable, managed, and discrete. Building on the work of black feminists Sylvia Wynter and Hortense Spillers, I perform a reading of the “flesh”. I aim to hint towards a different field of relations and a knowledge politic premised on unknowability and the radical potential of the subjugated to foster new imaginaries of the human fluid enough to weather instability. This piece troubles the boundaries inscribed between things. Settled in the flesh of blackness, we are reminded of the ways that blackness floods the landscape of productive reason while holding outlier ways of being beyond Western Man. This paper seeks to return to the pulse found within the flesh as a critical site for thinking through alternate ways of being, within the messiness, the unstable, the precarious; finding life born of transition, the pulse within discord.
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Feeling numbers
Author(s): Sarah Campbell and Dietmar Offenhuberpp.: 71–86 (16)More LessAbstractFor means of communication, persuasion is a natural and critical part of conveying a message. Data visualizations, being means of communication themselves, are used as rhetorical instruments, but how they persuade has yet to be fully understood. Based on George Campbell’s rhetorical theory, this paper presents the results of an empirical study testing the effectiveness of appeals to emotion through proximity techniques – the contextual framing of a visualization. The findings indicate that people feel greater interest towards a topic when the visualized data are more relevant to them, and that data representing events closer in time are more affecting.
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The evolution of the elevator pictogram
Author(s): Sibylle Schlaich and Anita Meier-Walterpp.: 87–100 (14)More LessAbstractThis study draws attention to the challenging perception of two public information pictograms, ‘elevator’ and ‘toilet’. Both indicate the location of a destination. Although the semantic information is completely different, both pictograms partly depict the same: front view of standing human figures. In certain contexts (e.g., at airports or train stations), with people in a hurry and with users from different cultures, this can lead to confusion. In addition, the representation of human figures is increasingly being questioned on the basis of public and political discussions on gender issues. Moreover, attention to accessibility is also being incorporated in these two pictograms. Thus, both pictograms are undergoing an evolutionary process in order to meet current requirements. Do more messages require more complex pictograms? As a starting point, we conducted a comprehension test based on the method recommended by iso 9186-1. The results showed trends, but some questions regarding the two pictograms were not clearly understood by the test group members. Therefore, we conducted another test designed to determine the limits of the graphics depicted in these pictograms. We hope this study will help raise awareness about these issues. Finally, we offer five pointers for consideration when designing the elevator pictogram in the future.
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Pragmatic evaluation of The BMJ’s visual abstracts
Author(s): Will Stahl-Timmins, Jonathan Black and Paul Simpsonpp.: 101–109 (9)More LessAbstractThe British Medical Journal has recently started making visual abstracts to summarise published research studies. These 1024 × 1024 px images give a quick overview of a trial’s participants, design, and key findings. These visual abstracts are designed to help busy health professionals and researchers get a quick overview of newly published research. The present article describes simple pragmatic evaluations of these visual abstracts: analysis of social media stats and an opportunistic reader survey. Our goals were to identify how useful our readers found this new visual format, and whether there were any improvements we could make. The social media stats were initially very promising. Longer term performance over several visual abstracts, however, was not as strong, suggesting a possible halo effect provided by the novelty of a new presentation format. The survey proved to be a quick and valuable way of getting feedback on the design of the initial template, and resulted in several design adjustments.
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Designing bowel preparation patient instructions to improve colon cancer detection
Author(s): Guillermina Noël, Jorge Frascara and Clarence Wongpp.: 110–121 (12)More LessAbstractMedical personnel usually write and design documents that inform physicians or patients about procedures or therapies. Document design, however, requires skills that are not normally applied, resulting in information that is often not used properly. This article describes a project developed by the Alberta Colorectal Cancer Screening Program. The goal was to help patients better prepare for their colonoscopies. The process started with an analysis of the existing documents, and the development of performance specifications based on the literature on legibility, reading comprehension, memorization and use of information, plain language, visual perception, page layout, and image use. The project included an iterative process of prototyping and testing that resulted in 23 design criteria. Each iteration was tested with users to ensure ease of use, completeness of information, and accuracy and clarity to facilitate adoption. The project helped reduce practice variation regarding bowel preparation in the province of Alberta, Canada. This project illustrates how information design can help healthcare organizations provide patient-centred care. Information design helps patients engage in their own caring process, by providing information that people can use, understand and apply. After 15 months of use, the document has been downloaded more than 48,000 times, suggesting a good physician reception.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 29 (2024)
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Volume 28 (2023)
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Volume 27 (2022)
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Volume 26 (2021)
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Volume 25 (2019)
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Volume 24 (2018)
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Volume 23 (2017)
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Volume 22 (2016)
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Volume 21 (2014)
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Volume 20 (2013)
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Volume 19 (2011)
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Volume 18 (2010)
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Volume 17 (2009)
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Volume 16 (2008)
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Volume 15 (2007)
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Volume 14 (2006)
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Volume 13 (2005)
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Volume 12 (2004)
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Volume 11 (2002)
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Volume 10 (2000)
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Volume 9 (1998)
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Volume 8 (1995)
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Volume 7 (1993)
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Volume 6 (1990)
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Volume 5 (1986)
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Volume 4 (1984)
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Volume 3 (1982)
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Volume 2 (1981)
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Volume 1 (1979)
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Designing with a 2½D attitude
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