Visualizing Complexity: Modular Information Design Handbook

232 Pages·2022·6.867 MB·English

by  Darjan Hil, Nicole Lachenmeier

Visualizing
Complexity

Darjan Hil
Nicole Lachenmeier
Visualizing
Complexity
Modular
Information
Design
Handbook
Birkhäuser
Basel
Contents
6 Preface
8 How the book is structured
11 The MID system
1
Data
15 dimensions
17 1A From text to
data
31 1B From data to
data cube
2
Diagrammatical
41 dimensions
43 2A Quantity
59 2B Position
67 2C Relationship
3
Visual
77 dimensions
79 3A Color
87 3B Shape
97 3C Line
107 3D Pattern
115 3E Contour
123 3F Isotype
4
Structuring
133 dimensions
135 4A Structuring by
sorting
147 4B Structuring by
grouping
5
The variety of
multidimensional
154 visualizations
156 Overview of all 80
elements
158 How the MID system
works
160 Mapping four data
dimensions — instructions
162 How sorting works
164 26 multidimensional
visualizations
6
217 Appendix
218 The authors
220 Further reading, sources,
,
and tools
Preface
The title of this book, “Visualizing Complexity”, contains the word
complexity, a frequently used term, which quite fittingly describes
current thinking. We live in a time when, thanks to computers
and an infinite amount of information, people are doing more and
more tasks at the same time, taking on different roles and switching
very quickly between subjects. In this context, we understand
complexity to mean that an issue is impacted by many factors, all
of them interwoven, and is obscure and difficult to grasp. But
why visualize complexity? Quite simply because we firmly believe
that many a seemingly complex issue can be better processed when
it is externalized visually and can be viewed from some distance.
Initially, it is not about the quality of the visualization, but simply
about the process of getting something out of one’s head onto the
page (digital or analog) and thereby making it communicable.
In the context of this book, we understand issues to be data as
a general concept. Whether we are dealing with text or numbers,
in our opinion both are raw material, i.e. a data set to be processed.
Both can be considered in terms of quantity or quality, and can
be processed visually. In this context it is important to be aware that
any consideration of an issue assumes a certain perspective and
tells an associated story. For each set of data there are various
approaches and perspectives. Therein lies the complexity mentioned
above. The aim is not to simplify the complexity, but to enable the
reader to skilfully navigate through the different perspectives of the
topic. To facilitate this navigation, we have developed a method
called modular information design; MID for short. In this system,
all elements, the smallest units of the system, are made combinable
in modules similar to the periodic table system employed in chem­
istry. It is important to note that in order to facilitate simplified
orientation in the MID system, elements are grouped into higher­
level dimensions. Dimensions are units used to organize elements at
a certain level.
6