> Where did visual representation of information come from? How long has it been around?
\ Otho Mantegazza _ Dataviz for Scientists _ Part 2.1
In his words, commenting on how data were becoming ever more aboundant in life, and how data visualization (statistical diagrams) could help:
“And it is hoped,that with the assistance of these Charts, such information will be got, without the fatigue and trouble of studying the particulars of which it is composed.”
Maybe we’ve always known how to represent information visually, because that’s the first and most intuitive way to do it.
The graphical display of information, of words, of stories, of topology, has been part of human history as soon as the first pictures on rocks where drawn; and we know that they date back at least 50.000 years, probably more.
But data visualization requires some level of visual abstraction. We are not only drawing what we can see about the world. We are representing data visually, using abstract rules to draw something that did not exist before, and to leverage our visual perception to understand something that wasn’t visual before.
Visual and graphical representation of phenomena and data that are not inherently visual, existed well before the statistical diagrams of William Playfair. Can you think of some?
In the 17th Century, interest for the natural sciences and disciplines such as astronomy, geography, physics, demographic, grew exponentially.
In that period, data visualization as we know i, was born under the name of “Statistical Diagrams”.
Analytical Geometry started with the work on the Cartesian System.
In a plane, the cartesian system is a coordinate system that specifies each point univocally as a pair of real numbers, the distances from two perpendicular axes.
It was invented in parallel by Descartes and Fermat in 17th century.
When people started to look with growing interest to the natural sciences, a question rose: how can we measure things better? How can we make sense of the measurement that we take, which, in a ever changing world, are often, apparently, chaotic?
Like this, the first statistical approaches were developed by Tycho Brahe to reduce measurement errors in empirical measurements. At the same time, Pascal and Fermat developed the first probability theory.
In the 19th century, statistics took a key role in science, economics and policy making.
This is a golden age for data visualization, in which imaginative, beautiful, informative charts were produced to foster progress and decision making.
In the first half of the 20th century, data visualization was relegated to a secondary role to numerical statistical summaries.
In the second half of the century, instead, John Tukey revived it. Until today, graphics remained one of the main tool in the hand of data analysts.
Today, with the web based resurgence of graphics and typography, data visualization is a scientific tool, a form of communication and a form of art.
Visual communication is the oldest form of graphical communication. It predates phonemes and other abstract forms of writing.
Visual communication is a powerful tool for storytelling, it’s intuitive, and it relies on our skills to process broad visual inputs quickly and in parallel.
Since visual communication is intuitive, it delivers (almost) immediate messages. This immediacy makes it potentially misleading. The responsibility for making it clear and not ambiguous is yours (the author).
Data visualization is a part of the broader discipline of visual and graphical communication. Let this whole field inspire you.