But instead of listening to what you were saying, they focused on how you said it. Remember the last time you argued with someone? You probably tried to explain your point. Speaking of attention, we all run into this problem. It just looks so matter-of-fact, so self-effacing that you would not think to pay attention to it. There is nothing to ignore about it either. And it is not that you would ignore this kind of design. Yes, the irony is that as a designer the best design I can do is the one you will not notice. And this is something we rarely experience in visual communication. This is the hidden power of infographics. A transparent design shows you the information, not the design. You saw the substance without seeing the form. It means the map succeeded in showing you information without you noticing how it did it. You might be thinking, “That’s a pretty obvious design… how else would you design it?” Bingo. When is the last time you met a stranger and she understood you perfectly? Exactly.
This almost never happens between people. Whether you go to Hong Kong, or Tokyo, or Kiev you will use the same map as the rest. And this is what makes it so genius: no matter which country you are from, your language, age, or background, we all understand it the same way. That is work better than any other type of pictures for understanding complexity. This transparent thing is what makes infographics work. It is not obvious because it is transparent. By “data”, I mean both numbers and facts. Here is what most people agree on: that infographics are some combination of data and design. Since then we have not reached complete agreement on what infographics are. The word “infographic” first started appearing consistently in the 1960s. This is a different challenge than maps used to solve describing the world as it is. Infographics are our tool to deal with complexity.
Why invent a new name? Because there is something special about now: we are looking at mountains of new data with no radically new tools to make sense of it. So “infographic” is simply a new name for an old thing. Infographics are rich maps for information in general. So what is an infographic? It is just a map. To start our discussion, first, it makes sense to de-mystify infographics.
0 kommentar(er)
