Design Workshop Questions

Jeff Heer asked me to talk more about the Design, Vision, and Visualization workshop at VisWeek, so here is a list of questions we came up with. While we were not able to discuss them at great length, I think they're very valid, and might lead to a better understanding about how to connect the design and visualization worlds.

The list is based on my notes and what I remember from the discussion, but I also filled in some additional thoughts. Feel free to add and/or disagree in the comments.

• How do designers work? What do they actually do? Few people in visualization know what designers actually do, how they work, how they discuss their work, etc. We need to convince people that design is not just about being artsy or making things pretty. A potential problem is also that visualization researchers might not want to abandon their overall designs, but only expect a designer to make things look better. An understanding is therefore needed what each side can bring to the table, and which part of the work being discussed is the actual subject of a discussion or collaboration.
• How can we connect with designers? The incentives that bring researchers to a conference do not work for designers, and vice versa. It's not easy to set up a forum where the two communities can meet. The best bet right now is to find somebody to work with at your own institution, though there are some roadblocks there, as well (see the other points).
• When do we need to go to first principles, perception, etc.? Designers can't answer all our questions, and often they don't know why something works or should be done a certain way. Sometimes it may be necessary to go back to the basics, perform experiments, etc., to establish how (and if) a particular technique works.
• What are the properties/characteristics of data? When designing a visualization, we have to take the characteristics of the data into account. Or something. Frankly, I don't remember what this point was about.
• What is the visual language of the users? Some fields have well-established visual languages, even if those may not always be optimal. Colors have a certain meaning in chemistry for example, and any attempt to color atoms differently is bound to fail. In some cases, the conventions are not that strict, however, and users can be convinced to abandon them for more effective designs. The question is when that is the case, and how to present a radical new design so that it has a chance of being accepted.
• What are the expectations about good and/or effective design? Design includes being useful, but that is not all there is to it. Depending on the people working together, the definition of what the goal is can vary quite a bit. It really boils down to an actual collaboration and understanding of the other's motivation and way of working, not just throwing something over a wall and expecting what gets thrown back to be perfect.
• Perceptually correct vs. aesthetically pleasing? Similar to the point above, a design that is based on perceptual principles might not be the most aesthetically pleasing, and vice versa. The question is what to insist on and what to accept even if it contradicts things we know.
• What are fundamental skills for anybody in visualization? This was the most intriguing question in my humble opinion: What does everybody in visualization need to know? It still strikes me as odd how few people have any kind of background (or even just interest) in design, photography, or art. I think we need to learn a lot more about visual literacy and acquire more of an appreciation for how other disciplines communicate visually to improve our work. Others may well disagree, though…

Posted by Robert Kosara on November 9, 2008.

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Comments

Jorge Camoes says…

• "What is the visual language of the users?"

The population pyramid is an icon of population studies, and a good example. It can be optimized using lines instead of bars and "folded" (both sexes to the right side of the axis). Also, using lines make it easier to add a second population. This is optimization within a known framework, and probably accepted and used by some demographers, because the essencial is kept (a pyramid-like population profile).

Now, if you want to over-optimize (for example, using a column chart instead) you may get better results from a strict visualization point of view but, if you throw away the basic concept, that will never be accepted.

• "What are fundamental skills for anybody in visualization?"

If a see a 3D, exploded pie chart, I don't think "this guy needs a background 'in design, photography, or art'". I think "this guy needs to care more about his data". Yes, visual literacy is a fundamental issue, but if you solve it without taking care of numeric literacy and information analysis and management what do you get? Graphic designers with no respect for the data (currently a large majority, I'm afraid).

whatype says…

As a graphic designer that has an interest on Data Visualization I can give you my opinion on the subjects you listed.

1) How do designers work? What do they actually do?
To answer this I really think you should read IDEO's Tim Brown article on Design Thinking ( http://www.ideo.com/press/item/design-thinking/ ) this is, for me, the way designers should work. He also makes a point on the importance of having designers participate on a project from the very start of it. Good design work is solving problems and finding the best way to communicate those answers, it's not (or it shouldn't be) about aesthetics.

2) How can we connect with designers?
Data Visualization presents – design wise – some very interesting problems and great results. I believe that a lot of designers would love to participate in this area. Besides your idea of finding someone inside the organization, my opinion is that you could also search the web in forums and blogs to see if you can find such professionals and ask them to participate. If there's a thing a good designer can't refuse is a great project involving a good problem to be solved.

3) When do we need to go to first principles, perception, etc.?
Once again, in Design Thinking you can learn how designers think. Designers are used to quickly learn about a given subject to work on it. In this profession, one day you'll be learning about Italian restaurants and the other day about refugees in Darfur. Another thing about designers is that they are really used to make quick prototypes and learn from a try and error experiment. So I agree with you on this one. Just have the designer present from the beginning of the project.

4) What are the properties/characteristics of data?
This is a big issue for me. Designers who want to participate in Data Visualization must be able to understand the data. They should also be able to forget some of the things they have learned from past experiences. For example, sometimes a given set of data isn't best presented with a map because the data isn't at all a geographic one (like almost every map we have seen on the election, why did a red/republican country loose to the smaller blue/democrat one? Because small states could have bigger electoral votes then bigger states. It's not about the size of each state; it's about the number of electoral votes. So I ask again, why the use of maps?)

5) What is the visual language of the users?
This is, very much, a case of every job is a unique job that should be looked upon. One thing is for sure, everybody involved in Data Visualization should be prepared to forget about conventions and be able to think outside the box. This applies to both designers and the rest of the team.

6) What are the expectations about good and/or effective design?
Again I agree with you. Again I say, have the designers early on in the project and find the solutions together. A good designer must be able to learn about the project and to find the best way to present it (I keep repeating myself.... sorry!). Expectations should always be that the solution is the best possible one to communicate to everybody the answer you where looking for. Which takes me to the next point....

7) Perceptually correct vs. aesthetically pleasing?
Aesthetics should never be the main goal. Every good design is driven by content. Having said that, I believe that sometimes aesthetics could be the very best answer for a problem. If you are trying to show the size of a number that relates to human lives, for example, a solution that can move your audience from the number to the people is, probably, the aesthetic one.
For example, visualization about the civil losses in a war: should it be a large number like 136,452; or the picture of 3 stadiums full of people from a final of the cup series? Which one represents best what you are trying to show?

8) What are fundamental skills for anybody in visualization?
Everybody in the world is an observer and is an audience. You are a reader of a newspaper or magazine, you like to go to museums, you watch TV, etc. So everybody has a big library of images inside him/her. You should be able of think visually using that library. Everyone when was a child was able to communicate with drawings before they could write, so everybody has this ability. You just need to win it back.
Another really important advice (and this is really important): It's NEVER about your personal taste; it's about communication, finding the very best way to do it.

Wolfgang Aigner says…

"Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like… People think it's this veneer -- that the designers are handed this box and told, 'Make it look good!' That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." — Steve Jobs, The New York Times, 2003

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