Kate+D+R04

A narrative itinerary is one of the more interesting pieces of information I pulled from this article. I’ve always been interested in mapping especially when used as an art form. Tufte wrote about schedules and how they one of the most widely used information displays and he gave some brilliantly designed and creative examples. These types of displays have the ability to be informative as well as beautiful and unlike other types of information graphics, schedules must retain a high quality of information in order to do its job. The example Tufte uses of a transportation system is excellent because it shows both time and space working together in a complex and beautiful network. The map of the Czechoslovakian Air Transport Company from 1933 was amazing in the way it shows the connectivity between the flight times and identification numbers. Not knowing the language was obviously a barrier in understanding but it was interesting to look at.
This article made me think some more about different ways to show information and how I can use it in my final project. I’ve been having some issues in trying to show a quantitative comparison in my graph while still having both pieces of information read completely. Part of it is my inexperience in the graphing area and also how I can make a style of graph that best represents my data. It was nice to see some examples of beautiful mapping that is displaying precise information. The corkscrew drawings of Jupiter’s satellites are interesting in how they show the four satellites and their spirals each represented by a different line but all displayed as a unit. Each line read as a separate satellite and provided a quantitative backdrop for one another.
Overall this article lends itself to the importance of effective design in the ease of reading information. We saw in class today how the designs of some graphs were easier to read than others and lots of good suggestions for improvement were offered. Personally I need to work on adding depth of information in my sample graph while making it quantifiable and understandable. Right now my sample isn’t understandable unless I verbally explain it, which is not very effective! I’ve been enjoying seeing different styles of information graphics and how they can be used differently when relaying information.