Kate+D+R01

As a newcomer to the art of information graphics I have never put much thought into the history of graphs and maps. Our culture is constantly bombarded with marketing strategies that include brightly colored graphs flashing rapidly supposedly conveying much needed information. That was as much as I knew about graphs. The use of graphs and maps transformed our ability to convey information quickly and effectively without the use of overprinting and made it easier to understand important information. I don’t have much of a background with graphs and my understanding of them is limited so reading this article was a bit difficult for me. I am strictly used to graphs and maps as a fast way to show me information. I am interested in how so many different forms of graphs and maps will depict the same information but some are much easier to understand than others. It is very easy for me to be overwhelmed by the intensity of some graphs and information will get lost but the time series form of graphing stood out to me from this article. We’ve all been introduced to time series graphs at one point and I was surprised to learn about the drawbacks of time series graphing and the information it can convey. When you add in spatial graphics to the time series the graph is given another dimension and able to depict more information. Before reading this article I had no idea that graphs went so far back in history so reading about the complexity of Minard’s graph of Napoleon’s army was eye opening. The fact that six variables were plotted and the graph is still recognizable and understandable is impressive to me. I am looking forward to learning more about information graphics and getting a better grasp their functions.