In the chapter of Graphesis titled “Visualizing Interpretation”, Joanna Drucker continues to draw connections between the disparate origins of data visualization, from the modern calendars’ ancient roots in Babylonia, to its current hybrid uses in digital contexts.  The earliest information visualizations are also the conventions of the field, with origins…

I’d like to begin writing this essay by saying how much I love Graphesis by Joanna Drucker. I began reading this book over the summer and I have remained impressed by Drucker’s cinematic ability to describe this diverse (if not meandering) history of the development of data visualization…

Robert Simmon is a data visualizer for NASA, so his primary output of work is within the Earth and natural sciences.  In this series of essays, he writes about color theory and the various considerations one must make before beginning to visualize data. The first thing he did was introduce…

The Principle of Proportional Ink was originally captured in Edward Tufte’s seminal book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. In this book, he states that the vast majority of the ink used to create a graphic should be designated to the presentation of the data itself. In other words,…

In the essay “Misleading Axes on Graphs” by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, they describe the various ways people will misuse the axes of graphs when presenting data that in some cases, benefits the agenda of the visualization’s creator.  For instance, they cite the now infamous line graph created…

Upon reading the chapter “What makes bad figures bad?” by Kieran Healy there were three key takeaways that he asserts are the primary categories where visualizations can get into the weeds when presenting data narratives: aesthetics - which he describes as “ugly or inconsistent design choices”, substantive - problems that…