We are awash in data.<\/p>\n
Massive advances in digital sensors and computing power have made vast amounts of information available, no matter how trivial, all of it expanding by the second. We can follow the paths of diseases as they spread and map the routes that cars travel. The amount of data we now pull from the universe roughly doubles every year. We can mark how language has evolved by comparing the number of unique words used by Shakespeare with the number used by rappers. And, of course, governments have become proficient at tracking everyone’s digital footprint.<\/p>\n
Making sense of all that we’ve stored in those bulging data bases is another matter. Finding patterns in the data \u2014 and understanding what all that information might mean \u2014 is becoming the Holy Grail of 21st century commerce, politics, journalism and academia. And one of the most effective ways to do this is through data visualization: the use of design to show what the numbers are telling us.<\/p>\n
Flat bar graphs and pie charts are no longer enough. Digital technologies have opened the way to dynamic, colourful representations that dance across screens, offering an interactivity that allows us to play with the data and see different outcomes. Some visualizations are simply gorgeous, if opaque about what they purport to show. But the best tell us a story, using the new digital tools to convey complexity in ways that entertain and inform.<\/p>\n