BBC Newsnight: Information Graphics

The art of making information beautiful.

How do you make statistics look interesting? According to the writer and designer David McCandless, you just need to apply the rules of visual design to information.

David Sillito meets him and investigates the trend of applying the rules of visual design to information in order to help us cope with the oceans of data we are bombarded with.

Broadcast 9 August 2010.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes...

• Category

  News & Politics

[kirkmccormack1]

Yep, Brody the 'legend' was talking pure jazz. McCandless really didn't defend his position well, even though it is very defensible. He seems like a decent fella, he admitted that he was fallible 4 times during this piece which is a concession I doubt you would get from Brody. The 'beauty' is only a result of the process of trying to make the plethora of information and complexity more legible. Why not make the graphic elegant as well as informative?

[Adrian Schmidt]

What the heck was Brody talking about? His main point seemed to be that "everything that's beautiful is bad"... I'm sure that's not what he meant, but really, he should work on the way he communicates his message. And what was that about grassroots at the end? What kind of mushrooms had he been eating?

I think the Iraq war-chart in the clip was a perfect example on how graphics can really help put numbers into perspective.

[Sarsington]

why is he being so mean seriously

[Martin Talbot]

What a frustrating discussion. Brody being willfully objectionable and anti-design, while McCandless didn't really state his case at all well. Many of his graphics are pretty, but meaningless - the most successful are those that use design to more clearly communicate the message from the information, than the raw information itself. The ones which are basically pretty pictures, but fail to really unlock the message/s within the information, fundamentally don't work.

[Kemi5try]

Brody just seemed to be anti design for the sake of being anti design. His arguments were tangential, meandering and erratic. He didn't seem to know what he really thought, he just wanted to dissent. The fact of the matter is that most of us don't know the management structure of the UN so if beauty in design encourages us to investigate it, then we learn something, so how is that bad? Brody - excellent work in the past, but sticking in the mud now. Legend status will do that to humility.

[BaubleRob]

This is just Brody wishing he was 25 again.

[buyyourowndamnfries]

I felt a bit sorry for McCandless there. Thing is I've got data flow, Edward Tufte books and a heap of others, but the one I'm most inclined to pick up is his, because its just more entertaining and easy on the eye. As a result, his book is informing me most of all, so I think there is definitely a use for his work, but perhaps not in the same place as the more dry but informative information design.

[sansanzabeth]

@keiayaja

"Grassroot movements" is people spontaneously gathering together to create a powerful force to make something important happen.

[sansanzabeth]

I think Brody's point is that information should not be purposely made to look beautiful as a GOAL, instead :

It should be to investigate and present information in a way that shows us a better understanding of the TRUTH about things, and for what needs to be changed - to actually inspire people to DO something about it, to alter the PATTERN.

To think and ACT for the better.

[mcpartridgeboy]

i disagree, i thought his main point was to stop trying to make design impress and start making it communicate, design isnt pritty its functional, his central point is nowadays design is inofensive and weak !!!!!which it is !!!!!