Map is also an information graph

Week 11 - Information Graphic 

Information graphics are everywhere in our life. Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time, with the least amount of ink in the smallest amount of space (Edward, 1983, p.51). They are not only pie charts or bar graph, in fact, they are more than that. 

Weather forecast uses information graphic to project the weather to the audience. 

Maps also uses information graphic to show the geographical area of a place.

The diagrams that are in our textbook also uses information graphic. Imagine your biology textbook only have words and no pictures, it would actually take you so long then you could understand that the blood enters the heart via the right and left pulmonary vein which come directly from the lungs, then enters the left atrium and passes to the rest of the body through aorta. With this information graph, everything just seems easier to understand. 

The important words are used in the information graph with the pictures to appeal so that people can remember the information better and easier. In Brunei, people realized the importance of information graphic, that is why if you compare the textbooks now and few years ago, there are so many pictures and information graph nowadays.

Making information graph is never easy and there are a lot of rules and guides to graph making. Ethics is one of them. According to Tufte, a high-quality information graphic should have an important message to communicate, information in a clear, precise and efficient manner, never insult the intelligence of readers or viewers, and always tell the truth (in Lester 1995, p. 208).

This is photograph by Chris Jordan with the caption "Depicts 32,000 Barbies, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006".

The main reason that he use the information graphic is to let the audience to acknowledge the number of elective breast augmentation. This is a very creative way of presenting information into a graphic and it is indeed very visual stimulating and attention grabbing. It uses pictorial representation of breast and barbie dolls. The reason is that barbie dolls is the representation of what a women should have in order to be consider as pretty. This ideology has affected women and that is why this picture can also be served as a culture critique. In conclusion, this is a very good information graphic that has created a resonance effect that lingers in your mind just by looking at the visual representation.  

References:
Lester, P.M. (1995). Information graphics. Visual communication: Images with messages (pp.187-211). California: Wadsworth Publishing.

Tufte, E.R. (1990). Escaping flatland. The Visual display of quantitative information (pp.12-36). Connecticut: Graphics Press. Available in UBD library.