Visualizing data: New pedagogical challenges
Isabel Meirelles · OCAD University Open Research Repository (OCAD University) · 2011
The paper examines the burgeoning practice of visualizing data. It begins with a brief overview of this broad field and the nature of the practice throughout history. The focus is on computational interactive visualizations and the ways in which technology has given way to an expansive and expanding practice mainly centered on current issues. Information visualizations are ubiquitous and critically important to understanding several fields today, covering a wide range of content and functionality: from scientific visualizations to visual explanations of socio-political events. Technology has affected the practice in several ways, from graphical methods to the agents involved with such complex data representations: the authors and users of these applications. Selected graphical tools are examined as a means to identify recent trends. The paper concludes with questioning the ways in which we are (or not) preparing design students to tackle these new information communication challenges. The goal is to discuss —and ultimately suggest— the relevance of integrating theoretical, visual and technical aspects of structuring and representing large amounts of data into design undergraduate education.